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Imitation Day, 2004
Foil garlands, spray paint, 20’ x 25’ x 2.2’.
Imitation Day was commissioned
by Jamaica Flux, a Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning project. The
huge ceiling installation was temporarily installed in a White Castle
restaurant in the heart of Jamaica, Queens.
An overwhelming number of fast food restaurants, stores and malls embrace the
modern tradition of decorating with artificial foliage. In Jamaica, Queens, White
Castle, McDonalds and the 165th Street Mall, to mention a few, soften starkly
functional architecture and calm their patrons sense with fake plants. Imitation
Day embraces his affinity for artificial intervention addressing the role
of decoration and deception in contemporary consumer culture. The installation
reinvents the celebratory garland and places this alternative form of fake foliage
at the White Castle Restaurant on Jamaica Avenue. By covering the garland’s
normally flashy foil colors with the matte colors found in camouflage – drab
greens, deep browns and black – Imitation Day morphs the meaning of he
garland and subverts its decorative function, thereby replacing the familiar
context of celebration with a spectacular canopy of deception. |
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