During the 2007–2008 global financial crisis, Moreno collected "channel letters" from bankrupt businesses around Los Angeles, including Linens 'n Things, Circuit City, and Mervyns. Channel letters are the illuminated signs that decorate building facades. At the time, the 2008 presidential election was dominated by political rhetoric promising "change."

Using the collected letters as molds, Moreno cast life-sized candles spelling the word change in red wax. The resulting installation, Polarities, Mysteries and Unpredictabilities (2010), rested on a wooden trough to collect the melting wax. Watching the letters literally melt introduced a layer of dark, subtle humor while emphasizing the malleability of political slogans over time.

The candle-lighting ceremony accompanied an installation of the collected metal letters, entitled Here's Your Heap (2010), a play on Robert Smithson's A Heap of Language (1966), and a large graphite drawing of the Helix Nebula, overlaid with a poem the artist wrote about Time. The drawing visualized the passage of time and the transformation of language, echoing the melting letters below.

The performance took place in the former Drkrm Gallery, whose owners had vacated due to back rent, an absence that made the site its own argument.

More Info:
Date: Oct 10th, 2010, Los Angeles, CA
Medium: Mixed-Media | Installation | Performance | Performative | Drawing
2007-2010, wax, wood, chicken wire, and metal, dimension variable, channel letters collected from 2007-2008 financial crises,mixed media on paper, 120" x 48".