we are the enemy 2004 ©
paints, chair, monitor

Originally designed following the attacks of September 11th 2001, we are the enemy was later installed in a show I curated in 2004. As the show took place in a building occupied by over 130 artists, I was interested in the role people play in addressing major political events or traumas occurring throughout the world. What is the responsibility of the individual to comment on, analyse or draw attention to such events? The show I curated took form through collaboration between seven visual artists making installations, and nine works by performance artists.

I made a series of works installed throughout the building, using canvas, furniture, domestic objects, animal blood and text. we are the enemy was thickly painted across the floor of the main space, exploring the idea of the enemy without and the enemy within; an homage to Arthur Millers The Crucible which paralleled the McCarthy witch trials (1) with the events surrounding the Salem witch trials, Massachusetts, in 1692.

I was interested in the psychological states that underly or create an island mentality, when communities perpetuate isolationism through coercion, paranoia and fear of the unknown, the other, the outside. The work also refers to George Orwell's idea of a social economy driven by a constant state of warfare, with the populace being coerced into a feeling of being constantly under the threat or attack. (2) At a time when so called International terrorism posited the threat of random attack, it seemed that a new McCarthyism had been unleashed, justified by the threat of an undefinable, amorphous enemy.

My aim was to reduce these issues to a simple generic statement, a logo that could appear in many contexts, reflecting the sloganeering and extensive institutional use of propaganda synonymous with western politics from around this time.

(1) The McCarthy witch trials took place during a period of intense anti Communist suspicion in the United States between 1948 to 1956, which culminated in a number of hearings and trials in which Senator Joe McCarthy accused government employees of being Communists. The House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), the most prominent and active government committee involved in anti-Communist investigations, summoned 2,375 men and women, to be questioned on their involvement in communist activities or beliefs, with over 400 Americans going to jail.

(2) Analysts such as Noam Chomsky have explored the idea that a state of perpetual war is created by the powerful members of dominant political and economic class, helping maintain their positions of economic and political superiority. This idea can be traced through numerous political regimes, illustrated well by Nazi Reich Marshal Hermann Goring during the Nuremberg Trials: - “Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.” —