(Papillons)
BlackOut was first created and installed for 3 days in a public square (Richard-Platz, Berlin-Neukölln) in the summer of 2012. This artwork is comprised of handmade wooden placards with strips of leather, velvet. This project pertains to the current international movements "voicing" the outcries of it's citizenry. The iconic nature of the wooden placards and the implied phenomena of erasure of it's content, visually articulates a recent growth and presence of protestation not limited to the international events of the recent years.
2012, Wood and textiles (leather, velvets), in various configurations approximately 210cm (max height) x approximately 80cm wide
A variation within this BlackOut series was created for the 2014 edition of Dak'Art, the Dakar Biennale in Senegal with the title Les battements des ailes des papillons peuvent déclencher des tornades au tour du monde (The Flapping of the Wings of Butterflies Can Generate Violent Storms Around the World ) taken from chaos-theory about the interconnectedness of all action and reaction.
The blacked out blocks/lines of censure are rendered with textiles in varying colors of the rainbow as well as dutch-wax African fabrics. The colors are reminiscent of political movements that utilize the rainbow flag as its emblematic sign of diversity, such as the global LGBTi communities.
- Detail of "BlackOut" (velvet, muslin, leather on wood) from the "Bronx v. Brooklyn" initiative's website as part of 48hours Neukölln 2012
- Redaction from Wikipedia
- The Protester was named"Person of the year" by TIME magazine
- force and non-reporting are mechanisms to control dissent
- Masks & signs have emerged as an iconograpy of protest
- Revelation of the Concealed is a book project, action and exhibition created by dutch based American artist Renée Ridgeway in the same year
- German censorship has existed historically in the notable periods of the National Socialists/ Nazis and the communist regimes of the German Democratic Republic GDR/DDR