“It’s absolutely imperative that we begin to understand what unfettered, unregulated capitalism does. These are sacrifice zones, areas that have been destroyed for quarterly profit. And we’re talking about environmentally destroyed, communities destroyed, human beings destroyed, families destroyed. And because there are no impediments left, these sacrifice zones are just going to spread outward.”

Christopher Hedges
Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt

artist statement

The high levels of exhaustion and anxiety framing the contemporary national public discourse of American life and politics mirror the history of the collapse during the formation of postindustrial America. Much of the phenomena that are delineated as evidence of the imminent peril of America has long been the normal state of existence for disenfranchised communities of color, and the working class. Visual evidence is all about. Closed businesses, vacant manufacturing centers, boarded up public schools, and desiccated neighborhoods that connect to increased horizontal violence on dilapidated roads.

Commemorating the losses in these sacrifice zones are street memorials. Sometimes with pictures of the deceased. Always with shiny balloons, fluttering ribbons, candles, weathered stuffed toys, handwritten messages on cards, and poster boards alongside dead flowers. Because the violence is random and ubiquitous, Street Memorials are a common sight in America. These sacrifice zone memorials with interchangeable street names that have little to do with the history of the place or current circumstances, are not cataloged or geocached. They are reminders that Americans like the American Dream have been bought, sold, and sacrificed to the point that freedom is death.

Kahlil I. Pedizisai