It is an election year and thoughts of politics and patriotism run high. We have seen important debates on immigration, the winding down of one war and the possibility of another, the Occupy Wall Street movement and the ineptness of the Super Committee and professional bipartisan politics. All of this has shown the fallibility and ultimate corruptness of the system and the dominant feelings of fear, cynicism and uncertainty.

In his first solo exhibition at Local Project in Long Island City, Matti Havens will be using a variety of mediums including video, sculpture, and performance to address some of the sentiments and issues of the past year and present. In the end the viewer will ask whether or not the positive outweighs the negative. Will fear, greed, negativity, closed mindedness and an intrusive government cause our great nation to crash? Or will the freedom, acceptance, hard work and ingenuity that this nation was founded upon usher in a new era of prosperity?