THE “LEGACY STONE”
In 2016 (pre-election), I surreptitiously installed a 500-pound granite headstone inscribed with Donald Trump’s name and the epitaph "Made America Hate Again" in Central Park’s Sheep Meadow on Easter Sunday, bypassing traditional institutional channels to tap directly into the volatile vein of political spectacle. As documented across major cultural outlets like The New York Times, Hyperallergic, and Artnet, the unauthorized installation transcended mere street art, triggering an intensive federal investigation by the Secret Service and the FBI, who evaluated the work as a potential assassination threat.
By provoking this heavy-handed state security apparatus—resulting in intense interrogations, family questioning, and a permanent federal watchlist placement—I successfully weaponized the machinery of national security as a collaborative medium. The ensuing four-month legal battle to reclaim my confiscated sculpture transformed the monument into a living index of state paranoia, proving that political memorialization in the digital age is monitored, feared, and authenticated by the federal government itself.
Having been exhibited extensively across galleries and museums since its recovery, The Legacy Stone continues to evolve through living rituals, including formal grave rubbing ceremonies produced in collaboration with master printer James Stroud of Massachusetts's Center Street Studio.
Easter Sunday 2016 SELECTED PRESS LINKS
ARTNET • NY TIMES • TIME • INSIDE EDITION • NYMAG • ABC • UPROXX • PBS • POLITICO
Subsequent showings: Art Basel Miami Beach, Josh Liner Gallery NYC, Baltimore Museum of Art, Boston Center for the Arts, Art on Paper Fair, IFPDA, Hashimoto Contemporary LES
3D Print of Tombstone
Grave Rubbing of Tombstone (Produced by Center Street Studio Print Publishing, Boston)