GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT
performance still
Instinct Gallery, Mpls, MN

The multi-media project, Universal Capital, examines and re-maps the propaganda, symbology, and territories of socio-economic cosmologies. It detourns the 17th century archive, the Harmonia Macrocosmica, which depicts the birth of capitalism with an island in the center of the world marked (Dutch East India) “company land”. Employing photojournalism, collage, and drawing, cartography’s overview is met with under-views of demonstrations, and alternative charts. From Wall Street to the Capitol, performances circulate the prints with spoken texts that challenge official histories. In installations, sculpture, sound-scores, and videos telescope between local economics and global power-structures. These employ materials sourced from their surroundings, plus portraits, interviews, and audience participation. Universal Capital’s immersive cosmologies exorcise the past against a language of shared production.

Gross Domestic Product
archival ink and paper, 2015-2018
20” x 24”, edition of 5
48" x 40", edition of 3

Gross Domestic Product (detail)

HD Video, 15"
5.16.2015
Instinct Gallery/Public Performance
Mpls, MN
performers: John Hauser, Megan Mayer, Sarah and Jesse Petersen, Sean Smuda, John Vance

“U”, HD video, 21’54”, 2020 (1” excerpt)

Potlatch
archival ink and paper, 2017
20” x 24”, edition of 5
48" x 40", edition of 3

Potlatch (detail)

Potlatch was performed on Presidents Day 2017 as part of Holly Hughes' nation wide event Not My Presidents Day via the Minneapolis chapter This Machine.

Common Ground
2018
mixed medium 9’ x 3’ x 2’
(destroyed in fire)

Deep State
archival pigment print, 2017
24" x 28" edition of five
48" x 40" edition of three

Deep State (detail)

w/ Rose Hauser
9.24.2017
HD video, 9’46”

Common Ground, 2018 (link to audio)
2018
mixed medium, 12’ x 6 x 5’
(destroyed in fire)

Commodity Fetish
archival ink and paper 2018
20” x 24”, edition of 5
48" x 40", edition of 3

Commodity Fetish (detail)

GPS is based on a dream about Stephen Hawking and re-writing the EU Constitution. It embodies interactions between analog and digital, individual and State. Differences between them are and their averaging determine and control consumer and political behavior.

HD Video, 12'36"
2.3.2014
Ritz Theater, Monday Live Arts
Mpls, MN
performer: Sean Smuda

Common Ground
2018
mixed medium, 9’ x 6 x 2’
(destroyed in fire)

Austerity
archival ink and paper, 2014-2015
20” x 24”, edition of 5
48" x 40", edition of 3

HD Video, 7'
3.10.2015
Cowles Center, Future Interstates series
Mpls, MN
performer: Sean Smuda

Austerity (detail)

Universal Capital
archival ink and paper, 2012 - 2015
24" x 13 1/2" edition of 5
48" x 27", edition of 3

HD video, 3'44"
11.9.2015
public performance, NY, NY
performer: Sean Smuda

Universal Capital (detail)

Target Classes
archival ink and paper, 2012-2019
20” x 24”, edition of 5
48" x 40", edition of 3

HD Video, 5'
10.30.2014
TuckUnder Projects
Mpls, MN
performer: Sean Smuda
participants: Aki Shiabata, Nate Young, Sheila Dickinson, Nick Vlcek

Target Classes (detail)
 

False Flags (2025 –  ) collapses and blends symbols and signs to re-write nationalist global narrative and resist its oppressions.

False Flags (2025 –  ) collapses and blends symbols and signs to re-write nationalist global narrative and resist its oppressions.

False Flags (2025 –  ) collapses and blends symbols and signs to re-write nationalist global narrative and resist its oppressions.

False Flags (2025 –  ) collapses and blends symbols and signs to re-write nationalist global narrative and resist its oppressions.

False Flags (2025 –  ) collapses and blends symbols and signs to re-write nationalist global narrative and resist its oppressions.

