William
Donovan
The White house has always served as more than merely the residence of the President
of the United States: it is recognized around the world as a symbol of the prestige
and authority of the American democracy. This majestic and imposing edifice
seems almost to embody the ideal on which the nation was founded—truth,
freedom, and justice. Ideally, the man whom Americans elect to reside in this
polished white stone symbol is often blindly trusted to uphold these founding
principals. Recent events as well as history acknowledge that this trust as
well as the idealization of the presidency is often misguided. Echoing out from
the hallowed halls of the White house are too often the politics of greed arrogance
and raw power: A conservative agenda designed for the benefit of the few at
the expense of the many betraying the ideals upon which it is meant to represent.
This symbol of democracy is not always, what it seems and is more akin to a
house of illusion where distortions rule in favor of truth and truth has become
an abstract concept.
My proposal is to utilize this symbol of democracy to create
an image that reflects this hypocrisy. I intend to create a small-scale replica
of the White house in rubber, cheesecloth, glass smalt, and acrylic. The image
will be presented in a heroic sense by the scale and exaggerated perspective
reflecting the power of this institution while also making for a threatening
presence. The upper tier will be narrower and expand as it moves towards the
base. The use of rubber allows for the image to be stretched and distorted creating
a free-floating web like structure that will encompass the wall and perhaps
part of the floor space. Cheesecloth will be shredded into fine filaments, which
reinforces the shredding of the ideal of democracy and truth, which seems to
be the legacy of the current administration. Glass smalt will stain and tar
the work while representing the luminosity lost in the darkness. The architectural
elements: windows, Ionic columns, porticos and landscape will be held together
by a mosaic of natural drips and shreds of cheesecloth that in the finished
piece will mimic a Gothic Mansion.