20th Century Knowledge Factory

The Washington School is emblem of a society structured for discipline and surveillance. But the neighborhood nostalgia surrounding this WPA knowledge factory mystifies its original function. Although unwelcome visitors, local taggers who crawl through broken windows are Rabelaisian vandals, overturning symbols of legitimate authority, and responding to domination with bacchanal and orgy. In this assemblage, I leave the rebels to their tags, and instead use the remnants of their labor,--twisted chain and steel fences, bent for entry--to recall that original, mystified, function: the school as workhouse for the production of twentieth century industrial inmates.  

October 2024