False Flags (2025 –  ) collapses and blends symbols and signs to re-write nationalist global narrative and resist its oppressions.

Bundeskraft
135 x 90 cm
acrylic on felt
2024

Symbiotic Systems

My painting, performance, and interventions are attempts to examine the inequities of organic and manufactured environments and my complicit role in their function. I am fascinated by the mutable and symbiotic systems of body, nature, and technology, which I represent through imagery such as morphing cells and circuits. These forms exist between the mechanical and organic, performing and re-writing symbolic orders as they blur the boundaries between natural and constructed systems.

At the core of this work is the idea of navigating the labyrinth—finding ways of sensing a greater whole and growing within it while following a singular path. This concept extends to how cities develop, shaped by the interplay between nature and technology. In Dakar, this starts with the Baobab tree and the Pèc that surrounds it –a center of social, spiritual, and commercial activity. In Berlin, like most contemporary cities, this has been replaced by a decentralized grid, arranged primarily for efficiency and individual autonomy. These contrasting urban logics reveal different relationships between community, environment, and infrastructure.

My process engages these differences materially and publicly. Paintings are dragged through the streets of both cities, accumulating the dust, dirt, and traces of each environment. They are washed in local waters—the Atlantic in Dakar, the lakes in Berlin. Hung in public, the works provoke conversations with passersby, breaking down the barriers between art and everyday life. Through these actions, the paintings accrue material and history, becoming documents of the cities themselves while questioning how society functions with and against nature.

Exploded View
132 × 84 cm
acrylic on felt
2024

Dakar, SN, 2024

Exploded View (still from video)

Escape Velocity
acrylic on felt
135 x 90 cm
2024

painting interviews, Berlin

DAKAR
130 x 84 cm
sand, dirt, acrylic, salt on felt
2024

Architecture, Immateriality, Painting WIP in convo, Dakar, May 2024

Dakar in Mpls

Mbeubeuss OBE
acrylic and sand on felt
84 × 130 cm
2023 - 2024

Performance Chez-Toi Design, Partcours 12, Dakar, Senegal
December 8, 2023

Babacar’s Cart

In Senegal, the Pec is a communal, sacred space that grows around the Baobab tree. The increasing rarity of this in the city is discussed with art as a possible integration of technology and nature to create a similar space. Nov, 2023

Floating World
130 × 84 cm
Acrylic on Felt, 2025

Floating World
(detail)

Gottlieb
acrylic on felt
135 × 90 cm
2024

Gottlieb in situ

Cyclonopedia
mixed media on felt
130 x 84 cm
2023

Cyclonopedia performance still

Cyclonopedia in situ

Algorithm
acrylic on felt
130 x 84 cm
2024

Patti Smith Trauma
acrylic, sand, tobacco on felt
120 x 84 cm
2023

Wild Patch (Patti Smith Dream 1)
acrylic, sand, tobacco on felt
120 x 84 cm
2023

Badge
acrylic and scoring on felt
193 x 128 cm
2024

Badge (detail)

DARPA Auto Tune
acrylic on felt
130 x 84 cm
2023

Through the World
acrylic on felt
130 x 84 cm
2022 - 2023

Heart Motor (Merceds-366-A)
acrylic and marker on felt
135 x 84 cm
2022

Power Window
acrylic on felt
130 x 84 cm
2022

Factory Forest
mixed media on felt
135 x 84 cm
2022

Whale Citroen DL
acrylic and marker on felt
135 x 84 cm
2022

Firebird Mercedes Dakar
mixed media on felt
135 x 84 cm
2022

Bucket Seat AC
acrylic and marker on felt
135 x 84 cm
2022

Delorean Reactor
acrylic on felt
130 x 84 cm
2022

Himmelfahrt
mixed media on DDR table pad
138 x 84 cm
2021

The Berlin Coronnale is a map of the psycho-spatial effects of the COVID isolation, where one could go in public and what possible directions and interactions this new world held. For the first forty days of lockdown in Berlin, a daily performance video was made with improvised songs and movement as though Life depended on it.

