Over the Edge (2021) A series of mixed-media works by King influenced by his role as an educator for the past twenty-five years and how his work duties and responsibilities have changed while teaching in America during the era of school violence. The pieces are constructed from shattered clay shotgun targets mounted on wood panel and painted with neon acrylic and chalkboard paint.
Shattered (2020) A series of three etchings created by shooting a 10mm bullet through safety glass. The glass is then inked and printed in a limited edition of five sets.
In the Spring of 1993, while teaching at a small suburban high school in Massachusetts, one of King's students murdered another boy in the history class down the hall, a tragic event that killed one 15-year-old boy and sent two other juveniles to prison. King states,
" I was very young at the time, barely out of college, when the killing happened. As I've moved around the country, there's been numerous tragedies in my career as a public educator, but this was the first for me. These events seem to happen more frequently now more than ever, causing me to consider my own relationship to this role as an educator as content for new work, starting with these three prints to represent the three boys whose lives were violently shattered when I began my teaching career."
" I was very young at the time, barely out of college, when the killing happened. As I've moved around the country, there's been numerous tragedies in my career as a public educator, but this was the first for me. These events seem to happen more frequently now more than ever, causing me to consider my own relationship to this role as an educator as content for new work, starting with these three prints to represent the three boys whose lives were violently shattered when I began my teaching career."
The Drifters Pyramid (2019)
The Pyramid is constructed of gold foil emergency blankets, wood, acrylic paint, nylon cord, zip ties, neon duct tape, steel bucket, gravel, PVC pipe, adhesive hooks, photocopies of ink drawings on colored paper.
The Drifters Pyramid (2019)
The Pyramid is constructed of gold foil emergency blankets, wood, acrylic paint, nylon cord, zip ties, neon duct tape, steel bucket, gravel, PVC pipe, adhesive hooks, photocopies of ink drawings on colored paper.
The Drifters Pyramid was inspired when Chris King discovered a newspaper report outlining the financial benefits rural prisons receive by housing illegal immigrants over convicted criminals, including the prison in the town where King lives and works. The Department of Homeland Security recently announced that they've opened eight new prison facilities, seven of which are located in Louisiana. Many rural areas with limited opportunities view these prisons as job engines. Louisiana pays local sheriffs $24.39 per day to house those convicted of a crime. By comparison ICE pays $126.52 to house an immigrant detainee, which is five times as much. Rural communities such as these see this as a mounting concern for those who advocate on behalf of immigrants, because detainees in rural areas are facing higher barriers to obtaining a lawyer, are more likely to have their asylum cases denied, and more likely to be deported to their home countries. According to a 2019 NPR Analysis, of the over 55,000 immigrants currently detained, more than 52% are imprisoned in these remote rural prisons, with little or no resources, legal representation, or access to family. King states, "I wanted the piece to resemble a mobile shelter, containing a series of drawings showing vague survival instructions and unclear plans of escape. I also see the 'pyramid' as a temporary monument or marker for those immigrants who are imprisoned just over mile a from my studio in Louisiana."