My C.I.A. Museum images derive from descriptions or drawings of escape and evasion devices allegedly utilized by clandestine services officers. For the recent series “Inert,” I have constructed and photographed models of improvised explosive devices (based primarily on descriptions—either verbal or textual—a.k.a “hearsay”) that were disarmed or otherwise failed to detonate. The resulting images, although arresting, are revealed as flat-footed imitations of devices that themselves represent a kind of heroic-cum-pathetic failure. Whereas they will never realize their intended purpose, the fact that their devastating potential has been circumvented calls into question their very epistemological identity. For the terrorists who construct the weapons, they are a reminder of impotency and mission failure. For the EOD team (explosive ordinance disposal technicians) tasked with disarming the devices, they are trophies commemorating lives saved. In truth, they are but plausible fictions produced for the camera from flotsam and jetsam found in and around my studio and serve as a reminder of the rather Sisyphean task of resolving the conflicts that engender them.
