40 photo prints on Moab metallic silver paper, giclee, 24 inches x 24 inches each
Adam Aronson Gallery, Laumier Sculpture Park, St. Louis | Missouri
If the World is a Fair Place Then.. | 2015
Laser cut steel bands, words | Exhibited at Laumier Sculpture Park, St. Louis | Missouri
If the World is a Fair Place Then parses a collection of phrases solicited from people in St.Louis, Missouri in the United States of America, in response to a query posed by Raqs that said, “If the world were a fair place, then…”. This work was undertaken in the wake of racial violence in Ferguson (a suburb of St. Louis). The question proposed and posed by Raqs addresses both the recent history of racial violence as well as the historical legacy of the St. Louis World’s Fair (by way of a play on the word ‘fair’- standing in both for a carnival, as well as a sense of justice, or fairness). The responses to the question, which ranged from the outraged to the thoughtful to the whimsical to the affectionate, were collated, and a selection was chosen for rendition. 40 stainless steel bands etched with various thoughts, feelings and ideas from the responses encircle tree trunks along Laumeier’s Art Hike Trail.