November 7th – December 20th Blue Star Arts Complex Upstairs Studios
Third Thursday November 20th, 6:30 – 9:00
Studio will be open for the following Blue Star Arts Complex Upstairs Studios events:
Nov 7 at 6:00 pm – 10:00 pm (First Friday)
Nov 20 at 6:30 pm – 9:00 pm (Third Thursday)
Dec 4 at 6:00 pm – 10:00 pm (First Thursday)
Dec 5 at 6:00 pm – 10:00 pm (First Friday)
Dec 18 at 6:00 pm – 10:00 pm (Third Thursday)
The installation will be available for viewing by appointment outside of the above times.
Thank You For Your Service examines the hollow ritual of gratitude that greets many veterans. The work unravels the phrase, which has been smoothed into a polite reflex, and exposes its weight, its awkwardness, and its inability to capture the reality of combat. Through video, sound, and text, the project invites viewers to inhabit the tension between public performance and private memory.
As a combat-disabled veteran, I approach this work not as an outsider but as someone who has stood in the strange silence that follows those words.
Each time they land differently—sometimes as gratitude, sometimes as dismissal, sometimes as a reminder of everything that cannot be spoken. This work does not necessarily seek to resolve that tension but to dwell within it. The work offers alternatives to the phrase.
Through video and sound, the installation creates a space where viewers can sit with discomfort, with memory, and with the thinness of ritualized gratitude.
This exhibit is made possible by the City of San Antonio Department of Arts & Culture Artist Grant