GPS, HD video, 2’09”, 2019

Universal Capital (performance excerpts)
HD video, 2’52”
2017

Jazz Funeral for my home lost in a fire, May 27, 2018.

Mar 22, 2016

Improvisation at Treignac Project, FR, 2018

Blueprints are future memory machines, transports, events, apparitions that bridge environment with spiritual and political response to it. Sublime, entropic relationships of use-value and natural production. They are a summation of all I knew and didn’t know about the world: clichés, dreams, family stories, all went into the poems that entitle each piece and are embedded in them. From Esperanto to Ojibwe, seventeen languages in all; the process of translation informs the imagery after the fact.

archival pigment prints on aluminum, 2007 - 2011

번호 크 런칭으로 하늘을 청소하면 바다가 피 (한국) 보관 안료 및 아크릴을 태우는 동안 은퇴 운동이 중단되고 2010 년

Cleaning up Heaven with number crunching
holds retirement exercises at a standstill
while the ocean burns blood
(Korean)
2010

archival pigment print

الفجر، الأنى الأدنى يعيد تشكيل هندسة مستقبل في الحاجة إليه.مؤامرة تبادل الحرف بين العصابات قاسية ضد مسيرات الحب 2011

Phosphorous signatures, fusion centers, investigative protestors
At the global market stray bullets are recycled for geometry-of-need futures Where conspiracy gangsters exchange blunts against love vigils
(Arabic)
2011

archival pigment print

Die afkoeling matrix flappe dit vlerke in alle rigtings soos die kringloop stad skrape 'n moeder-of-god nietig in 'n tuin van diere byt sterte, 2010

The cooling matrix flaps its wings in all directions as
the recycling city scratches the void from
yards of animals biting tails
(Afrikaans)
2010

archival pigment print

Droimneach bolláin ar bharr ríochas teagasc na páistí déan i ciorcal, 2010

Rolling boulders on royalty
teaches children to sing and dance
in a constant loop
(Gaelic)
2010

archival pigment print

Ragazza blu, lasciare il fiume congelate e sposare mi, presa mi dalle sorgenti alla bocca, io sono tuo perché non teatro può tenere (per SR), 2010

Sad girl, leave the frozen river and marry me
Take me from the headwaters to the mouth,
I am yours because no theater can hold us
(Italian)
2010

archival pigment print

Wayaabishkiiwed akwaandawebizo ajidin aapijishin, 2010

White Man goes up fast
Holds it upside down
Falls hard
(Objibwe)
2010

archival pigment print

Glimt og hjertet eksploderer, polarisere til ukjente kart, det sperrer inne hjernen, 2009

Blink and the heart explodes
Polarized to maps
That erase the past
(Norwegian)
2009

archival pigment print

壊滅させられた自己が制御と名声を入れます、それが落ちる（とき・から・につれて・ように）それが再びそれ自身に会うまで、世界がエッジにおいて汚れます 2009

Obliterated self lets in control and fame
As it falls, the world blurs at the edges
Until it meets itself again
(Japanese)
2009

archival pigment print

Obrazy i zaniku traci sens, tylko ruch kamery posiada odsetek, w samym centrum burzy, 2008

Images fade and lose meaning
Only camera movement holds attention
In the center of the storm
(Polish)
2008

archival pigment print

Существует орган в местах, угнетению угнетателей, постепенно растет во всем мире, смеется, ясли, 2008

There is a body in the ground
Oppressing the oppressors
Slowly rising everywhere
Laughing in a crib
(Russian)
2008

archival pigment print

Lub sij hawm dau los lawm zuiz, los lus yuav tsum loov mus, qhib lub tawb tsau dab, taug tus dej ntawm peb ibsab, 2008

