Red Hat with Veil
collage
16 x 13 x 8 in.
1996
This piece consists of a framed collage made with single pages taken from two different texts: Bob Woodward’s Veil: The Secret Wars of the CIA and a book of art reproductions. The page from Veil, which has been cut into an oval shape with all the words drilled out, is placed over a reproduction of Antonello da Messina’s “Portrait of a Man” (circa 1475). The page of drilled-out text, which seems to have been poured over the face from underneath the red hat, appears like a burka through which, not a woman’s, but a man’s eyes hopelessly peer out, as if through a prison of broken letters and unrecognizable words.