The Great Seal, 2016-2018
Tali Keren’s The Great Seal, an immersive installation that investigates the intersection between art, propaganda, religion, and politics. The piece invites viewers to step onto a fictitious stage at the annual Washington D.C. Summit of Christians United for Israel (CUFI) and assume the role of keynote speaker. CUFI mobilizes millions of American Evangelical conservatives who view Jewish rule over the land of Israel/Palestine a precondition for Christ’s second coming and the imminent Battle of Armageddon.
By using a presidential teleprompter and a karaoke ‘sing-along’ machine, participants are invited to perform speeches compiled from those delivered at past CUFI summits.
Throughout the interactive performance, the visitors will stand on a rug emblazoned with the design for the original Great Seal of the United States, first proposed by Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson in 1776, and subsequently rejected by Congress. Franklin and Jefferson’s Great Seal reimagines the biblical story of the Israelites exodus from Egypt with America framed as the ‘New Zion’. The colonial myths linking the United States and Israel are thus embodied in the seal.
The work was originally shot and completed in 2015 and 2016, before the first Trump presidency began, yet it sheds a light on a subset of those that ushered in his victory and the role of Christian Zionism in shaping Middle East policy, particularly in relation to Palestine/Israel.
Activation Event of The Great Seal at EYEBEAM, NYC, June 2018