Offensive Institutionalism, Black and White Photography, 2008.

As a beginning student in the art of photography, I was unable to dodge the bullet of critique. The above photos set fellow art students into a long discussion about intent, which was fairly straight forward. Humboldt State came recently to know that many community and faculty members were not happy with the mission style entrance gates that had been built one summer. One of my instructors for Native American Studies pointed out that he found the gates offensive. As it was a constant reminder of the California Missions and the injustices committed in the name of god and at the mercy of the Indigenous people of the California region. I found myself thinking about architecture as a political statement. Not a new idea, in fact a very old one (The Pantheon ) which began to be a reminder of the institutionalized nature of college. On further contemplation, I searched my psyche ...