Keith M. Francis
“Press Kit”
American Beauty
  • Durational Performance & Site-Specific Installations
  • UNTITLED
  • The Relative Ground
  • Welcome!
  • White Fence
  • Border Nation
  • Greed! (Illuminating Apathy)
  • Exploitation
  • Let’s Vote
  • Kinetic & Repurposed Objects
  • TILT
  • The Weights of Choice
  • Democracy: It’s a Game
  • Bibi’s Gambit
  • The Omniscient Frame
  • The Mute Oracle
  • Greenspace
  • Subtleties of Indoctrination III
  • Enough is Enough
  • Game Over (the only winning move is not to play)
  • Violation
  • When I Grow Up...
  • The Gamble of Governance
  • What If? (Confronting the Abyss)
  • Time?
  • A Cautionary Tale
  • We Reap What We Sow
  • Us and Them
  • Who's Watching Who
  • The New Religion
  • Childhood Cowboys
  • Subtleties of Indoctrination
  • Made in China
  • Caste #2
  • JUCHE
  • Public Art & Civic Monuments
  • The Common Thread
  • #146
  • LoveLocks
  • 2004 Democratic National Convention
  • Glittering Patterns
  • #401
  • White Fence
  • Depletion
  • Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Poster
  • The Firefighters
  • Social Print & Mixed Media
  • Sins of my Forefathers
  • Crimson Legacy
  • Share A Coke
  • The Great Narcissist
  • UForge Gallery Exhibition Poster
  • The Invasion
Art/CV
Exhibitions
NEWS
Press
HYPERALLERGIC
Contact Me!
Keith Francis
Keith M. Francis
“Press Kit”
American Beauty
  • Durational Performance & Site-Specific Installations
  • UNTITLED
  • The Relative Ground
  • Welcome!
  • White Fence
  • Border Nation
  • Greed! (Illuminating Apathy)
  • Exploitation
  • Let’s Vote
  • Kinetic & Repurposed Objects
  • TILT
  • The Weights of Choice
  • Democracy: It’s a Game
  • Bibi’s Gambit
  • The Omniscient Frame
  • The Mute Oracle
  • Greenspace
  • Subtleties of Indoctrination III
  • Enough is Enough
  • Game Over (the only winning move is not to play)
  • Violation
  • When I Grow Up...
  • The Gamble of Governance
  • What If? (Confronting the Abyss)
  • Time?
  • A Cautionary Tale
  • We Reap What We Sow
  • Us and Them
  • Who's Watching Who
  • The New Religion
  • Childhood Cowboys
  • Subtleties of Indoctrination
  • Made in China
  • Caste #2
  • JUCHE
  • Public Art & Civic Monuments
  • The Common Thread
  • #146
  • LoveLocks
  • 2004 Democratic National Convention
  • Glittering Patterns
  • #401
  • White Fence
  • Depletion
  • Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Poster
  • The Firefighters
  • Social Print & Mixed Media
  • Sins of my Forefathers
  • Crimson Legacy
  • Share A Coke
  • The Great Narcissist
  • UForge Gallery Exhibition Poster
  • The Invasion
Art/CV
Exhibitions
NEWS
Press
HYPERALLERGIC
Contact Me!

Let’s Vote

2014, wood, PVC panel and custom electronics, 17 X 17 X 3 in. (each box)

“Let’s Vote,” 2014, by Keith Francis. This mixed-media installation (two 17 x 17 x 3 in. boxes) visualizes the systemic bias of Jim Crow-era literacy tests. The left panel, for "White Applicants," shows a round wooden peg successfully inserted into a round hole, illuminated by a green light. The right panel, for "Colored Applicants," shows a square wooden peg positioned in front of an identical round hole—a mechanical impossibility—illuminated by a red light. The work highlights the arbitrary and insurmountable barriers designed to disenfranchise Black voters. The piece was commissioned for an exhibition at Delaware State University to commemorate the Civil Rights Movement. It uses the "square peg in a round hole" metaphor to demonstrate the nonsensical and discriminatory nature of historical voting tests, such as those that asked Black applicants impossible questions to ensure their failure.
“Let’s Vote,” 2014, by Keith Francis. This mixed-media installation (two 17 x 17 x 3 in. boxes) visualizes the systemic bias of Jim Crow-era literacy tests. The left panel, for "White Applicants," shows a round wooden peg successfully inserted into a round hole, illuminated by a green light. The right panel, for "Colored Applicants," shows a square wooden peg positioned in front of an identical round hole—a mechanical impossibility—illuminated by a red light. The work highlights the arbitrary and insurmountable barriers designed to disenfranchise Black voters. The piece was commissioned for an exhibition at Delaware State University to commemorate the Civil Rights Movement. It uses the "square peg in a round hole" metaphor to demonstrate the nonsensical and discriminatory nature of historical voting tests, such as those that asked Black applicants impossible questions to ensure their failure.
“Let’s Vote,” 2014, by Keith Francis. This mixed-media installation (two 17 x 17 x 3 in. boxes) visualizes the systemic bias of Jim Crow-era literacy tests. The left panel, for "White Applicants," shows a round wooden peg successfully inserted into a round hole, illuminated by a green light. The right panel, for "Colored Applicants," shows a square wooden peg positioned in front of an identical round hole—a mechanical impossibility—illuminated by a red light. The work highlights the arbitrary and insurmountable barriers designed to disenfranchise Black voters. The piece was commissioned for an exhibition at Delaware State University to commemorate the Civil Rights Movement. It uses the "square peg in a round hole" metaphor to demonstrate the nonsensical and discriminatory nature of historical voting tests, such as those that asked Black applicants impossible questions to ensure their failure.

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UNTITLED
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Welcome!
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Border Nation
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The Relative Ground
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Greed! (Illuminating Apathy)
2023, Found object, LED, 25" X 80" X 5".
White Fence
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Exploitation
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