Assignment 4.1 - My Papers

Lately, I've been thinking a lot about the privilege of having access to documents that confirm, without a doubt, that I am a U.S. Citizen. 

My birth certificate declares that I was born in Philadelphia, my Social Security card entitles me to benefits such as employment, a bank account, an income upon retirement, etc. My passport is another valuable means of unequivocal identity confirmation, and allows me to move freely and legally about the world. These documents hold a lot of power, but they are being highly politicized by the current administration, in the name of "homeland security" – a thin veil for their evil white supremacist agenda. I've also been thinking about how these documents will be involved with the upcoming 2026 Elections. The passport, specifically, has taken on a new political identity, as it has superseded the state-issued drivers license as a means of establishing legitimate citizenship within the geographic confines of the United States.  Up until now, documentation wasn't necessary to vote, but now it looks like that's changing with the SAVE ACT, which is expected to disenfranchise thousands of U.S. Citizens. 

Up until now, my interaction with my documents and my scanner has been one that's fairly apolitical. I've needed to scan them clearly for administrative reasons, for job applications, or just to have digital copies on hand should I need to produce them. For this assignment, I decided to take the otherwise boring and utilitarian task of scanning important documents with my home scanner, into a fine arts context, in order to work toward my learning goal of "making work that meets the moment." 

The above GIF is a scan from the top page of my passport, which contains the preamble to the Constitution. I scanned the whole document, cropped it and edited it in Photoshop, and printed that out. I made scans of the page, to purposefully get the eagle (a symbol of power) to crowd out the preamble while getting more and more distorted, perhaps taking on a sinister appearance. My goal was to create a visual metaphor of the actions of current administration, as their interest in power and a message of nationalism is taking precedent over the principles that this country was founded upon. The US is not a perfect union, it never has been, (the Constitution was written by slave owners, after all) but the message of attempting to reach a "more perfect union" based on "securing the blessings of liberty" for everyone in this country is being thrown out the window. The Constitution can not, must not apply only to those who have the papers to prove it should. 

The below scans are a compilation of mine and my husbands passports, social security cards, and birth certificates. I printed out the scans, colored them with blue and red magic marker (effectively desecrating them) as a means of contemplating the privilege of a U.S. Citizen. I was able to easily grab our documents from the envelope in my desk, I piled them on the scanner, I printed the scan, colored it, scanned and warped it. I repeated this process four times, which rendered them progressively more useless and unrecognizable. It's an act of privilege to be able to interact with my documents in this manner. I have access to them, I have access to a scanner, and I can use them all to illustrate my thoughts and feelings about being born in the United States. Which, ironically, is a privilege afforded to me as a U.S. Citizen. 

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