América | 2018
América is between a flag and a banner, a sheet of red vinyl cut with the letters A-m-é-r-i-c-a, and attached with two hooks to a wall. The materiality plays on translucency and legibility. Because of the way vinyl behaves like a fabric the folds mean that the letters are not easily legible. The word America is charged with different and completely subjective readings. The Spanish form has a particular connotation that transcends the local borders of the English version. The word America is a mark of inclusion or exclusion depending on who uses it. This idea is also embodied in the materiality of the work. Commercially, vinyl is used to separate two different environments, as with a shower curtain, that separates the wet from the dry, or as a barrier between spaces of two different temperatures. At the same time the cut perforates the sheet and the letter becomes a a void. The letters represent negative space and they become the opportunities to transgress the boundary. The work was installed and abandoned in different locations. A kind of ephemeral gesture on a parallel with graffiti, América exists in a form that is very easy to remove.