Louie Palu
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Installation View 1 of Thesis Exhibition, Meyerhoff Gallery
2022
Photography, Sculpture, Laser Copies, Mixed Media Mounted On Plywood
Plywood sheets are 4x8 feet each
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Installation View 2 of Thesis Exhibition, Meyerhoff Gallery
2022
Photography, Sculpture, Laser Copies, Mixed Media Mounted On Plywood
Plywood sheets are 4x8 feet each
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Installation View 3 of Thesis Exhibition, Meyerhoff Gallery
2022
Photography, Sculpture, Mixed Media Mounted On Plywood & Wall
Plywood sheets are 4x8 feet each
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Installation View 4, Page 89 Riot Baton, Manual Civil Disturbances, Maryland State Police 1971.
2023
Inkjet print
77”x44”
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Police riot batons, cast from baton purchased from military surplus store.
2022
Plaster and enamel paint on plywood
27"
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Redaction blocks from the Special Review from the Office of Inspector General U.S. Department of the Interior, Review of U.S. Park Police Actions at Lafayette Park enlarged to dimensions of police riot batons.
2022
Wood and gesso
24"
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Installation Detail of three interconnected works. (Left to Right 1-3) (1)“Protesters on 16th Street NW in front of Lafayette Park in Washington D.C. Image processed through facial recognition AI application with protesters faces hole punched to hide the
2023
Photography, Laser Copy, Collage all on paper in archival sleeves mounted to plywood with artist tape
Mixed, see title for each size
Statement
ORDER
by Louie Palu
The root of my work is founded on my family history related to state sanctioned violence and terror on civilian populations inflicted by the Nazi state using sophisticated paramilitary police units. Additionally, this is informed by my on the ground reporting covering numerous conflicts including the U.S. war in Afghanistan as a photojournalist from 2006-2010.
The project Order is a hybrid documentary investigation of state control and use of police violence in the U.S. and how we must confront brutality to make this use of political power visible. The foundation of policing in the U.S. is based on many models, some of which combine the implementation of slave patrols and state police created to manage labor conflict in the coal mines of Pennsylvania. In 2020 I witnessed the civil unrest and police actions in Lafayette Park in front of the White House in reaction to the protests related to the murder of George Floyd. These events set broader themes for my research into systems of power, control, and systemic racism towards people of color and immigrants, which is rooted in white supremacist ideology, colonialism, and the control of the working class.
Consequently, I examined the proliferation of digital technology and handheld devices such as phones, which resulted in the conclusion that everyone who has their phones on their person or takes photographs at a protest serves as a conduit for mass surveillance by the state. I implemented the use of an artificial intelligence application for work that intersects with security strategies around publicly accessible images, social media and image processing in the form of facial recognition and digital tracking. These tools serve as new weapons by any government to track, arrest, and detain anyone considered an enemy of the state. This led to considering the materiality of historical vs. new tools used by police in addition to conventional weapons. This includes considering analogue film photography vs. digital, which is made up of code and enables the state to identify, target, and locate individuals. From this I determined that what we are witnessing is the end of traditional photography, as photographs are no longer only pictorial representations but are now data devices created by all of us used to track and archive all our activities.
In the course of my work as a photojournalist I also collected physical police munitions used on protesters in 2020. This focused my experiments into ballistic tests using ink and paper, simulating the traumatic effects of these weapons. I then extended this into audio recordings of these weapons to understand an alternate sound of the violence of police weapons. Though photography traditionally documented these actions, the function of pictorial images is limited and I want to expand on our understanding of the severe physical damage they cause.
To conclude, the 2020 protests in Lafayette Park present a unique opportunity to observe a critical massing of police forces at the city, state and federal level including military forces used for crowd control. This concentrated use of state sanctioned violent strategies and use of force over an extended period of time allowed for a unique study related to human rights, race, freedom of expression, and an overall measure of democracy especially when contrasted with the events related to the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Studio Art (Summer Low Residency MFA) Students
Katia Meisinger - not exhibiting