This white on white patterned wallpaper investigates the deep roots of white supremacy, which is also both visible and invisible. It encourages viewers to question how our art traditions have often naturalized, masked and perpetuated narratives of hierarchy, power, and violence.
The pattern is modeled after James Madison’s (founding father & slaveholder) Damask wallpaper, and contains icons of white cupid garden ornaments that appear innocently decorative at first. But on closer examination, these familiar icons participate in violent and self-destructive contemporary acts: fighting over prescription pills, humping shotguns, holding shooting targets against their chest, and dancing on ‘big game’ animals they just killed. It is uncomfortable to see ‘innocent’ pure, virtuous white cherubs doing these dark violent actions, and even more disturbing to realize that this is what white people hide behind fake innocence and get away with all the time.
Museum display cases contain silver baby cups as artifacts of the ‘White American Aristocracy’ species. Formal text labels describe how their owners’ cruel actions were hidden by beautiful appearances. How did the babies grow up that way? This installation invites a critique of how our cultural institutions have overlooked the truth under the facade of our culture, and the patrons of our ‘great works of art’ have often been exempt from accountability. This artwork invites others to join in conversation with the ghosts under the surface of our art and design world.
