A Monument to Good Intentions: Baltimore, 2008
“A Monument to Good Intentions” is an installation that explores the experience of being mugged while sitting on a stoop in Baltimore. The mugging itself becomes a matrix for the artist to understand the chasm between being both an individual while also being apart of a larger system of groupings. The framework of economics, race, geology and psychological desire are closely examined as they pertain to that particular moment.
The installation is made up of three distinct artworks that present multiple vantage points of the mugging at one time. At the center of the space there is a sculpture that reveals the geologic strata lying underneath the space of the neighborhood and upon the surface there is a miniature modeled 3D memory map of the artist’s life at the time of the mugging.
There is a re-staging of the scene of the crime in the form of a spinning diorama. This sculpture is mounted on a rotating stand that connects to and controls a live-feed video camera which is trained on the turning scene. The camera is triggered at intervals to zoom-in and out of the re-staging, projecting it larger than life on an adjacent wall. Thereby becoming a cinematic third-eye to the drama unfolding before it.
Lastly, there is a monitor on the floor that is playing a stop-motion animation on a ten minute loop. The video presents an alternative version of the relationship between the artist and mugger. A fantasy world made up of intimate vignettes displaying the relationship the artist had anticipated and hoped would occur moments before the actual mugging took place.