Extraction, 2016, plywood, 4’ x 8’ x 35”
Frequently Asked Questions:
What the hell is this?
- a) a sculpture
- b) a stack of plywood with a hollow space cut out of the center
- c) a secret method to smuggle drugs or guns or people or anything that will fit
- d) a device to spark conversations about the border, labor, and human trafficking
- e) all of the above.
The sculpture smuggles ideas into and out of the museum. The artist sees the border as a system of control and a strategy for producing a low wage labor force by maintaining (not resolving) spatial inequality. Construction grade plywood is meant to associate the artwork with the demand for labor that Houston’s housing boom is producing. Those in demand of this expendable labor are never in danger of prosecution while those toiling to make the city possible are precariously situated in the margins with no legal recourse nor access to the commons of the city they helped to create.
Extraction, 2016, plywood, 4’ x 8’ x 35”