Ladies of the Night

Ladies of the Night was designed to fit into a 10” x 12” x ½” aluminum box. It was printed at Roland DGA, the pages on their VersaUV LEC-330 and the aluminum box on their LEF-300, a flatbed printer with white and gloss inks. Printed 57” long it folded as an accordion with six 9 ½” x 11 ½” pages inside and 6 pages outside. Ladies of the Night used photographs of twin performance artists, Abigail and Emily Taylor. The text on the back of Ladies reads: Prostitution is the practice or occupation of engaging in sexual activity for payment. As with other countries, prostitution in the US can be divided into three broad categories: street prostitution, brothel prostitution, and escort prostitution. There are an estimated 1 million prostitutes in the US. Most have a high school diploma and many have attended college. Many enter the sex industry to provide for their families when they have exhausted all other options. Nevada is the only state in the U.S. to allow legal prostitution – in the form of regulated brothels, although it exists in most parts of the country. Street prostitutes are attacked physically on average of once per month — 68% reported having been raped and 82% reported having been physically assaulted. Their death rate is 6 times that of the general population and more than double that of fishing workers, the highest fatality profession. Between 70,000 and 80,000 people are arrested each year for prostitution costing taxpayers approximately $200 million. Of arrests related to prostitution 10% are the customers, 20% are pimps or male prostitutes and 70% are female prostitutes. Prostitution in the US is estimated to generate $14 billion a year, more than drugs and guns combined. Approximately 10% of customers pay with credit cards. Craigslist no longer lists “adult services” however Backpage.com makes an average of $22 million a year from adult classifieds.

War Zone

“WarZone: a traveling board game with no winner” is designed to be played anywhere other than in your own country. Instructions, game board, spinner board and game pieces are housed in a clear plastic suitcase. In the top of the suitcase, an image of the first atomic bomb blast is overlaid with a definition of war as “armed conflict, prosecuted with military forces aiming to enforce the political will of the victor upon the defeated”. It also contains information about human aggression from prehistory to the present and questions whether war is noble or morally problematic and destructive of lives and property. The Spinner Board, printed onto stiff board and contour cut to fit into in the bottom of the suitcase, allows you to choose the country in which to play and gives information on ongoing conflicts around the world. The countries shown on the map in black and around the outer edge of the circle have ongoing military conflicts that result in more than 1,000 violent deaths per year, including both military and civilians. Other conflicts are shown in red on the map. You can turn the spinner to select a country in which to participate or choose from the list of additional war zones. The Rules of Engagement state that you can place your soldier on any square of the game board and move randomly any number of spaces in any direction. You need not take turns and can remove the soldiers of any other player at will, unless you are removed first. If you are on a square with information and instructions, do as you are told. The Game Board resembles a checkerboard with squares which give instructions such as “no weapons found: look again”, “tour of duty extended: start over” and “peace negotiations begun: pray for success”. The red and black checker-like pieces are “us” and “them”. The game never ends, but may move to a different place of engagement. There are no winners, only losers. The WarZone game boards and suitcase were printed at Roland DGA on the LEF-300. a flatbed printer with white and gloss inks. It is an edition of ten in a suitcase 10 3/8” x 12 7/8” x 1 ½”.

Mending

“Mending” is a 6″ x 6″ woven album structure with 62 mixed media/ collaged pages. The cover is paper over board. Text, interspersed throughout the book, reads: a person a relationship in need of repair a rift a break a tear damaged goods how to put it right mend one’s ways to make amends sort it out patch it up stitch it together fix it working back and forth across the rift darning with resolve mending

Cape Cod

Cape Cod used paper stained with rust and indigo dye for the pages and cover. Rust colored spacers allowed for incorporating found treasures. Each double page spread, with its spacer, was sewn to the spine with a modified longstitch. An enamel pin, with a map of the area, was affixed to the cover. A horizontal dye line, across the middle of each page, suggested landscapes and seascapes for the collaged images of boats, houses and lighthouses. The journal is 6″ x 5″ x .75″ with 28 pages.