Double Redaction

Double Redaction consists of a commission from the New School celebrating its centenary. Working with the New School’s archive of documents, I displayed a selection relating to the School’s steps towards seeking injunctive relief in the federal court against a condition banning obscenity attached to a contract from the National Endowment for the Arts in 1990. The case was eventually settled out of court with the condition crossed out. The wall installation illuminates the NEA’s attempt to regulate issues such as ‘promiscuity’ and ‘homosexuality’ sparked by an earlier exhibition of Robert Mapplethorpe’s work. The crossed-out clause is set in relief on the wall in stenciled luminescent text with neon tubes echoing the strike out marks in the amended contract.