OBEY Sculpture and Performance

sculpture: steel, copper

performance items: black pen, green Coast Guard logbook, Coast Guard Uniform, desk

Within large government organizations such as the United States Military it is explicit who holds the power, even as recruitment promises personal leadership experiences, decision-making abilities, and the opportunity to speak up “no matter if you are the lowest ranking person on the ship”.  In OBEY, I explore this dichotomy of what was pledged versus what became the reality of working as a female officer within the United States Coast Guard for over seven years. In this piece, I examine hierarchical power structures, gender, and what it means to be a working woman in the government where less than 15% of active-duty service members are women. The Coast Guard is currently conducting surveys (one I participated in) where they are trying to figure out why so many women are leaving. I left. After reporting a rape that I incurred from a member I worked with, I was was catapulted into a different category of employee...one that was a problem that needed to be removed. To go from being one of the highest performing officers of my class and awarded the most competitive positions to receiving a letter of reprimand and being placed in a position lower than my pay-grade was a tumultuous and bitter reckoning with what really lies beneath the noble veneer and philosophy that “we take care of our people”. In my performance, I wore my uniform, donned my mouthpiece, and wrote a set of verses I memorized on my reporting in day in an official Coast Guard Green Logbook. The first verse references the strength of chain links and cautions the listener against being the weakest one. The final verse drives home the foundation of military rules with chilling severity, implying you do not want to be the person who steps out of line. The verse was crafted in 1896, yet the words still echo throughout the passing on of culture and tradition that has not changed...the final word in all capital letters commands to OBEY.