About

My practice has grown to revolve around a quote from Within the Context of No Context by George W.S. Trow:

“The most powerful men were those who most effectively used the power of adult competence to enforce childish agreements.”

A dear friend who passed away in 2017 told me my art seemed to do the reverse of this quote. I’m not sure how exactly to reverse this quote (“using childish competence to enforce adult agreements” is way off the mark). I believe it has something to do with wielding childishness, and the fertility of its pejorative connotation, to reconfigure the cultural norms and narrative infrastructure that uphold systems of power, success, and legacy. This casual description of my work has become a longterm assignment. I have approached this assignment by performing as pathetic grotesques of white male authority, by believing in magic tricks as seriously as possible until they come true (or, at least, something happens), and through participatory fictions that spill over into the real world. My exploration uses a wide variety of media, including performance lectures, fake news, videos, live performances, and shell companies.