EXECUTIVE BRANCH SUITE

Public Offering, 10' x 12' X 18', 2007

Phase I: Several hours before the 7:00 PM opening at Blue Tower Gallery in Atlanta, three 30" x 22" sheets of Stonehenge were mounted to the wall with packing tape. Charcoal portraits of Dick Cheney, Carl Rove and George W. Bush were ready for release at 6:55 PM. A table with drawing media, paper towels and rubber gloves accompanied the work, and the following instructions were posted:

"...That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted...from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it...it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government...such is now the necessity..."
DOI, 1776

"...(R)epresentation is inevitably implicated in power and domination yet struggles to reconfigure representation as an act of resistance. In order to do so, it introduces new strategies of reading and interpretation while recognizing the limitations of this endeavor."
Margaret Kohn, 2006

Please use the provided charcoal, pencils, markers, erasers, and all other means to manipulate, alter and/or abolish these faces of power and domination. There are no limitations. As owner, You are responsible for their ultimate expression. Sign the drawing if you want to.

The drawings will remain in the location for 2 months, continuing their transformation and deconstruction at the hands of the public.

Executive Branch Suite, Phase II will commence at an undecided location following the close of the Atlanta show. The Phase I palimpsests will be preserved and shown with digital reproductions of their portrait state, with three new drawings completed immediately prior to the opening and the above statement in place. The project will continue in this manner at various venues, and has no current date of completion.

Subjects for representation will include members of the White House Cabinet, presidential advisors, members of the DHS, NSA and NSC, bipartisan presidential candidates, lobbyists, corporate executives, political pundits, celebrity activists, religious figures and other high and low-profile movers who directly influence world events and individual rights and liberties.

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Click here for full text and imagery of

"Executive Branch Suite: Phase II"

October 16 ­ December 5, 2008
Georgia College Museum
Shannon Morris, Curator


As a participant in the Art of Democracy national coalition, Fisher began work at 5:00 PM Oct. 15, 24 hours immediately prior to the opening of "Executive Branch Suite: Phase II" at the Georgia College Museum, 5:00-7:00 PM, Oct.16, 2008. An exercise in power, sacrifice and commitment to an ideal: Making use of his academic training and years of practice, his goal was to produce 24 "traditional" black and white portraits in charcoal, rendered as skillfully as possible, difficult to relinquish but to be given away daily to the visitors from opening night through the run of the exhibition. As a representative step in the process, Fisher released ownership of the artist's lecture on opening night to the Curator, Shannon Morris, who read the following statement:

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"...That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted...from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it...it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government...such is now the necessity..."

Declaration of Independence, 1776

"...(R)epresentation is inevitably implicated in power and domination yet struggles to reconfigure representation as an act of resistance. In order to do so, it introduces new strategies of reading and interpretation while recognizing the limitations of this endeavor."

Margaret Kohn, 2006

As one presidential candidate warned us last night, the American Dream is at risk. For many who lack the appropriate pedigree, it has never existed, or as only an American Pipe Dream. Those who hold the power necessary to deliver on the promise have always withheld those resources for consolidation and maintenance of this power, for themselves and others deemed as "important," for the benefit of those who need these resources the least. The subjects of the portraits on display were culled from several published sources of contemporary important players on the world stage. Some are known for their good works and commitment to righting injustice and speaking truth to power. Others are mouth pieces and tools of the status quo. Some are unproven but a source of hope.

You are asked tonight, if only through a symbolic act, to exercise your rights to affect change to the faces of power, to comment through physical action on your own hopes and frustrations for the future at hand. Over the last 24 hours , these portraits were brought to the point we see now, and are ready for your minds and hands. You are encouraged to directly confront the work on view, interacting through manipulation of the plastic media supplied, directly on the existing drawings.

Executive Branch Suite also expands upon the historical role of the museum as an institutional warehouse of static "fine art," the traditional definitions, functions and interaction of art, artist and audience, the acceptable behavioral patterns, rights and privileges of museum visitors, active citizenship, artistic authorship and individual ownership of ideas. Please sign the drawing if you choose to.

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Using the materials supplied in the gallery or brought from home, please add your marks and erasures to the work done by those who have come before you. You are encouraged to consider your decisions, reflect upon your choices, and invite others to participate during the run of the exhibition.






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