NFZ (East Rutherford, NJ, 2/2/14)
2014
single channel HD video, 3.5 hr., archival pigment prints
On February 2nd, 2014 the Super Bowl was played in the shadow of the new World Trade Center at Metlife Stadium in East Rutherford, NJ. On this day the FAA activated a no-fly zone or "NFZ" over Metlife Stadium and New York City. A "no-fly zone" is a military term used to describe the physical area of a foreign nation that can be patrolled using the air power of another state. Since 9/11 no-fly zones in the U.S. have been activated over major sporting events, over protest sites in Ferguson, MO and Standing Rock, ND, over an oil spill in Mayflower, AR, and most recently over Trump Tower in Manhattan.
On Super Bowl Sunday I went to East Rutherford, NJ to document the NFZ over the Super Bowl through video and photography. Existing as a series of nine large-scale photographs and a 3.5 hr. single channel HD video, the documentation captures the evening sky over the Super Bowl from a distance of over two miles away.
The video component of the project overlays the audio from the television broadcast over the 3.5 hrs of footage filmed over the complete duration of the game. The photographs document nine specific moments in the sky as it changes over the course of the game. Capturing the spectacle and pageantry of the Blackhawk helicopter flyover and fireworks, these images taking place over an American skyline similarly echo the war zones of current American military operations taking place overseas.
NFZ (East Rutherford, NJ, 2/2/14) reveals the invisible nature of power, and illuminates the reality and issue of an increasingly militarized American landscape.