Artist Statement
Theory Of Games And Economic Behavior. After I saw the documentary The Yes Men, I got interested in “identity correction”, telling the truth through comical parody. Identity Correction is funny enough that no one believes you 100% and it reveals enough that you can’t get in trouble (liable, slander & the like) because the object of critique doesn’t want to draw attention to itself. Identity Correction oddly resembles “free speech.” How would you identity correct the ol’ Stars ‘N’ Stripes? Tetris, of course. I like Nintendo (N.E.S., mind you) and economics, especially game theory–remember John Nash from that annoying movie “A Beautiful Mind”? A Nash Equilibrium describes volatile high volume economies where changing your strategy or energy expenditure (as in a typical game) doesn’t matter: all outcomes + or ? amount to the same thing, like Tetris after about Level 13. I was playing Tetris, reading Theory Of Games And Economic Behavior (by John Von Neumann and Oskar Morgenstern) & thinking about jumping out of airplanes. The familiar backwards or inverted American flag does not represent the current situation. If we were backwards or wrong we could turn ourselves around because wrongs and solutions would be apparent. But if this is a game (or what amounts to a game, & maybe for good reason), if things are mixed up, maybe we can’t figure out how to put Humpty Dumpty, who somehow manages to keep jumping off the wall, back together. Some stars in the middle, a lot of white on top, red mixed throughout… A guess amounts to a joke.