Michael Curtis Asbill – SAIC MFA Show 2017

Working in Arlington, Texas and Chicago, Illinois, Michael Curtis Asbill (@fakespambot) has developed a socially motivated practice concerned with visualizing underlying structures of influence in the United States. Breaking Ground is a multi-media installation instigated by a recent vote to publicly fund a baseball stadium complex in Arlington, TX. This investigative project is intended to bring attention to public funding of large private ventures, the extortion of the working class for the benefit of oil industry billionaires, and the destruction of land present in the recent history of Arlington. This work documents the spaces (oil fields, neighborhoods, and parking lots) affected by the development of the new Texas Ranger’s Stadium, half of which is being funded by the residents of Arlington, TX, and interprets unseen strategies and connections that facilitated this construction.