detail of i.d. , 2010
273 pigment prints and 16 graphite on vellum drawings (8.5 inch squares each), map tacks, 144 inches square
i.d. was one aspect of my 2009-2010 COLA grant Theory of Everything. This twelve foot square piece consisted of 289 images in a seventeen by seventeen grid. It included sixteen one paragraph tracings from sixteen different New York Times articles. Each section was chosen because it showed an example of the many ways people are, or have been categorized and separated.
An important observation by the Swiss developmental psychologist Jean Piaget was that any grouping based on commonalities inevitably leads to the recognition of distinctions between the individual units. Using myself as a model, the Theory of Everything installation consisted of a series of interrelated works that addressed how and what we learn in the creation of group identity and how individuals situate themselves in society with regard to others. Many aspects of the work questioned nationalism, identity, and religion, and perhaps the need, or desire for categorization itself. Using pattern and its breakage, the different parts of the installation focused on various aspects of myself while breaking them down through more and more minute distinctions. Within many parts of the show, individual images were literally made from other facets of it, both images and objects. There were also many references to children and to educational materials and methods, as well as my own role as a teacher. Another important aspect of the show suggested how popular and mass media uses of photography have contributed to our “education” about how to differentiate people and things from each other.
detail of i.d. , 2010
273 pigment prints and 16 graphite on vellum drawings (8.5 inch squares each), map tacks, 144 inches square
detail of i.d. , 2010
273 pigment prints and 16 graphite on vellum drawings (8.5 inch squares each), map tacks, 144 inches square
detail of i.d. , 2010
273 pigment prints and 16 graphite on vellum drawings (8.5 inch squares each), map tacks, 144 inches square
detail of i.d. , 2010
273 pigment prints and 16 graphite on vellum drawings (8.5 inch squares each), map tacks, 144 inches square
detail of i.d. , 2010
273 pigment prints and 16 graphite on vellum drawings (8.5 inch squares each), map tacks, 144 inches square
detail of i.d. , 2010
273 pigment prints and 16 graphite on vellum drawings (8.5 inch squares each), map tacks, 144 inches square
detail of i.d. , 2010
273 pigment prints and 16 graphite on vellum drawings (8.5 inch squares each), map tacks, 144 inches square
detail of i.d. , 2010
273 pigment prints and 16 graphite on vellum drawings (8.5 inch squares each), map tacks, 144 inches square
detail of i.d. , 2010
273 pigment prints and 16 graphite on vellum drawings (8.5 inch squares each), map tacks, 144 inches square
Theory of Everything installation