An American Classic: A Celebration of Democracy in the United States of America

The attempt in this series is to commemorate the difficulties African-American had to overcome before Barack Obama could become president of The United States; as well as to demonstrate the unprecedented achievement of democracy as it is practiced in the United States, through the unfolding realization and acceptance of the document known as the Constitution that was established by the founding fathers of this nation. The United States of America, having been found, through a revolution, against the monarchy of Great Britain, for the recognition of equal rights for all humans, yet blacks, women and the Native Americans were excluded from enjoying the provisions granted in the Constitution. That denial has resulted in the many civil-unrests that have taken place in our society. As we have witnessed, with the election of Barack Obama to the Presidency, these events cumulated to a better and stronger America, a nation in which all humans can enjoy the fruits of these struggles, as it was intended by the Constitution. The goal in this series is to capture that great achievement by means of images; in using some of the actors from these events who have played a significant role in the outcome of democracy, in the United States.

While the single photograph that was published with an article has been forgotten, the composition in these collages offers the viewer an alternative point of view from which he /she can revisit these events and thus has an opportunity to engage in a dialogue on the trajectory of our democratic process. The collages in the series were made with printed news media, newspaper and magazine images, and other historical documents. Unlike most collages that are done by pasting one object over a surface, the realization of these collages was done with the splicing technique used in film editing. Sometime the images in a composition are woven together, with one part of an image going through another. This is done to achieve depth that creates a cinematographic effect. This, then, gives the sense of motion in a two dimensional object. These collages range from (11X14) to (30X36) inches in size. There are 44 collages in the series, a number representing Barack Obama being the 44th President of the United States.

As these collages interwoven the American’s psyche on many levels such as political, social, historical, I think, they provide a platform by which society can self-reflect on the nature and conditions of our interactions that lead to the notion of the American Exceptionalism of who we are as a nation and our potential to continue in the path of even greater achievements. Thus, the participatory debates from the series can be initiated from the elementary level of education to the everyday civic-minded social debates as well as intellectual and professional arguments in the fields of sociology, psychology, history, political and economic development of the nation. In other words the audience for this series is anyone from a first grader to the college professor.