BLUE COLLAR CIPHER
Steel, DOT Tape, Mud Flap, Aluminum Flashing, Steel Chain, Vinyl, Various Hardware - 2022
Blue Collar Cipher draws its imagery from the Manual Del Combatiente Por la Libertad (The Freedom Fighter's Manual). This was a pamphlet that was air dropped over Nicaragua in 1983 by the CIA that provides several illustrated methods for an average civilian to conduct acts of civil disorder to overthrow the leftist government in Nicaragua at the time. The imagery in the pamphlet acts much like the imagery and messages we regularly see on the American highway. The highway to this day still functions as a strange but prime forum for the exchange of dogmas and opinions. Utilizing billboards, semi trucks, and even DIY signage like wooden crosses, the open road continues to be a battleground of competing American politics. Messages such as “John 3:16”, “<— Passing side /Suicide —>”, “Come and take it”, or “Don’t tread on me” are ciphers understood to have deeper, more sinister meanings.