video installation consisting of glass pool filled with oil and digital video (length: 00:08:33) video consists of dashboard Hula Doll with custom American flag skirt and plastic toy gun, and synthesized “fire” sound.
the 101st Airborne Division chose to name two of its main outposts in the desert Forward Operating Base Exxon and Forward Operating Base Shell. According to the spokesmen of both companies, this was news to them. Many people believe that Iraqi Oil interests played a role in this war.
The video creates a displaced view of reality just as Americans are displaced from reality by following their “preemptive war on terror” as reported on TV. The Hula doll stands as an icon of all gas guzzling road journeys. She takes a trip from Forward Operating Base Shell to Forward Operating Base Exxon firing at will along her journey with disregard to any environmental influences. The American iconography is used to satirize the seriousness of the state this country finds itself. Americans justify over $87 billion in war expenses over oil, yet we do not have a functioning health system. Collaboration mvogl.
