Domestic Terrorism: War Rugs From America - 2020 Doorbusters Supersaver Catalog!

“Domestic Terrorism: War Rugs From America,” is an artist book in collaboration with writer Cara Marsh Sheffler that grew out of the solo show of the same name at the Elijah Wheat Showroom. Our book expands upon the motifs that the rugs explore (e.g., police brutality, the inept handling of the pandemic, immigration detention, gun violence, income inequality, environmental degradation) all in the cheery, exuberant format of a 70s-style Sears catalogue.

We lighted upon the artistic medium of a Sears catalogue to portray American decline as what it unavoidably is: a consumer experience. “Domestic Terrorism” is a catalogue meant to advertise and enshrine the violence portrayed on the rugs. As the format of a catalogue demands, this artist book is chock full of objects that can be purchased in America right now—anything from Confederate flag belly button rings to a Blue Lives Matter Christmas ornament. Collages of such objects are paired with thematically resonant text—everyone from Nancy Reagan and Angela Davis to Miley Cyrus and Nas. We often hear that silence is violence, but, in America, complicity takes the form of consumerism. Its advertisement is aggressive, but the participation is as passive as giving a credit card number. We all buy in.

We began work on this catalogue this past autumn, after months of lockdown, reduced to interacting with the world largely online. Estrangement was endemic. Given that context, the Sears catalogue struck us as the OG attempt at the comprehensiveness offered by Internet shopping. The retreat from brick-and-mortar commerce has further facilitated the rise of Amazon, worker exploitation, societal inequality, segregation, and isolation from our communities. In 2020, the violence of American Exceptionalism became domestic on many levels: literal, intimate, national, and—like a rug that really ties the room together—centered in our homes and hearths. 

Manifest Destiny, as it turns out, was an ad campaign; “Domestic Terrorism” lets you bring a little slice of it home to your very own coffee table!