"U.S. Customs Demands to Know"

This was the first exhibit I saw at Mass MoCA when we started looking at exhibits.  We climbed the stairs to the second floor, and turned to walk into this room and this scene stopped me in my tracks!  Which is a wonderful thing to happen in a museum.  The artist is Gelare Khoshgozaran, saved all these boxes mailed to him by his mother from Iran.  The packages were often opened and examined by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, because of Public Law 107-210 which allows the search of packages coming into or leaving the U.S. without a warrant.  This feels like an intrusion and the desire of the U.S. Government to maintain control and strength by demanding knowledge, of mementos and personal items from the artist's childhood that he wanted for some of his upcoming projects.  It felt like an invasion of privacy to the artist.

Here is a close up on just one of the boxes.  They are illuminated by LED's inside the corrugated plastic of the boxes.  Many of the boxes had been cut open and then resealed by the authorities.  I cannot explain why the slight of these illuminated packages scattered around the floor moved me as much as it did, but that's why I love experiencing art.