Secret Wars
Art Car Museum, Houston, Texas
September 21, 2001-February 24, 2002

Wars and violent acts of many kinds take place in our society, often in secret. When the government goes to war abroad, the violence at home is intensified.

Secret Wars presents works of art that spotlight ongoing wars in and outside of the United States. Represented in the exhibit are art works symbolizing psychological and propaganda wars, economic or ecological wars, border strife, racial conflicts, violence within and against the individual and the family, wars between nations, wars of liberation, and government wars against its citizens. On the walls of the museum, statements by Noam Chomsky, Robert Fisk, and Edward Said contributed to the anti-war/anti-violence character of the exhibit. All of the works of art in Secret Wars were found in the artists' studios or in private collections. Some of the works relate to previous or ongoing wars. Several artists updated their work after 9/11 or produce new work. The art community was aware of a number of the works but not the public at large.

The September timing of the exhibit was not related to the attack on New York on 9/11. Secret Wars had been planned months before that crime against civilians was committed. The investigation of this exhibit by the FBI and Secret Service was a sign that the Justice Department regards free artistic expression as a threat to national security. Our intention was not to aid terrorists or even to expose the kinds of terror that is everyday fare for many American citizens but to introduce our community to the artists' insights into the violent nature of our society in a time when the United States is perpetually at war. It is critical to the moral and creative life of the country that museums uphold the constitutional rights of free speech and free expression.

If a dreadful family secret is not exposed, a secret war rages in the family. Likewise, a government that lies or withholds information about its own crimes is at war with its people. The US government is quick to denounce crimes against civilians by foreign governments. However, its complicity in the slaughter of civilians by its foreign allies is not deemed a crime. In addition, the government refuses to accept responsibility for its part in the murder of American citizens in Waco, Texas, and at Kent State University. It justifies the killing of civilians in Vietnam, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Iraq, Serbia, and Afghanistan as unintentional accidents of war and employs euphemisms like collateral damage' and 'friendly fire' to cover up war crimes and criminal negligence.

My prints for the exhibit were made with glow in the dark paper. They were hung in a 10' x 15' room lit with four black lights. Here is a lay out of the prints facing each other on the four walls. Click on each image to see close up views of the prints.

On November 7, the exhibit was officially visited by two Federal Agens from the Joint Terrorism Task Force. Here are quotes from two new reports from this visit.

Christian Science Monitor, January 8, 2002 edition
"Political Dissent Can Bring Federal Agents to the Door"

It was 10:30a.m. on Nov. 7 when the two men showed up. Donna Huanca was alone, getting ready to open Houston's Art Car Museum. "The looked like robots," she says. She told the men, dressed in dark suits and carrying leather portfolios, that they would have to wait until the doors opened at 11. That was when they flipped out their badges: The were federal agents [two members of the Joint Terrorism Task Force, one from the FBI, and one from the Secret Service] investigating reports of "anti-American activity" at the tiny art gallery.

Houston Press November 15-22, 2001
"Quirky Yes, Al Qaeda No. Feds Find Weird Art but not Anthrax Terrorists at the Art Car Museum"

The G-men were particularly interest in It's Easier to Get a Camel Through the Eye of a Needle Than to Get an American into Heaven, by Houston artist Forrest Prince. The 1991 work is a small wooden shadowbox holding a plastic army soldier pulling a missile, with a painted backdrop of camels and fire.

Huanca says the agents seemed puzzled and asked her, "What's that supposed to mean?" Huanca says she tried to explain that the piece represents anger over the purpose of the Persian Gulf War, but that the agents still seemed confused. Later, agents noticed a mock surveillance camera that was part of an installation. They asked if they were being filmed.

"I said, 'Aren't we all under surveillance?'" says Huanca. "and they were like, 'What?'"

"Some of the pieces could and did offend people, but those are the people who spend a longer amount of time parking their car instead of walking around the museum,"says Huanca, adding that others have been so moved that they have left in tears.

Two artists contributed pieces made specifically in response to the terrorist' attacks on the United States - neither one seeming all that anti-American. Galveston artist Eric Avery created a wall hanging that shows the World Trade Center towers on fire and a woman crouching over a child under a hail of missiles [Faeryland Tic Tac Toe, September 11, 2001]….

Not exactly the most subversive stuff.

Houston Indymedia article by Tish Stringer.
Houston Press article by Jennifer Mathieu.
Secret Wars curator, Tex Kerschen's response here.