Recent Activity began on January 27, 2017: the day President Trump enacted the Muslim travel ban. Protests immediately erupted at JFK airport and then spread to other airports around the country. Every cell in my body itched to join the fight – I had already marched on Washington and was calling my representatives daily – but I live high in the mountains of North Carolina, two hours from the closest airport. So, I participated in the only way I really could: scrolling through my Facebook news feed, doling out hearts and thumbs-ups to all the people doing the important work of making voices heard. It felt painfully inadequate. In that moment, I realized that – in this new political reality – I could no longer maintain the precarious balance of my life. Increasing my political involvement on top of the roles I already inhabit – artist, educator, mother, wife—rendered me utterly incapable of successfully fulfilling any of them.
Through this work, I am thinking about the false sense of participation, the ineffective activism, the twice-removed relationship to concrete action, and the echo chamber of social media. I am thinking about the power of mere headlines and the density of the news cycle. I am thinking about the personal inadequacies that are inevitably summoned by documentation of others’ activities. I am thinking about the impossibility of doing everything and being everywhere.
Jeana Eve Klein 