Swimming to Inishkeel
Ekstasis
Concrete Republic
Traffic Island 
Prison Farm

Watchtower
Katrina
The Dog Tail Wars
Empire/Umpire
Hostis
Body Fluid Bed
Hanging Creatures

Homeless Deaths  
Poster Project
Full Shackle
Sapa
Swollen Eye
Frontiers
Deed

Every Revolution
Forces
Boarder
Surveillance Chair
Suite
Cruise Control

Ostrich
The Big Silence
Asylum Screamed
Think No Evil
Belfast
Crisus

DOG TAIL WARS

2006
Contemporary Arts Center , New Orleans, LA
The University of Dallas, Irving, TX
Center for the Living Arts, Mobile, AL

The Dog Tail Wars is an installation that considers the evolution of the “War on Terror.” Like a dog chasing its tail, the “War on Terror” has become a self-sustaining cycle. The piece consists of a barn, six hanging figures, and a console. The console transforms news from thousands of live sources into signals that activate the hanging figures.

The barn and the figures within it thus become a conduit for activities happening in real time worldwide related to the “War on Terror.” The barn juxtaposes contrasting exterior and interior
spaces. The exterior is Rockwellian Americana—simple and wholesome—while the interior is Orwellian in its imagery. The audience enters the barn through a small door. Once inside they find themselves in a long steel
cage in close proximity to six figures hanging upside down. Each figure breathes independently, some in quick gasps, others in slow sighs.

The figures are hooked to electric solenoids driven by an external console. The console comprises a computer screen and several word search tokens. Each is inscribed with a single word or phrase, such as “torture” or “human rights,” and embedded with a corresponding Radio Frequency ID chip.

Placing “torture” on a hotspot on the console creates a linkage between live news from the outside world and the hanging figures. When the selected word appears in the news anywhere in the world, the barn’s figures are activated. Sound is triggered the same way. It
consists of prerecorded and live sound streaming off the Internet. The prerecorded sounds are composed specifically for individual words. Live sounds draw upon sources ranging from live radio broadcasts to international stock markets.

As the installation is driven by live data streaming off the Internet, there is a direct relationship between the activities of the piece in the gallery and global activities happening in real time.

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