Dallas is an on-going sculptural investigation into the story of the twin “Southfork” ranch houses located in Slobozia, Romania and Dallas, Texas. It is the story of how the American soap opera “Dallas” was recreated by political and criminal actors in Romania following the country’s independence from the Soviet Union. A series of suspended photographs, signs, and sculptures map the story in a nonlinear manner as a way to better understand the nature and impact of Western cultural detritus.
Dallas, Romania
Digital print, plywood, stencil, spray paint, neon sign
Free Ride, 2013
Remember the TV show Dallas? This is a piece about how that very American TV show felled a dictator and ushered in capitalism in Romania.
A suspended neon sign recreates the facade of Ilie Alexandru's Southfork ranch in Slobozia, Romania. The sign is flanked by a photo of the same ranch, and its counterpart Southfork Ranch which still stands outside of Dallas, Texas. A fourth image documents actor Larry Hagman, who played Dallas's star character J.R. Ewing, alongside Ilie Alexandru at the Slobozia site.
Two Southforks
Digital print, acrylic glass, string, audio recording
Boat | River | an Indefinite Space, 2013
Boat | River | an Indefinite Space is a group installation designed and curated by Clemens Poole. The project details the voyage of the schooner Hippo from Belgrade to the Black Sea in the summer of 2013. The work as a whole seeks to deal spatially with the constant movement and transience of travel by boat on the paradoxically ever-changing but fixed line of a river. Each crew member contributes a different image of this experience, but all are woven into the greater web of experience. Joe Riley's contribution, Two Southforks, is a series of photographs documenting the mimetic fantasy of twin ranch houses in Slobozia, Romania and Dallas, Texas.
