Gesture Politics
Artist
Sean Healy
Year2009
Classification
architectural arts
Medium
glass and photography
Dimensions26 x 40 ft. (792.4 x 1219.1 cm)
Credits
Commissioned through the Art in Architecture Program
Fine Arts Collection
U.S. General Services Administration
Fine Arts Collection
U.S. General Services Administration
Location
Houston FBI Facility
Houston, TX
- Sean Healy’s Gesture Politics is a large, multimedia artwork created for the main lobby of the FBI regional headquarters in Houston, Texas. The artwork combines a photographic image of trees and telephone lines with projected films clips of FBI agents enacting gestures of greeting. Healy filmed the clips at a sound stage in Houston. He photographed the trees and telephone lines at the site of the FBI building before its construction. Together, the artwork’s film and photographic components reference the importance of various types of verbal and non-verbal communications that are essential to the complex work of the FBI, which depends on both analytical and intuitive skills.