ABSTRACT
Rachel Harrison does choose a tourist destination as a subject in Snake in the Grass: the site of the JFK assassination in Dallas. Normally "JFK" is a character cast in terms of tragically unfulfilled promises: of social reform, of progressive government, of glamor and intrigue. Harrison's treatment may take a bite out of its Republican referent, but whatever dissing that is detectable is complicated by its competition with the abstract sculpture and those relatively refined and flared wooden legs. There is a script from a Surrealist play by Jack Smith, Brassieres of Atlantis: A Lobster Sunset Pageant, placed in a steel mixing bowl, as well as a portrait painting featuring a smiling female face being engulfed by swirls of flowers, leaves, and lines. Perth Amboy, lends itself to a similar process of questioning about the notions of currency and packaging.
