UBIQUITOUS OBELISK
The installation consisted of nine new works made on graph paper, plywood, raw film negative, and beer bottle labels, made specifically for the space at Hillside Art Gallery, Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, CA.
Ubiquitous Obelisk, installation view, 1995
20% Obelisk, Ink on beer bottle label, 9 x 6 in., 1995
10% Obelisk, Ink on beer bottle label, 6 x 3 in., 1995
5% Obelisk, Ink on beer bottle label, 1.5 x .75 in., 1995
40% Obelisk, Ink on beer bottle label, 24 x 3 in., 1995
The Grid Never Lies #1, Non-repro blue pencil on graph paper, 10 x 8 in., 1995
The Grid Never Lies #2, Non-repro blue pencil on graph paper, 8 x 8 in., 1995
The Grid Never Lies #3, Non-repro blue pencil on graph paper, 10 x 8 in., 1995
![Classified Obelisk Archive 1-4 of [redacted], 35mm film negative in glassine, 32 x 1 in., 1995](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/67b4ed8abb1b4448001cbb12/e0161485-2291-4666-88a8-da075a4401dd/UbOb_DanielFlahiff--10.jpg)
Classified Obelisk Archive 1-4 of [redacted], 35mm film negative in glassine, 32 x 1 in., 1995
Anonymity of the Built Environment, Ink and chalk on plywood, 96 x 96 in., 1995
Ubiquitous Obelisk comprised nine new works on graph paper, plywood, raw film negative, and beer bottle labels, made for this gallery and stamped with the silhouette of an obelisk, cut and impressed by hand. I've used this mark for years on the street in posters, tagged onto buses, parking meters, phone booths, and traffic signs around the world through a small network of collaborators from Seattle to Prague, Amsterdam, and Berlin.
The obelisk is not incidental. Historically, obelisks are monuments that travel, uprooted and re-erected elsewhere as a claim. My mark moves the same way: planted without permission, carried hand to hand.
This installation takes that practice, built on anonymity and disposability, and forces it into the sanctioned space of the gallery, on purpose. Whether the mark survives that move intact is the question I built the work to hold.