... A symbol of connection to the land, as well as a metaphor for the hard work of asserting oneself, its actions in the work Dam Lines (2008) mirror its revolutionary stance. Destroying the old Ð the woods, a given territory Ð in order to rebuild anew, the beaver is the ultimate rebel. He also marks territory and conceives of land in terms of demarcated space, in a way akin to human ideas about private property. For students of art history, this particular beaver carries ironic humor as well, as it adopts the stance of Delacroix's Liberty Leading the People, as well as referencing Vera Mukhina's colossal stainless steel Worker and Kolkhoz Woman (2400cm, about 79 feet tall), immortalized when it was placed atop the Soviet pavilion at the Paris World's Fair of 1937. By calling to mind such icons of revolutionary imagery, Alina and Jeff imply that utopian idealism and a desire for progress, coupled with hard work and the will to destroy in order to start anew, are the basic preconditions for the production of both good art and a just society. The books that comprise all of the installations include many images of revolution, beginning with the French July Revolution referenced by Delacroix, but including American and Latin American revolutions, the Russian revolution, but also more contemporary revolts like the Paris and Prague student protests of 1968, the actions and propaganda of the Black Panthers, feminists, and most recently Ukraine's Orange Revolution. Cultural revolution and cultural imperialism, in the form of works by Malevich and Duchamp, but also images of Mickey Mouse and Japanese anime figures are also referenced. Further, Napoleonic imagery is included. If the necessity and desirability of a revolutionary perspective is their point, then why use images related to commercially-driven cultural invasion and revolutions that have failed by devolving into fascist and / or imperialist regimes (images of Marx, Mandela, and Che are found alongside those of Castro as well)? Every utopian aspiration is threatened by the naivete of its own optimism, and its corporate cameraderie threatened by outside influence that will ultimately contaminate it. Revolution and its promise cannot be an end in itself, but like the beaver's work it is a constant process of tearing down and building up - an evolution rather than a revolution. The constant shifting of one's subject position in order to adapt to circumstances outside ourselves is ultimately an effort to survive. Communicating, navigating barriers, and recognizing when they must be removed, repaired or rebuilt is nothing less than the protean struggle to find our own niche in the ecosystem of human society...

excerpt from "Itinerant Borders" by Elizabeth M. Grady, Dam Lines Catalog, 2008