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Spring 2023 | Ash, pen, pen plotter, Python, AppleScript| 72”x 27”x 23”
Tree of heaven are an invasive species frequently found in the cracks of New England pavement. Their rhizomatous roots exist in the failures of concrete, highlighting their existence and worsening structural integrity. Their prosperity feeds off our incessant attack on natural growth in urban landscapes, taking advantage of a lack of native competition. Categorized as a threat in their own environment, invasive species’ existence and prosperity are a symptom of our systemic actions, showcasing the failures in our attitude towards built environments and nature.
In 1968, the FBI headquarters sent a memorandum to local offices. This document outlined twelve possible actions to take against “the new left”, a category left undefined by the US government that acted as a catchall for groups focused on cultural change in the US. These groups include Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), Black Panther Party, Youth International Party, and the National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam (MOBE). Led by J. Edgar Hoover, the FBI created a special program named COINTELPRO to illegally target organizations such as these and their leaders who had been deemed a cultural threat. In 1971, files were stolen from Media, Pennsylvania, revealing the illegal and immoral COINTELPRO activities of the US intelligence agency.
COINTELPRO files are publicly available on the FBI vault site.
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