Stop and Go, 2012  is an installation that has been shown multiple times in various iterations. The first iteration was with jack stands and relief drawings of foot prints and tire tracks. The current documentation is at Elective Affinities at the University California San Diego.

Stop and Go is part of a series of sculptures that re-contextualizes everyday utility items and represents their history in relation to violence. This piece is made of handmade caltrops. Caltrops have been used over the course of centuries to expand empire to slow the advance of horses, war elephants, and human troops. They were used in the Greek, Roman and Mongolian empires. Caltrops were also used by the Germans to defend beaches at Normandy and other coastal areas. In the mid-90’s they were used during the Caterpillar labor strike and currently used along the U.S.-Mexico border by drug traffickers to avoid capture by throwing them on the ground to puncture tires of vehicles. In 2011 after the first iteration of this installation Texas passed PENAL CODE CHAPTER 46, a law that prohibits the possession, manufacture, transportation, repair or sale of caltrops. But it exempts tire puncture strips that are designed to puncture tires when driven in a specific direction, such as those at car rental facilities, and caltrops used as curiosities, such as those in museums.

This installation also aims at expanding the minimalist conversation of artist Walter de Maria's Mile Long Drawing (Two Chalk Lines), 1968. The floor installation resembles one long tire tack, a continous line of violence, one that human life can never leave.

More Info:
Date: 2012-Present
Medium: Installation | Performative | Sculpture |
Metal nails, dimension variable