Recycling words buys time
to open cages for ghosts
to walk the river beside us
(Hmong)
2008

archival pigment print

Mi coche, su coche, mi identidad, su indetidad, en Berlin, Tokio, Nuevo Yorque, Londres, evolución ya basta, y mas, ya basta, ya mas..., 2008

My car, your car, my identity, your identity,
In New York, London, Paris, Mexico City, Tokyo
Evolution, no more, and more, no more, and more…
(Spanish)
2008

archival pigment print

Wirt deinen Kopf an die Sonne, zum den Friedhofsgarten zü befruchten, in der Stadt in der du stehst, 2007

Throw your head at the sun
To fertilize the graveyard garden
In the city where you stand
(German)
2008

archival pigment print

Sky bivouac
Hubris tour
Drop ceiling
(English)
2007

archival pigment print

J’ai gonflé mes amis avec des biscuits de beurre des cachouètes remplis d’hélium pour voir le monde, 2007

I inflated my friends with helium filled peanut butter cookies to see the world (French)
2007

archival pigment print

Butterfly wheel
Soaring heart
No pollution
(Chinese)
2007

archival pigment print

portfolio, archival pigment on aluminum, 13" x 19", edition of twenty, 2011, collection of the Walker Art Center

portfolio, archival pigment on aluminum, 13" x 19", edition of twenty, 2011, collection of the Walker Art Center

portfolio, archival pigment on aluminum, 13" x 19", edition of twenty, 2011, collection of the Walker Art Center

portfolio, archival pigment on aluminum, 13" x 19", edition of twenty, 2011, collection of the Walker Art Center

portfolio, archival pigment on aluminum, 13" x 19", edition of twenty, 2011, collection of the Walker Art Center

Clockwork Harmony,
Origin and end myths, possession, sacrifice, feeling,
Bugout or go to jail
(Esperanto)
2016

Clockwork Harmonio,
Origino kaj fino mitoj, posedo, bucxoferon emocio,
Bugout aŭ iri al malliberejo

Fatin Al Jumaily displays Blown Derivatives in Karbala, Iraq
photograph by Luke Wilcox of the Iraqi American Reconciliation Project, 2011

Papers that blew out of the World Trade Center during 9/11 were collaged with Blueprints as the basis for this international collaborative project. Blown Derivatives examines conditions and national identities ten years after the WTC events. Participants were invited to create pieces based on the project’s scattering of ashes and destinations. Ephemeral exhibitions were sent to: Antarctica, Iceland, China, Tibet, Iraq, and Pakistan, to hang outside until they disintegrated.

Seth Dauphin installs Blown Derivatives outside of McMurdo Base, Antarctica, 2009

Blown Derivatives, Pakistan macquette, 2012
(sent but not displayed)

Blown Derivatives in Karbala, Iraq
photograph by Fatin Al Jumaily, 2011

Blown Derivatives in Karbala, Iraq
photograph by Fatin Al Jumaily, 2011

Blown Derivatives in Karbala, Iraq
photograph by Fatin Al Jumaily, 2011

Blown Derivatives in Karbala, Iraq
photograph by Fatin Al Jumaily, 2011

Blown Derivatives in Karbala, Iraq
photograph by Luke Wilcox, 2011

Blown Derivatives outside of McMurdo Base, Antarctica, 2009

Blown Derivatives outside of McMurdo Base, Antarctica, 2009

Blown Derivatives outside of McMurdo Base, Antarctica, 2009

Participating artists L to R:
Sean Smuda, Daniel Kaniess, Janet Lobberecht, James Gladman, Abraham Renko 

