əˈmɛrəkə

əˈmɛrəkə is a video and fiber art installation, interrogating of the fabrication of the American political persona through linguistics and performance. Borrowing its title from the phonetic spelling of a word synonymous with global narcissism and cultural dominance, the work deconstructs the "politician" as a premier vessel of propaganda. This project explores the spectacle of democracy as it blurs the lines between reality television, institutional power, and human rights.

The installation features a grid of diverse individuals, including American citizens, DACA recipients, and non-citizens, dressed in a standardized, basic uniform of a candidate: the black blazer and white button-down. Through a process of unseen voice coaching, these subjects are tasked with achieving a “perfected" American dialect, performing a robotic and deadpan repetition of the word "America”, as the word loses its meaning. This assimilation highlights the increasingly ingrained, encouraged, and often forced in linguistic policing and the unnatural relationship between the candidate and the camera.

By centering voices and bodies systematically excluded from the traditional hierarchy of power, əˈmɛrəkə challenges the "comprehensive structure of illusion" described by Jacques Rancière. The work reframes the political process as a curated performance.

For more reading on this topic:

This is Not America, Alfredo Jaar, https://art21.org/read/the-timeless-relevance-of-alfredo-jaars-a-logo-for-america/

Ellul, Jacques, et al. Propaganda: the Formation of Men's Attitudes. Vintage Books, a Division of Random House, 1962, 2005.

Rancière, Jacques. The Emancipated Spectator. 2008.

hooks, bell. Teaching Community: A Pedagogy of Hope. DEV Publishers, 2003.