Nicholas Galanin

Neon American Anthem (red) is a participatory installation designed to activate museum or institutional space. The work offers visitors a place to kneel and follow the directive of a neon sign on the wall that reads: I’ve composed a new American national anthem: take a knee and scream until you can’t breathe.

The work creates an intersectional space for catharsis; to mourn the loss of lives, freedoms and safety for people and Lands subjected to American violence, and to protest continuing oppression.

The neon sign embodies capitalism, its text a pointed reference to the murders of Eric Garner, George Floyd, Tyre Nichols and all people of color who have been murdered at the hands of police and agents of the American state. Asking participants to take a knee, is a position of deference turned refusal; to scream until you can’t breathe encompasses protest aimed at tearing down the systems built to enforce Whiteness, White privilege, heteropatriarchy and capitalist control.