^{An archival image reproduced on tent-like canvas as a four-part photo mural references both the spectacle of World War II era militarized encampments and the queer gaze of Physique Pictorial as choreographed by Busby-Berkeley; its title does double duty in condensing contexts.  Leather buckles and straps allow for the possibility of these images to be rolled up like bedrolls and transported to the next encampment.  Quonset huts in the background of the images undercut what might otherwise be more easily read as an aesthetically pleasing formation of bodies in a grid, playing with balls, instead making clear the military imperatives behind the training exercise.  The verso of this installation’s source photograph, handwritten in German, identifies the men in the photo as Syrian soldiers.  Their country, a Vichy colony during World War II that was subsequently occupied by British and French forces, is still in crisis in the wake of colonial destabilization.  Fascist violence incites fascinating spectacle still.}

 

^{canvas, leather bedroll straps
4 panels, each 44” x 96”
2019}