#MINE SIGN
“The role of beauty and aesthetics in social discourse comes into play in a stunning series of photographs taken by Kim Beck on a road trip across country. The photographs feature a sign that reads #MINE in the same gold typeface found on Trump Tower in New York City. The sign is situation in national parks, next to oil rigs, on beaches, and along borders, calling into quesiton issues around land use, natural resource extraction, ownership and the artbitrariness of our boundaries.”
—Karyn Miller, from the exhibition catalog, You, if no one else
January 20 – March 31, 2018 / You, if no one else / Arlington Arts Center, Arlington, VA / Curated by Karyn Miller
Mirrored plexi mounted on wood, iron stands, inkjet on Hahnemühle
Inspired by Woody Guthrie’s anthem, “This Land is Your Land,” Kim Beck created a gold mirrored #MINE sign cut in the Trump Tower typeface. Beck took the sign on a road trip from California to New York, photographing it in the landscape as if Trump was absurdly declaring, “#MINE” across the country. The sign has a dual nature in that it is also a representation of Beck’s own voice attempting to recuperate the landscape.
A recovered stanza from Guthrie reads: “As I went walking I saw a sign there / And on the sign it said ‘No Trespassing.’ / But on the other side it didn't say nothing, / That side was made for you and me.”
