Website: silverinjuly.blogspot.com
School: Columbia University
Media: Photography
Why I rock:
Swiped Signs is a series that explores domestic terrorism through photographs of a melted candy sculpture in various stages of disassembly. On October 7th, 2005 a Department of Homeland Security memo obtained by The Associated Press describes an alleged terrorist plot to attack New York subways sometime on or around that Sunday, with bombs hidden in baby strollers. Mayor Bloomberg announced the same day that security was going to be heightened noticeably and clandestinely throughout the 468 station subway system with thousands of additional officers both uniformed and undercover checking bags. The next day I was one of the millions of straphangers who ventured onto the subway undeterred in taking mass transit to my desired destination. Police searches delayed the route for fifteen minutes or so, which seemed like hours. Trapped in this public space, an anonymous community and palpable fear co-existed with collective memories of September 11th 2001. Swiped Signs articulates this public moment as a tangible representation of the colloquialism “Iron Horse” which is slang for subway train. I decided to depict this “Iron Horse” in moments of abstracted death. I made the sculpture with marshmallows, basic Legos, Lego train wheels and Lego castle parts.