WE DON'T NEED NO

STINKIN' BADGES

Michael Cardacino

IN THE BEGINNING...

This is where my Sculptural Images began.

Something in the news bothered me

THE BEGINNING

At the time I was reading stories about the Minutemen - civilians who had gone to the southern border to watch for people crossing into the United States and report them to Border Patrol.

Some carried guns and dressed in the cowboy-and-tactical language of a self-appointed border patrol. I remember stories that disturbed me, including accounts surrounding water left in the desert for migrants.

What stayed with me was the image of people taking authority into their own hands. That was what set the work in motion.

THE IMAGE TAKES SHAPE

First came the cowboys

I began with a single blunt outline and changed the faces, turning one figure into a cast of characters. The same body could become threatening, ridiculous, angry, cheerful or cool.

Then I began multiplying them. The drawing was becoming a crowd.

FROM IMAGE TO OBJECT

The cowboys stood up

I arranged the cutout figures together and brought in something that wasn't an image at all: real barbed wire. I ran it through the group to give the installation the feeling of a border fence.

The cowboys were still essentially drawings. But now they had scale. They cast shadows. You could walk around them. The barbed wire was physically there with you.

The image had entered the room.

THE TITLE

Badges?

The title came from The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. The bandits claim to be police. Humphrey Bogart's character asks to see their badges. Gold Hat fires back:

That reversal stuck in my head. Here were my own cowboys, acting with authority they had given themselves. The title brought a little humor into something I found deeply disturbing - gallows humor, perhaps.

"Badges? We don't need no badges! I don't have to show you any stinking badges!"

WE DON'T NEED NO STINKIN' BADGES.

THE WORK ENTERED THE WORLD

Body of Work

The cowboys were shown in several local exhibitions. On the Jitney featured the work in its coverage of the "Body of Work" exhibition at Ashawagh Hall, and even used the cowboy flag on its contents page.

The work had moved from my studio into the public conversation.

I wanted to build a border wall

THE BIGGER IDEA

I went far enough with the idea to make this small aluminum maquette.

I imagined the cowboys made enormous and joined together as a kind of border wall - but a wall people could move through. You could run beneath and around their legs. The barrier would announce itself as a wall and, at the same time, fail at being one.

I considered taking a large version to the actual border and looked for funding. Fabrication, transportation and installation put it beyond my reach. The monumental version remained a proposal.

WE DON'T NEED NO STINKIN' BADGES

The image had entered the room.

This is where my Sculptural Images began.

MICHAEL CARDACINO / INSIDE STORY