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American Bittersweet
In American Bittersweet, the ornate writing and seeming antiquity of the language summon feelings of patriotism or honor. But it’s full of affect without specificity: free floating signifiers that conjure a valorized past, or appeal to a larger mission --- and which could be weaponized to appeal to a particularly narrow version of what we are. The vine included in the work (both depicted in paint and attached in artificial silk) is called American Bittersweet. In a perhaps too on-the-nose coincidence, the plant symbolizes truth. It is also poisonous.