Insurrection (1984): wax, latex, wood, plastic, paper, text 36″ x 106″ x 8″ 

Insurrection is based on writings by Mr. Ephram Squire who in 1849 was the Charge d’affaires for Central America under President Polk. The text describes Squire’s view that the non-white peoples and strange zoology of the region, now known as Nicaragua, will inevitably be superceded by the northern, white race along with its animal and plant life. “Deus Vult – it is the will of god” he proclaims in the 19th Century language of Manifest Destiny. This large horizontal work uses replicas of foliage from Latin America that gradually engulf Squire’s text. The piece was made with assistance from Michael Anderson, an artist and exhibition technician at the American Museum of Natural History and was exhibited at the Marion Goodman gallery as part of the Artists Call Against US Intervention in Central American in 1984