This work is the first of a projected series framing individually and collectively authored objects to reflect on the legacy of Malcolm X above all as an icon. It examines the context of hysteria and paranoia which accompany the discourse on issues of racial difference. Malcolm X is posed as avenging angel, decorative sign and priest of a fragmented, mediated cult.
A series of hallucinations produced by the icon of Malcolm X is projected into the room. Weaving together audio quotes from speeches, text quotations, sound effects, rephotographed imagery from documentary and fictional sources, the work uses fragmentation, ironic juxtapositions and disruptions to restage fantasies, misrepresentations and misreadings that X provokes. The second video channel displays a text drawn from a song by "The Disposable Heroes of Hyphoprisy" entitled "Famous and Dandy (Like Amos & Andy)", a minstrel and vaudeville routine on the relationship between art and capital. Bits of songs, prattle from talk radio, soundbites from speeches and other overheard chatter collide with the text which questions the interests served by our so-called critical art practice based around multicultural issues.

2 video beams, 2 video channels, 2 slide projectors