Conspiracy: Faker Sent INN

69.25 X 49.25 inches, colored pencil, and graphite on paper

This drawing maps the cyclical processes by which false information (specifically vast conspiracy theories) is communicated in ways that cause people (sometimes ourselves) to believe they are true, and then to act on these beliefs, further reinforcing their seeming validity—from how we vote in an election, to how a Pizza Gate, Q-anon believer showed up at Comet Ping Pong with a gun.

In this drawing, I explored this phenomenon by first creating a large grid on the paper and numbering each square. I researched various conspiracy theories, both current and historical, mainstream and fringe, and wrote the key descriptive words associated with them on the drawing (from first-hand accounts by participants and early news stories describing their initial surfacings). I then converted these words into numbers using an alphabet code and linked them to a range of symbols, like cartoon explosion sounds and natural disaster warning signs. These cartoon sounds represented moments of epiphany or revelation—like if someone suddenly transforms from skeptic to believer. Around the drawing, I noted the total number of letters in each conspiracy theory and matched them to their corresponding numbers on the grid. I connected these theories on the grid and filled the connecting bands with white, mechanical structures set against flat, black graphite, building a structure resembling a physical body. Between the black bands, I drew human body parts like the spleen, heart, and brain in black and white. This language of conspiracy eventually formed a Frankenstein-like body. Our collective mind built a monstrous physical body.