Marguerite Kahrl "Homeland Insecurity"
Esso Gallery
This event has ended.
Jennifer Bacon and Filippo Fossati announce the opening of Esso Gallery’s first solo show by Marguerite Kahrl, entitled Homeland Insecurity, in the project room.
Homeland Insecurity is an installation work consisting of three artificial industrial hemp plants with an accompanying soundtrack which refers to the contested political history of industrial hemp in the U.S. Running through an electronic filter it transforms the hemp research into a covert, subliminal message—a form of manipulation, concealed from the conscious mind, often used as a tool in advertising and political campaigns.
In 1937, under pressure from the Hearst Paper Division and Dupont, Congress passed a prohibitive tax on the cultivation of one of the nation’s premier renewable resources. Fearing competition to their timber and petrol-synthetic products, the companies sought to cast industrial hemp as identical to marijuana. In contrast to the smear campaign of that era, “Homeland Insecurity” incorporates factual data to counter the soiled reputation of a crop with as yet underdeveloped environmental and economic benefits. The aim of the show is to blend fact and fiction and ultimately inspire the viewer to question our present reality.
[Image: Marguerite Kahrl "Study for Homeland Insecurity" (2007) Giclee print 40" x 30" ]
Media
Schedule
from March 28, 2008 to May 03, 2008