YOSHUA OKÓN

The piece is a re-configuration of Joseph Beuys' 1974 I Like America and America Likes Me. As Beuys used the coyote to symbolize pre-Colonial spirituality on the American Continent, the term "coyote" was originally used by the Aztecs to refer to colonial, wealth-hungry Europeans and later evolved to refer to a man who is hired to "get things done" at a price (i.e. facilitate official paperwork and bureaucratic procedures, take immigrants across borders, etc). Where Beuys lived with a coyote for a week, Okón casts a human "coyote" to play the canine role. Okón stands in for Beuys, and replaces the felt, the shamanic staff and the Wall Street Journal with a synthetic comforter, a police baton and TV Guides.