James Gladman, Blown Derivative for Antarctica
mixed media, 8 1/2" x 11", 2009

Daniel Kaniess, Blown Derivative for Antarctica
mixed media, 8 1/2" x 11", 2009

Janet Lobberecht, Blown Derivative for Antarctica
11" x 17", embroidery, 2009

Abraham Renko, Blown Derivative for Antarctica
mixed media, 8 1/2" x 11", 2009

Sean Smuda, Blown Derivative for Antarctica
mixed media, 8 1/2" x 11", 2009

Anna-Marie Shögren installs Blown Derivatives in Skagaströnd, Iceland, 2010

Blown Derivatives
Skagaströnd, Iceland, 2010

Blown Derivatives
Skagaströnd, Iceland, 2010

James Gladman, Blown Derivative for Iceland
injket on paper, 8 1/2" x 11", 2010

James Gladman, Blown Derivative for Iceland (two sided)
injket on paper, 8 1/2" x 11", 2010

Daniel Kaniess, Blown Derivative for Iceland
mixed media, 8 1/2" x 11", 2010

Janet Lobberecht, Blown Derivative for Iceland
embrodery, 8 1/2" x 11", 2010

Abraham Renko, Blown Derivative for Iceland (the Tinkerbell effect)
mixed media, 8 1/2" x 17", 2010

Sean Smuda, Blown Derivative for Iceland
mixed media, 8 1/2" x 11", 2010

Blown Derivatives at mouth of Yangtze River, China
photograph by Ping Wang, 2010

Blown Derivatives at mouth of Yangtze River, China
photograph by Ping Wang, 2010

Blown Derivatives at mouth of Yangtze River, China
photograph by Ping Wang, 2010

Margaret Coughlin, Blown Derivative for TIbet
mixed media, 8 1/2" x 11", 2010

Jonathan Field, Blown Derivative for Tibet
plastic, 8 1/2" x 11", 2010

James Gladman, Blown Derivative for China and TIbet
inkjet on canvas, 11" x 10", 2010

Daniel Kaniess, Blown Derivative for China and Tibet
mixed media, 8 1/2" x 11", 2010

Abraham Renko, Blown Derivative for China and TIbet
cloth, 7" x 14", 2010

Sean Smuda, Blown Derivative for China and Tibet
mixed media on silk, 8 1/2" x 11", 2010

Ping Wang, Blown Derivative for China and Tibet
inkjet print on silk, 11" x 14", 2010

Blown Derivatives on Sela Mountain, TIbet
photograph by Ping Wang, 2010

Blown Derivatives on Sela Mountain, TIbet
photograph by Ping Wang, 2010

Blown Derivatives on Sela Mountain, TIbet
photograph by Ping Wang, 2010

Jame Gladman, Blown Derivative for Iraq
mixed media, 8 1/2" x 11", 2011

Jame Gladman, Blown Derivative for Iraq
mixed media, 8 1/2" x 11", 2011

Daniel Kaniess, Blown Derivative for Iraq
mixed media, 8 1/2" x 11", 2011

Janet Lobberecht, Blown Derivative for Iraq
mixed media, 81/2" x 11", 2011

Sean Smuda, Blown Derivative for Iraq
mixed media, 8 1/2" x 11", 2011

Ping Wang, Blown Derivative for Iraq
inkjet on silk, 11" x 16", 2011

Sanjin Cosabic, Blown Derivative for Pakistan
inkjet on canvas, 11" x 14", 2012

Daniel Kaniess, Blown Derivative for Pakistan
mixed media, 11" x 14", 2012

Daniel Kaniess, Blown Derivative for Pakistan
mixed media, 11" x 14", 2012

Abraham Renko, Blown Derivative for Pakistan
cloth, ink, 8 1/2"x 11", 2012

Sean Smuda, Blown Derivative for Pakistan
mixed media on silk, 8 1/2" x 11", 2012

Blown Derivatives
Fastnet Rock installation, 2014
mixed media, dimensions variable

Fastnet Rock
Installation at the Soap Factory, 2014
mixed media, dimensions variable

U (excerpts)
HD video, 20’, 2020

Part of U were shown at the Kurt Mühlenhaupt Museum Video Festival, Sept 26, 2020

23 North
HD video, 7’56”
2021
A dream that splits the world in two, balances it on a still point, then topples it. Memories of T.S. Eliot's WW2 poems are exhumed, illuminated by locomotive flashes. As the story unfolds, viewer and scene are merged.

