Wood and Acrylic Latex Paint, dimensions variable, 2008 and 2017.
The two sculptures comprising Transition of Power (From Hope to Highrise Demagogy) are extruded favicons for political campaigns. A favicon (“favorite icon”) is a 16-pixel by 16-pixel logo that appears alongside the URL or inside the tab in most browsers. Here, a block of wood represents each pixel of the favicon, with the height of that block determined by the pixel’s color’s luminance (perceived brightness). The darker the color of the pixel, the taller the block of wood. The piece is made up of two sculptures: one is the favicon for the Obama campaign in 2008 while the other is for the Trump campaign in 2016. The Obama favicon was built in 2008 as part of Building a Better America (Two Plans).