Kathie Foley-Meyer

CitizenSoldier
mixed media; vellum, acrylic, electrical components, particleboard, video
73.5 x 80 in.

My work contains elements of transparency and references to shared history; which are recurring themes in my work.

“CitizenSoldier” is a 2017 mixed media installation featuring three deconstructed lightboxes made from plexiglass, vellum and acrylic, along with two videos. Set against the backdrop of history, using original and sourced imagery, the subject of the first video is the historic use of private citizens to monitor and control the bodies and lives of black people, coupled with a personal history illustrating how that practice has been carried forward to the present. The second features a 1980s pop love song that can be instead interpreted as a kind of fixation (occupying a space that encompasses both love and hatred) with the accompanying imagery illustrating the obsessive and fear-focused observation of The Other that is a vital component of bigotry. The lightboxes contain a collage of transparent photographs on woven pieces of vellum attached to plexiglass panels that are lit from behind.