installation view of Society of 23's Trophy Game Room
Society of 23's Trophy Game Room
2021
Mixed-media installation
Includes the video The Fabulous Society of 23: Episode One
Single-channel video with no audio
1 hour 10 minutes
Lead installer Dig Devine
Documentation photography by Tom Little courtesy of Mattress Factory
Virtual walkthrough by Amy Garbark
Society of 23’s Trophy Game Room is an immersive installation that presents an intimate interior within the ongoing narrative of the Society of 23. This is the room where the brothers come to relax, play games, and bask in their awesomeness. Designed as a hybrid leisure space and reality television set, the room is dense with awards: trophies, plaques, medals, ribbons, crowns, and sashes sit alongside a poker table, beer pong table, bocce court, foosball table, and video game station. Portrait photographs of each “Mr. Society of 23” pageant winner are displayed while hot studio lights reinforce the feeling that the space is camera ready. Created during my residency at the Mattress Factory in Pittsburgh, the installation examines how American identity is often constructed through leisure, competition, and systems of recognition.
Presented within the room is The Fabulous Society of 23: Episode One, a documentary-style reality show recorded within the Trophy Game Room itself. The video plays on a loop without audio; instead, subtitles display the full text of the United States Constitution, creating a deliberate misalignment between bodies and dialogue. Within the installation hangs Great, a large photograph printed on vinyl depicting the brothers celebrating a victory in uniform and posing with a trophy and a red MAGA-style cap altered to read “Society of 23.” Made in response to the January 6 Capitol Riot, the image reflects my interest in how symbols and choreography of spectacle and nationalism circulate and mutate. Throughout Society of 23’s Trophy Game Room, I use excess, repetition, and performance to question what “greatness” looks like, who gets to claim it, and how easily it becomes absurd.
