Shelby Head
Providence, RI
My interdisciplinary practice investigates the social and linguistic constructs that shape identity, history, and collective memory in the United States.
MessageA children’s Battleship game—usually a site of playful strategy—becomes a staging ground for the lethal ambiguity of a U.S. campaign of strikes on alleged narco-trafficking vessels, with more than 75 people killed and no public proof offered. This artwork mirrors that unease: a gameboard where the top half appears ordered and legible, while the bottom half devolves into tangled, unverifiable violence. The red knots suggest an aftermath that cannot be neatly mapped, despite the rigid grid designed to produce clarity. The gridded plastic field, dotted with white pegs like coordinates of certainty, contrasts sharply with the tangled red wire erupting across the lower board, a chaotic stand-in for bodies, wreckage, or evidence obscured.
- Collections: What Remains
Other Work From Shelby Head
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