Art is more than a series of images that are disembodied. Art is objects that live in real places, economies, spaces, architecture.
Trevor PaglenThe U.S. generally wants to solve problems with coercion. That's kind of the default way the American state wants to try to solve problems. So there are many parallels between that: mass incarceration, mass surveillance, and militarism.
Trevor PaglenI'm pretty cynical about the future, but I feel like that's not an ethical position for me to take. It's not okay for me to behave as if I'm cynical about the future. Even if I am.
Trevor PaglenWhen you have an economically unequal society, you end up with huge swaths of society that are disposable, basically.
Trevor PaglenFor a time, people were getting arrested for photographing the Brooklyn Bridge. So to me, what it meant to do photography also changed. There was a new kind of politics to it - something that was very aggressive and dangerous - and a presumption that it would reveal some kind of truth or evidence.
Trevor Paglen