The Great Seal 2017

Interactive installation / performance
Video documentation (3 min)

"The Great Seal" is an immersive installation that investigates the intersection between art, propaganda, religion, and politics. The piece invites viewers to step on an imagined political arena and take on the role of the keynote speakers at the annual Washington D.C. Summit of Christians United for Israel (CUFI). CUFI galvanizes millions of American Evangelical conservatives who consider Jewish rule over the land of Israel /Palestine a precondition for Christ’s second coming. In this scenario the Jewish State will play a key role in the imminent battle of the End Times.

By employing the visual and ritualistic conventions of a presidential teleprompter and a karaoke ‘sing-along’, participants in the piece are invited to perform speeches derived from those of American and Israeli politicians and clergymen who spoke at the CUFI summits.

Throughout the interactive performance, the visitor turned public speaker, stands on a rug printed with the design for the Great Seal of the United Stated which was proposed by Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson in 1776 and ultimately rejected. The seal depicts the Biblical story of the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt, where America is framed as a ‘New Zion’.