Stealth
About the Project
Installation with reading/performance events
Stealth is a series of related works begun post 9/11 and developed during the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan and the Iraq war. The installation attempts to measure unquantifiable distances, from the eye of a smart bomb to fragments left on the pavement, between the contested geographies of war and daily life in the United States.
Rothenberg's research began with a visit to The Natick Soldier Systems Center, a Department of Defense installation responsible for technology development and engineering of US military food, clothing, shelters, airdrop systems, and soldier support. She met with a member of the Materials and Systems Integration Team, the group that develops and tests camouflage. Given access to night vision goggles, body armor, and camouflage make-up; Rothenberg toured various climatic dioramas used to test camouflage effectiveness; and examined their extensive collection of military uniforms from international armies. After several hours a military team member, asked Rothenberg if she would mind answering a question - could she tell him about Mondrian and Seurat and what they have to do with camouflage?
As an installation, Stealth is a series of related works. Wall-sized maps made from the cut seams of camouflage clothing. Each map is punctuated with numbered tacks and tiny plastic flags. There's a wall text of excerpts from patriotic songs, a how-to diagram exhorting you to strip camouflage clothing off the backs of your friends along with instructions for the storage and containment of this dangerous and invasive material.
Each part of the installation functions independently, expands and contracts according to venue, and can be shown individually or as a group. The installation can also function as a site for performance and readings.
Related Programs
Reading from the factor floor
Using the historical tradition of El Lector, the reader, collectively paid by fellow workers at cigar factories to read aloud, literature, political texts, and the news of the day, this event utilizes poetry and production to respond to current conflicts and to reflect on strategies of resistance.
Reading/Performance organized by Ellen Rothenberg and Francesco Levato sponsored by The Poetry Center of Chicago.
Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago, 2008
Reading Landscape(s)
Performance, 2009
Artist Ellen Rothenberg and a team of cultural workers fabricate bundles of excerpted texts and re-purposed camouflage clothing used in her cartographic wall drawings, while writers from New Mexico’s diverse communities read works responding to landscapes geography, and place.
This program is associated with Experimental Geography a traveling exhibition organized by iCI, NYC curated by Nato Thompson and LAND ART, a collaborative exploration of land-based art in New Mexico
The Albuquerque Museum, Albuquerque, New Mexico, 2009
Excerpts from Stealth were exhibited in the following group shows:
Material Turn, a group exhibition curated by Kelly Thompson at Milieux Institute of Arts, Culture and Technology, Concordia University in 2018
Experimental Geography, curated by Nato Thompson and Independent Curators International NYC; was exhibited at the following venues from 2008- 2011. Richard E. Peeler Art Center, DePaul University, Indiana; Rochester Art Center, Rochester, Minnesota; The Albuquerque Museum, Albuquerque, New Mexico; Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, Maine; Museum of London, London, Ontario, Canada; James Gallery, CUNY Graduate Center, New York City, NY; Bishop’s University, Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada
HereThereEverywhere, a group exhibition at The Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago, Illinois in 2008
Consuming War, a group exhibition curated by Barbara Koenen at the Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago, Illinois in 2007-2008
Stealth premiered in a solo exhibition, curated by Heather Weber at Northeastern Illinois University, Chicago, Illinois in 2007