Brian Singer: Everything you say can and will be used against you

About

A new solo exhibition by artist Brian Singer which confronts the current state of American society. Informed by his views growing up half-Japanese with a mother who was interned during WWII, Singer deconstructs and reassembles recognizable and culturally-charged objects to create new contexts that expose, address, and reframe some of the most contentious social issues of our time.

In Everything you say can and will be used against you, Singer deconstructs and reassembles recognizable and culturally-charged objects to create new contexts that expose, address, and reframe some of the most contentious social issues of our time. Such issues encompass the country's attitude and response to refugees, gentrification, income inequality, surveillance, patriotism, land rights, and banned books.

Within the exhibition are several works from Singer’s flag series, in which the threads of country flags are disassembled and woven onto and around objects that create provocative conceptual associations. These works include threading a U.S. flag around an 1890s Bible, the wrapping of U.S. and Mexico flags around wood lath pieces from renovation projects in San Francisco’s Mission District (known as a hotspot of gentrification), a deconstructed Confederate flag woven around a copy of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, and threads of flags from El Salvador, Venezuela, Honduras, and Guatemala woven around an old metal cot exploring the dynamics of cultural identity, displacement, and the treatment of asylum seekers. 

The exhibition also includes works that upend traditionally benign lawn and playground games, introducing issues like land rights and police brutality within their deceptively genteel frameworks. These works include a cornhole game marked with text based on the promise Andrew Jackson made to Native Americans regarding how long they would have rights to their land, and a hopscotch game that incorporates Gadsden (“Don’t tread on me”) flags, police batons, and chalk outlines.

In Everything you say can and will be used against you, Singer presents a damning account of America’s systemic failures and the tragic consequences of continuing to ignore them. Within his provocative approach to reframing such conversations, one ultimately finds new avenues to understand and precipitate much-needed change.