Rights / Wrongs

As families fleeing violence and environmental instability were being detained at the border within the United States, PORT OF ENTRY was built in response to the draconian immigration policies being enforced. The piece is an operational live trap.

To gain access to oil reserves under the guise of democracy building that left Iraq in ruins and multitudes dead, DEMO-CRAZY was produced.

STUFFED VOTE was produced for exhibition at Pratt Manhattan for “Art in the Age of Political Absurdity” curated by Eleanor Heartney. Made on the heels of the Occupy movement and Citizens United, STUFFED VOTE sought participation from the viewer as in the form of voting for what was most important to them. The $10,000 bills stuffed into the oil barrel sat atop shredded money astro-turf, set in contrast to the active ballot box. Votes on pizza box card were placed in the illuminated barrel. From there they were collected daily and pinned up where they spread increasingly across the wall.

Contemporary political power and voting practice is constructing a falsehood of true representation.

The Citizens United ruling has created a race to amass power and opened the doors for unlimited finances in the war chests of favored candidates by Billionaires and Corporations, as well as by potential foreign investors.

Elections are being hijacked so that consequent legislation, representing the extremist views of the few, secures financial fortunes at the expense of the public and planetary community whereby placing our very human survival on this planet at stake.

Ian Laughlin 2012

Conceived in the wake of 9/11 in the rush to war, THINK was made from newspaper bundles and placed in front of a news stand in Union Square.

Photo © Laughlin 2001

ID Travel Card made for “Your Documents Please” Curated by Daniel Georges & Rumi Tsuda

https://yourdocumentsplease.com/pages/catalog/laughlin.html

Tiananmen Square uprising and subsequent suppression utilized surveillance footage to identify and incarcerate those that sought greater freedoms from the state. I adopted a similar approach for REACTIVE MEMORY by scanning television footage on my Amiga computer and printing up images from the crowds and the event with my Canon Ink Jet printer. However, in a radically different approach, I celebrated their courage.