The Monophobic Response

The two-channel film and sculptural installation The Monophobic Response documents a meticulously crafted yet poetically altered re-creation of a pivotal 1936 static rocket engine test that initiated the United States' venture into space travel. Inspired by Octavia E. Butler’s 1993 novel Parable of the Sower, which unfolds in the imagined dystopic year of 2024, American Artist performed and filmed The Monophobic Response in the Mojave Desert in the summer of 2024. Artist’s interpretation involved an actual rocket engine test fire in a desolate Californian landscape, creating eerie juxtapositions between Butler’s prescient visions and our troubling realities. Drawing parallels between Butler’s fictive 2024 U.S. presidential race led by an anti-space demagogue and the impending real-world election, this installation weaves together thought-provoking takes on our collective liberation and the concept of our shared “Destiny.”

American Artist makes thought experiments that mine the history of technology, race and knowledge production, beginning with their legal name change in 2013. Their artwork primarily takes the form of sculpture, software and video.

Artist is a recipient of the 2024 Trellis Art Fund and the New York City Artadia Award. They are a grantee of Creative Capital and the Herb Alpert Award in Visual Art. They are a former resident of Smack Mellon, Red Bull Arts Detroit, Abrons Art Center, Recess, EYEBEAM, Pioneer Works and the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program. They have exhibited at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Studio Museum in Harlem, Kunsthalle Basel, Switzerland and the Nam June Paik Art Center, Seoul. Their work has been featured in The New York Times, Cultured, Artforum and Art in America. Artist is on the board of the School for Poetic Computation and is a faculty at the Yale School of Art.

The installation will be part of Artist's solo exhibition Shapert of God, opening January 24, 2025 at Pioneer Works in Brooklyn, NYC.