HOMELAND INSECURITY
HOMELAND INSECURITY: 6-piece place setting for four, 2006
Sgraffito on slip cast ^6 porcelain
Collection of the National Art Gallery Collection of Barbados
I left New York City to study in Nova Scotia, between the years of 2001 and 2003. The first day of classes was September 11, 2001. When I returned to the city I was in prime position as an outsider to observe the enormous psychological toll taken by the event; our world had become less safe and we less certain of our place in it. Fear lay like a thin dust over the city. No one I knew had gone untouched but I found it particularly poignant to see images of burning towers recurring in the drawings of my young students two years after it occurred. Those scenes of personal insecurity, along with the ubiquitous advertising campaign, “If you see something, say something,” and an enlarged police presence, compelled me to develop this installation.
The nuclear family sitting down to dinner is commonly held to be the epitome of a wholesome, secure existence. Consequently, a four-person dinnerware set presenting disturbing images at the table served as an appropriate vehicle to address the discomfort that infiltrated peoples’ homes after September 11. Each setting is composed of a unique dinner plate, salad plate, soup bowl, cup and saucer and tumbler.
Sgraffito on slip cast ^6 porcelain
Collection of the National Art Gallery Collection of Barbados
I left New York City to study in Nova Scotia, between the years of 2001 and 2003. The first day of classes was September 11, 2001. When I returned to the city I was in prime position as an outsider to observe the enormous psychological toll taken by the event; our world had become less safe and we less certain of our place in it. Fear lay like a thin dust over the city. No one I knew had gone untouched but I found it particularly poignant to see images of burning towers recurring in the drawings of my young students two years after it occurred. Those scenes of personal insecurity, along with the ubiquitous advertising campaign, “If you see something, say something,” and an enlarged police presence, compelled me to develop this installation.
The nuclear family sitting down to dinner is commonly held to be the epitome of a wholesome, secure existence. Consequently, a four-person dinnerware set presenting disturbing images at the table served as an appropriate vehicle to address the discomfort that infiltrated peoples’ homes after September 11. Each setting is composed of a unique dinner plate, salad plate, soup bowl, cup and saucer and tumbler.