Tali Keren
The Great Seal
Tali Keren, The Great Seal, 2017, Multimedia installation, variables dimensions, ed.1/3
The Great Seal
Year:
2017
Edition:
1/3 + 2AP
Mediums:
Interactive Installation: teleprompters, custom printed rug, video, microphones, monitors, speakers
Duration:
2min38
Collection:
IL COLLECTION

The Great Seal is and interactive installation exploring the intersection of art, propaganda, religion, and politics. Participants step onto an imagined political stage and assume the role of keynote speaker at the annual summit of Christians United for Israel (CUFI), an organization of millions of American evangelical Christians who consider Jewish rule over the so-called “Holy Land” a precondition for Christ’s second coming. As participants can chose to perform actual speeches delivered by American and Israeli politicians and clergy at CUFI summits, they stand on a rig emblazoned with the Great Seal of the United States proposed by Benjamin Franklyn and Thomas Jefferson, as design that links through settler-colonial myths the United States and Israel. Although the form is playfully employing the conventions of the presidential teleprompter and the karaoke sing-along, it foregrounds the disturbing force of Messianic ethno-national authoritarianism. Participants are confronted with the vulnerability to power and audience manipulation.