CatharineClarkGallery

Direct gravure etching on twenty-four copper plates printed on sheets of gampi paper, joined and backed with sekishu kozo paper. Printed by Paul Mullowney and Harry Schneider, assisted by Alejandra Arias Sevilla in a numbered edition of 10 plus 3 proofs. Signed and numbered on the recto in pencil.

Co-published by Mullowney Printing, Portland and San Francisco, and Catharine Clark Gallery, San Francisco.

As part of the ongoing “Imaginary Monuments” series (2007 - present), Sandow Birk has created a fourth gravure in the project: "Proposal for a Monument to the Declaration of Independence (and a Pavilion to Frederick Douglass)." This new image proposes a monument to the text of the Declaration of Independence replete with all the ironies about whose freedom it protects therein (the Pavilion to Frederick Douglass). The composition of the main structure that houses the Declaration’s text is rendered in a neoclassical style reminiscent of the Capitol and other government buildings from the period in Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.

Suspended from the upper portion of the cracked and worn neoclassical architecture is a heavy bar and chain holding a sign inscribed with a passage written by Thomas Jefferson decrying slavery. This text was omitted from the final draft of the Declaration of Independence. And in fact here, it remains outside of the main monument, engraved on a plaque that inauspiciously hangs overhead, casting a shadow of shackles and chains—accoutrements of the slave trade—onto the Declaration’s text.
Birk’s gravure further reminds us of the era’s paradoxical approach to issues of freedom and slavery in a second structure—the so-called pavilion—rendered across from the neoclassical monument. Enshrined on this rock-like memorial or pavilion are texts excerpted from the abolitionist, Frederick Douglass’, July 5, 1852 speech, What the Fourth of July Means to the Slave, which critiques how freedom is unequally distributed to people of color.

Direct gravure etching on two copper plates printed on two sheets of gampi paper, joined and backed with Sekishu Kozo paper. Printed as an edition of 25 plus 8 proofs. Signed and numbered 11/25 on the recto in pencil. Co-published by Mullowney Printing and Catharine Clark Gallery, San Francisco.

Image: 56 1/2 x 40 1/2 inches

Sheet: 62 x 44 inches

65 1/2 x 48 inches framed

This print, the second work in the Imaginary Monuments series, is the representation of a fictional monument to the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights—a document intended to solidify the belief in and commitment to basic human rights for all people. The historic pillar or column inscribed with the entire (legible) text of the United Nations’ document is based on the 1871 monument to Napoleon’s victory at the Place Vendôme in Paris. It is shown in a state of decay, as if its foundation were crumbling. The teetering pillar is supported by a makeshift system of pipes, scaffolding, and bamboo, and enclosed behind security fencing, making it inaccessible. The encircling cityscape spans the breadth of the globe, from the floating slums of Asia and shantytowns of Latin America and Africa in the foreground, to a skyline of iconic skyscrapers from international cities.

Co-published by Mullowney Printing and Catharine Clark Gallery, San Francisco

Medium: Direct gravure etching on four copper plates printed on four sheets of handmade gampi paper, joined and backed with sekishu kozo paper

Edition 25 + 8 proofs

Dimensions: 62 ½ x 48 inches unframed, 66 x 53 inches framed

The idea for using historic texts as central elements in a series of fictional monuments initially developed from Birk’s interest in the etchings of Giovanni Battista Piranesi, an 18th century artist whose series of sixteen imaginary prisons combine dystopian architectural disarray with monumental interiors.  Birk harkens on this inspiration in Proposal for a Monument to the NYPD, which depicts a monument set in a fictional Manhattan plaza, once respected and attended to, but now crumbling, forgotten, and teetering on the brink of collapse.  

The fragile base of the monument, built from remnants of the World Trade Center, and covered with flowers and signs reading “Heroes” and “United We Stand,” is topped by the colossal weight of more recent events.  In the upper section of the monument, Birk has inscribed texts from the NYPD Patrol Guide, which discuss appropriate gun use and situations sanctioning police use of deadly force.  The central circular section of the monument presents the actual text banning police officers from using the chokehold.  Use of the chokehold, however, played a part in the recent death of Staten Island resident Eric Garner.  In 2014, a grand jury elected not to charge the officer involved with the incident.  Subsequent public outcry spurred a pending federal investigation and demonstrations across the United States. 

For the first time in this series, Birk draws upon documents from across eras and continents to portray a subject which affects countries and populations spanning the globe: the laws which govern the seas.  The lighthouse in the drawing portrays the 200 word Preamble from the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Seas (UNCLOS).  This document represents more than fourteen years of work and the cooperation of over 150 countries from all regions of the world, representing every political and legal system, and the spectrum of socioeconomic development.  UNCLOS defines the rights and responsibilities of nations with respect to their use of the world's oceans, establishing guidelines for businesses, the environment, and the management of marine natural resources.  The Convention, completed and opened for signature in 1982, replaced four 1958 treaties, and basically solidified long held, customary views of the uses of the sea.  UNCLOS entered into force in 1994, a year after Guyana became the 60th nation to sign the treaty.  Although the United States now recognizes UNCLOS as a codification of customary international law, it has yet to ratify it. 

Fittingly, the base of the lighthouse draws from two historically important texts which, to this day, form the basis for the creation and interpretation of international and maritime law.  The first text dating to the 17th century is by Dutch jurist Hugo Grotius.  Grotius's 1604 treatise, De Jure Praedae Commentarius (Commentary on the Law of Prize and Booty) promoted the right of unobstructed navigation, and remains to this day one of the classic texts influencing the rule of law on the high seas.  Grotius’s book on international legal doctrine, Mare Liberum (1609) is generally recognized as a paramount element in the formulation and interpretation of contemporary international law.  The base of the lighthouse structure also contains a quote from President Woodrow Wilson’s speech “The Fourteen Points” given to the United States Congress in 1918, towards the end of World War I.  In it, he mentions (as point 2) that the seas must be free to all nations.  The “Fourteen Points” speech was the only explicit statement of war aims by any of the nations fighting in World War I, and eventually became the basis for the terms for Germany’s surrender at the end of the war.