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About Maren

Baltimore City

As the concealed artifacts behind historical conspiracies become public information, Maren Henson reexamines the role of conspiracy and how it has shaped American history and culture. These videos, drawings, and sound installations examine how cultural narratives are manipulated and controlled. She received her Master of Fine Art degree in the Mount Royal School of Multidisciplinary Art at the Maryland Institute College of Art in 2017. Maren is a Janet and Walter Sondheim Prize… more

View Maren's Resume
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Doomsday For The Birds

This video is a collection of footage taken from a mock neighborhood called “Doom Town". Portions of a second mock town, called “Survival Town,” was subjected to the Apple-2 test from Operation Teapot in 1955. These nuclear tests were vital to the propaganda machine that helped escalate & expand America's military industrial complex. An audio clip of the first director of the CIA, Allen Dulles, tries to justify the CIA's existence & its dynastic plans. This domination, under his command created the modern American political system we see throughout the world today.

  • Doom Town For The Birds

    This video is collaged footage from atomic bomb testing in Nevada along with Audio of the first CIA Director, Allen Dulles, discussing the CIA, the Cold War, and the Vietnam War. Intermixed with this audio is a clip of a mockingbird chirping, referencing operation mockingbird.

  • Doom Town For The Birds

    • Mr. CIA, I Have Havana Syndrome.

    Several CIA agents claimed that they were attacked by radio waves and pitches while in Havana. The sound in this video is what heard in their heads apparently drove many of them to illness like that of a hangover.

    • Mr. CIA, I Have Havana Syndrome.
    •

    Grassy Knoll, Full Installation

    This installation is a recreation of the grassy knoll by which President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963. The drawing is of a portion of the wooden fence that is to be believed where the gunman was standing. The surrounding images in the drawing are of or closes ups of nuclear bombs colliding on themselves with the vague architecture of Dealey Plaza,the structure located next to the Grassy Knoll, containing the fence and the bomb throughout the middle of the drawing, this structure gives the fence a home while it deteriorates. 
    • Grassy Knoll
      Grassy Knoll

    • Grassy Knoll

    This installation is a recreation of the grassy knoll by which President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963. The drawing is of a portion of the wooden fence that is to be believed where the gunman was standing. The surrounding images in the drawing are of or closes ups of nuclear bombs colliding on themselves with the vague architecture of Dealey Plaza,the structure located next to the Grassy Knoll, containing the fence and the bomb throughout the middle of the drawing, this structure gives the fence a home while it deteriorates. 
    • Grassy Knoll
      Grassy Knoll

    • Project We believe

    This video is of a photo of the first "Unidentified Flying Object" in 1947. The sound is from an interview with the pilot that took the photo, manipulated through programming to create a chance of light and dark noise and speech. Based on research about Project Blue Book, the study of unidentified flying objects by the Air Force. Project Blue Book had two goals, to determine if UFOs were a threat to national security, and analyze UFO-related data. Taking that uncertainty in to play, the video was coded through processing and left up to the code to determine the end outcome of both the audio and visual elements in the code.
    • Project We Believe
    •

    Labor Unstable, Value Unstable

    This video is an exercise in the understanding of labor. This video engages both seeing and hearing at the same time. This video is a labor of vision, and the audio is a labor of hearing.

    • Labor Unstable, Value Unstable
    •

    In Solidarity

    ‘In Solidarity’ focuses on my father’s career as an aircraft mechanic and the broad implications that can be drawn from one worker’s experience with layoffs, corporate and political intimidation, and strikes.

    • In Solidarity
      In Solidarity
    •

    Letter To An Engine

    This drawing uses language from a letter to my father and other aircraft mechanics before they went on strike. This letter is from the President of Continental Airlines in the 1980’s using intimidation to con the workers to not go on strike.

    • Letter To An Engine
      Letter To An Engine
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    Letter To A 737

    This drawing uses language from a letter to my father and other aircraft mechanics before they went on strike against an image of a 737 aircraft. This letter is from the President of Continental Airlines in the 1980’s using intimidation and familial manipulation to con the workers to not go on strike.

    • Letter To A 737
      Letter To A 737
    •

    Union Busting

    This piece uses language expplaining the various laws that allow for a federal employer to fire and replace workers that are on strike that became law and famous during the Patco Strikes in the 1980’s under President Reagan.

    • Union Busting
      Union Busting