GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT
performance still
Instinct Gallery, Mpls, MN

The multi-media project, Universal Capital, examines and re-maps the propaganda, symbology, and territories of socio-economic cosmologies. It detourns the 17th century archive, the Harmonia Macrocosmica, which depicts the birth of capitalism with an island in the center of the world marked (Dutch East India) “company land”. Employing photojournalism, collage, and drawing, cartography’s overview is met with under-views of demonstrations, and alternative charts. From Wall Street to the Capitol, performances circulate the prints with spoken texts that challenge official histories. In installations, sculpture, sound-scores, and videos telescope between local economics and global power-structures. These employ materials sourced from their surroundings, plus portraits, interviews, and audience participation. Universal Capital’s immersive cosmologies exorcise the past against a language of shared production.

Gross Domestic Product
archival ink and paper, 2015-2018
20” x 24”, edition of 5
48" x 40", edition of 3

Gross Domestic Product (detail)

HD Video, 15"
5.16.2015
Instinct Gallery/Public Performance
Mpls, MN
performers: John Hauser, Megan Mayer, Sarah and Jesse Petersen, Sean Smuda, John Vance

Potlatch
archival ink and paper, 2017
20” x 24”, edition of 5
48" x 40", edition of 3

Potlatch (detail)

Potlatch was performed on Presidents Day 2017 as part of Holly Hughes' nation wide event Not My Presidents Day via the Minneapolis chapter This Machine.

Common Ground
2018
mixed medium 9’ x 3’ x 2’
(destroyed in fire)

Deep State
archival pigment print, 2017
24" x 28" edition of five
48" x 40" edition of three

Deep State (detail)

w/ Rose Hauser
9.24.2017
HD video, 9’46”

Common Ground, 2018 (link to audio)
2018
mixed medium, 12’ x 6 x 5’
(destroyed in fire)

Commodity Fetish
archival ink and paper 2018
20” x 24”, edition of 5
48" x 40", edition of 3

Commodity Fetish (detail)

HD Video, 12'36"
2.3.2014
Ritz Theater, Monday Live Arts
Mpls, MN
performer: Sean Smuda

Common Ground
2018
mixed medium, 9’ x 6 x 2’
(destroyed in fire)

Austerity
archival ink and paper, 2014-2015
20” x 24”, edition of 5
48" x 40", edition of 3

HD Video, 7'
3.10.2015
Cowles Center, Future Interstates series
Mpls, MN
performer: Sean Smuda

Austerity (detail)

Universal Capital
archival ink and paper, 2012 - 2015
24" x 13 1/2" edition of 5
48" x 27", edition of 3

HD video, 3'44"
11.9.2015
public performance, NY, NY
performer: Sean Smuda

Universal Capital (detail)

Target Classes
archival ink and paper, 2012-2019
20” x 24”, edition of 5
48" x 40", edition of 3

HD Video, 5'
10.30.2014
TuckUnder Projects
Mpls, MN
performer: Sean Smuda
participants: Aki Shiabata, Nate Young, Sheila Dickinson, Nick Vlcek

Target Classes (detail)