Beware! Artwork (and modest proposal for it) Ahead! 2012

For Beware! Artwork (and modest proposal for it) Ahead! an installation at the Phoenix Art Museum functioned as a proposal for visible tomorrows, a project designed to engage and disrupt on an individual level the social mechanisms that so often appear to destine young men and women for entry into the criminal justice system. Working with the Tumbleweed Center for Youth Development and poet TC Tolbert, Sale led the design of a workshop series aimed at youth with a history of foster care, homelessness, and encounters with law enforcement. The overall project included an event, It’s not just black and white: a video and mediated performance, that featured the live and active participation of 40 individuals who had returned to society after periods of incarceration.

Individual collaborators included Claes Bergman, Jason Dillon, Therese Grossmeyer, Ann Morton, Barry Sparkman, Eric Susser and others. The project was curated by Sara Cochran (Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, Phoenix Art Museum.) The project was made possible through the support of a Contemporary Forum Phoenix Art Museum Mid-Career Artist, Elaine and Sidney Cohen; and the Jane A. Lehman and Alan G. Lehman Foundation.