Using the framework of the United States Electoral College, the Through Line Series charts geospatial growth over time, and reframes the political and human geography enabled by Manifest Destiny. As a democratic system of indirect representation, the Electoral College is the underlying grid for the growth of a capitalist nation. As the states grow, represented by branded initials in the paper; borders shift, and for every boundary drawn, land is taken. The work questions who holds power and agency in such a system. Other than the hand that transcribed them, there are no demarcations of gender. The typewriter and the absence of ink exposes this invisible narrative. As a medium, the typewriter serves as a reference to reproduction. A typewriter under the hands of a man conjures the image of a writer, a creator, a master, like Ernest Hemingway at his Royal Quiet De Luxe. Where as, the same typewriter beneath female hands is solely a tool of dictation and reproduction. Historically speaking, as a white female, I am subjugated and implicated in this narrative; not an overly simplified narrative of greatness, rather a complex, multi-faceted, damage-centered narrative. Layers of deconstructive delineation within these works address our man-made ideological separations from each other and our human desire to define and categorize the complexities of our world. While orienting the viewer over the map, the grid positions metaphors of patchwork quilts, checkerboarding, and fly over states. The historical 19th century dining table represents the history of open conversation, sharing and community that a meal brings together. While the unbound book pages displayed on the communal table are a history of US politics, a system steeped in the metaphor that ‘argument is war.’ Positioning the didacticism of US politics with the open acceptance of a communal meal shifts the position of ‘argument is war’ metaphor, opening space for holding and navigating complexity. Through Line brings context to the borders and boundaries that have helped shape the outrage we have been choking on for 230 years; questioning who has agency to shape our physical world and how that informs our present and future choices.
