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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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