Artist: Sam Durant
Title: Ask Us What WE Want 
Medium: Installation (Electric Sign with Vinyl Text)
Size: 62 × 93 1/2 in
Year: 2008
Notes: Edition 2 of 3.

Provenance: Paula Cooper Gallery, New York; Acquired by the present owner from the above in 2008.

Exhibition: Los Angeles, Blum & Poe, Sam Durant, This Is Freedom?, April - May 2009.

Condition: This work is in very good and sound condition overall. All elements are present and stable. The electrical component is in working order. There are scattered surface accretions, including a few small scuffs in the lower left quadrant, visible upon close inspection. There is some very faint surface dust, visible upon close inspection.

About: Sam Durant’s Ask Us What We Want originates in an archival image of an Aboriginal rights demonstration held in Sydney in 1972. Durant’s practice begins with historic photographs of protests and demonstrations, which he meticulously recreates as graphite drawings he calls “index” works. From these images, he isolates individual messages handwritten on protesters’ placards and translates them into monumental illuminated signs.

In this case, viewers are encountering the words “ASK US WHAT WE WANT” exactly as they appeared on a hand-lettered sign carried by an Aboriginal protester in the 1972 demonstration. Durant preserves the irregular, handwritten character of the original lettering while radically changing its context and scale. A temporary cardboard protest sign intended for the street becomes an illuminated commercial-style display, giving the anonymous protester’s words a new permanence and public presence.

The related 2009 graphite drawing, Aborigine Rights Demonstration, Sydney, 1972 (index) (Ask Us What We Want), reveals the historical source of the illuminated work and shows the protester carrying the original placard. Together, the drawing and sign demonstrate Durant’s method of extracting language from the historical record and asking the viewer to reconsider who is speaking, who is being heard, and how political messages change when removed from their original moment and presented as art.