"He’s too close."
Thomas Faulkner
mixed media
40" x 60" x 14"
2001

In April 2001 a U.S. spy plane on a regularly scheduled espionage mission collided with a Chinese fighter jet over China. The U.S. plane made an emergency landing on Chinese soil; the Chinese plane crashed, killing the pilot. A video taken in January 2001 shows the same Chinese jet pilot buzzing and bumping another U.S. spy plane.

I wonder what any of the airmen in this incident knew about the early history of Chinese immigrants in America, including riots against Chinese railroad workers, housing discrimination, and insulting caricatures. I therefore juxtaposed a metal framed photograph of the jet in back of four packages of brown paper and white twine wrapped laundry resting on a metal shelf divided by old, pre-electrified irons.

The title of the piece is a comment made by one of the U.S. flyers regarding the jet. It seems to be a metaphor for the positioning of the New China in relationship to America. So many of the current conflicts, deadly as they often are, which are brought to light by the media between peoples, nations and religions, have dark histories which serve us best if they are remembered.