Clay Ward, program coordinator of MIT's Student Art Association, is the only American among 18 artists in a New York show examining the power, ubiquity and legitimacy of personal identity systems.
The show, "ID Troubles--US Visit," will be on view at the NURTUREart Gallery and Emerging Curators' Resource Center, 475 Keap St., in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, New York, until June 24. The show opened May 20
Ward's installation for "ID Troubles" is titled "Sewn Checks," and his medium is personal bank checks signed with stitches, rather than ink.
"Every check (except for one) was honored by the bank even though some of them got caught in the machine that was used to process them," said Ward. Ward is selling each cancelled check for its face value.
NURTUREart Gallery is dedicated to nurturing the careers of emerging fine artists and curators from around the world. For more information, visit www.nurtureart.org.
A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on June 1, 2005 (download PDF).
