‘It is the Americans who today stand as the masters of the art, science, and craft of propaganda.’

- Philip M. Taylor author of Munitions of the Mind.

The contextual and thematic guide for 'The United States of Propaganda' is rooted within political discourse; as well as a desire to employ the parameters of a contemporary archival practice within an expanded documentary exhibit. Within the thematic guide for 'The United States of Propaganda' there are themes related to: hegemony, re-appropriation, performativity, the concept of the spectacle, and the ideological state apparatus all play a key aspect within this body of work. Conceptually, this work is derived from the course of marxist philosophy, namely, Louis Althusser. Who in his groundbreaking work, Ideology and the Ideological State, outlined how our modern-day society is "propped up" by several institutions. One of which happens to be the political state. Which is the focus of this installation; as I have utilised the "archival lens" to hijack the narrative and scrutinise the use propagandistic symbols and images within our modern-day democracies.