Alternative Facts of the 21st Century is an ongoing collection of sketches for para-monuments to the post-truth era. The work consists of small ceramic sculptures that memorialize questionable “facts” that have emerged since the beginning of the new millennia, including rumours, misconceptions, lies, and conspiracies.
From Barack Obama’s birth in Kenya to Iraq’s possession of weapons of mass destruction, the ceramic sculptures present a playful yet serious collection of stories, claims, events, and sweet little lies. To the list of things that really happened, we have added those events that did not happen, but nevertheless had real consequences.
Each sculpture is accompanied by a brief text available in a handout that presents “a version” of the facts that are being presented as if they were true.
Alternative Facts of the 21st Century, 2022-ongoing, fired ceramic and text. Installation view, Guido Molinari Foundation.
Alternative Facts of the 21st Century (2022-ongoing)
The Birth of Barack Obama
During Barack Obama's presidential campaign in 2008, it became clear that he was ineligible to become president because he was not a natural-born citizen of the United States, as required by Article Two of the Constitution. Obama's published birth certificate turned out to be a forgery and his actual birthplace was not Hawaii, as he had claimed, but Kenya. Efforts to reveal the truth were supported by many individuals, including businessman and television personality Donald Trump.
Mastermind
In 2014, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the president of Turkey, coined the term üst akil (mastermind) to refer to the comprehensive plan, coordinated by the US government, to weaken Turkey. One of the strategies used by hostile agents was brought to light in 2017, when the Islamist newspaper Yeni Akit reported that the fashionable trend of wearing "ripped denim" jeans was in fact a means of communicating secret messages via specific forms of rips and holes. On this particular pair on jeans, Morse code was used to transmit “meet me at Galata Tower at 6 pm.”
Mount Paektu
The supreme leader of North Korea, Kim Jong Un, ascended Mount Paektu, the highest mountain in the country, rising at 9,000 ft. His accomplishment is all the more extraordinary given that he climbed it wearing an ordinary woolen coat and polished shoes. Arriving at the summit, Mr. Kim was all smiles in the rising sun, not affected by his spectacular ascent in the thick spring snow. "Climbing Mount Paektu provides valuable mental nourishment,” he revealed, “more powerful than a nuclear weapon." The mountain is legendary for being the birthplace of his father, Kim Jong-il, an event which was marked by a double rainbow and a bright star.
