Occupied, 2005
Installation shot, 82” X 33 X 2.5”.
Sculpture Center, New York.

Occupied involved the installation of a wooden door housing a gothic shaped stained glass window, within a built façade in the basement of the Sculpture Center, New York City. The door became part of the façade as it remained locked at all times. Now bathed in deception rather than revelation the camouflage stained glass window interferes with the reading of objects that sit so comfortably in our perceptions of religious and governmental principles of belief. The familiar context of teaching and comfort now stripped away, the role of the stained glass window and its associated modes of behavior are subverted. Descriptive images, iconic and persuasive figures are replaced with the blatantly deceptive, stylishly invisible charm of camouflage. A troublesome replacement the camouflage stained glass window highlights the dynamic between religious teachings, governmental doctrines and artifice, and between decoration, nature and the artificial.