The film has been shown in 2022 as part of Filmriss in Frankfurt (Oder) and the Verwalterhaus, Berlin

Installation and performance near Facebook HQ, Luleå, Sweden
2021
HD video, 1’23”

Invisible links drawn between environment and body

IN MEXICO, COLORS NEVER DIE!
Super-8 Transfer, 15’, 1995

Made driving to Chiapas, Mexico from Minneapolis, Minnesota to report on the Zapatista Guerillas. Calculating the number of miles to frames in rolls of Super-8 film, a frame a mile was shot on two cartridges, approximately 6,000 frames. It was then projected back at the slowest mechanical speed the Eiko-8 would allow.

Hi-8 Video, 15’, 1995

PolyglotYrCrack? is based on an automatic writing interpreted as a series of exchange rituals that include money, sex, and work, and are mediated by speaking in tongues.

Super-8 Transfer, Hi-8 Video
15’, 1994

Super-8 film, Hi-8 Video, 1995, 20’
The Furthur Raves started when Drop Bass Network brought Aphex Twin to a farmfield in Wisconsin

HD Video
1’37”, 2022

2.24.22
mixed media
110 x 32 x 20 cm
2022

2.24.22 (detail)
mixed media
110 x 32 x 20 cm
2022

2.24.22 (detail)
mixed media
110 x 32 x 20 cm
2022

Sephiroth
60 x 61 x 16 cm
mixed media
2022

Sephiroth (detail)
60 x 61 x 16 cm
mixed media
2022

MAN Turm
268 x 50 x30 cm
mixed media
2021 - 2022

MAN Turm (detail)
268 x 50 x30 cm
mixed media
2021 - 2022

MAN Turm (detail)
268 x 50 x30 cm
mixed media
2021 - 2022

MAN Turm (detail)
268 x 50 x30 cm
mixed media
2021 - 2022

MAN Turm (detail)
268 x 50 x30 cm
mixed media
2021 - 2022

DEATH OF THE ROCKER, Purple Haze Mix
(w/1’ audio)
65 x 65 x 17 cm
2021

Stange
160 x 40 x 18
mixed media
2022

Ziegenbeine
40 x 30 x 7 cm
2020

Forest
silver gelatin print, 1995

Industrial is automatic writings that determines the story as it falls. Set in vast labyrinths and grounded renewal, the body finds its parallel in warm resistance and ingrained instructions.

Descent

silver gelatin print, 1997

Whirlpool

silver gelatin print, 1996

Spiral

silver gelatin print, 1997

Tunnel

silver gelatin print, 1997

Wing

silver gelatin print, 1997

May Day

silver gelatin print, 1997

Vortex

silver gelatin print, 1995

Gutz

silver gelatin print, 1997

Snake

silver gelatin print, 1997

Floor

silver gelatin print, 1996

Pyre

silver gelatin print, 1995

Time

silver gelatin print, 1997

Factory

silver gelatin print, 1995

Larynx

silver gelatin print, 1997

Brain

silver gelatin print, 1997

Chest

silver gelatin print, 1997

Crown

silver gelatin print, 1997

Sex

silver gelatin print, 1997

Capitol

silver gelatin print, 1997

Government

silver gelatin print, 1997

Body

sepia-toned silver gelatin prints, 1998

Path

silver gelatin print, 1998

archival pigment print, 2004

Dreams and Allegories are made with a 4x5 camera on film. Like dreams they are arrangements between the symbolic and social orders and implicate the viewer as part of their narrative.

archival pigment print, 2004

archival pigment print, 2004

archival pigment print, 2004

archival pigment print, 2004

archival pigment print, 2004

archival pigment print, 2004

archival pigment print, 2006

archival pigment print, 2006

archival pigment print, 2006

archival pigment print, 2007

Camille LeFevre Decoding-Dreams and Allegories