A History of US
2022
Lenticular prints
84 x 240 inches
Installation view, Academy of American Studies, Long Island City, NY
Commissioned by the NYC DOE and the NYC School Construction Authority Public Art for Public Schools Program, and the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs Percent for Art Program.
A History of US is a permanent site-specific artwork commissioned for the lobby of the Academy of American Studies in LIC, NY. The artwork utilizes the concept of a historical timeline which is brought to life through five lenticular prints. The prints display historical imagery which illuminate significant moments of American and New York City history and tells a people’s history of the United States, and one more broadly of colonization, oppression, revolution, emancipation, and the ongoing struggle for equality, equity and social justice.
The lenticular print technology utilized in the artwork has the ability to display two images simultaneously. The main image viewers see while standing in front of the artwork is an early American flag design featuring thirteen stars and stripes representing the original 13 colonies that fought for their independence in the American Revolutionary War. As a viewer changes their viewpoint, a second image appears within each panel.
The secondary images that appear are arranged chronologically from left to right and include a selection of historical images from the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. These moments are the first contact between the indigenous Lenape peoples of Lenapehoking (today known as New York City) and European colonizers in 1609, Dutch cartography of the New York area, the history of slavery and abolition in the United States, a Seated Liberty coin by the US Mint from the year of emancipation, and the social justice movements ignited by the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery in 2020.
Photography by Frederick Charles