Shock and Awe — Tour

Shock and Awe – performance at the San Francisco Public Library, 12/14/16

After the release of Shock and Awe, in 2015, a performance and social gathering quickly emerged. Ultimately, between 2015-2017, the Shock and Awe Tour traveled to 100 Universities, Museums, Galleries, and Public Spaces across 14 countries.  

Tour Promo GIF, 2016 – #shockandawebooktour

"The Shock and Awe Tour returns the journal to the people and places depicted, bringing author, subject, and viewer into an exploration of the total meaning of the work. Due to the interdisciplinary nature of the project, the performance of Shock and Awe is equal parts story-telling, show-and-tell, and group discussion.

"Shock and Awe is a performance of first-person authorship rooted in American folk traditions. The project unfolds in real-time, foregrounding the fraught transformation of memory into document, and the affect of trauma on national myth making. Shock and Awe provides a vehicle to revisit the period since 2001 – it is both a primer on recent history, and a call to gather and challenge the re-emergence of fascism across the Western World."

Shock and Awe — performance and gathering, Oslo, Norway, December, 2016. Note: performance amplified with live video.

Shock and Awe Tour Flyer, 2016

#shockandawebooktour —@ethanrafal 

Tour Shirt, 2015

Shock and Awe - editions, prints, and tour ephemera - can be found in 40+ Museum, University, and public collections (see Bookspaces for more info)

A selection of University, Museum, and public engagements in North America and Europe: Carnegie Mellon University, Center for Contemporary Art, Santa Fe, NM, Cleveland Museum of Art, OH, Harvard University, University of Houston, University of New Mexico, Center for Contemporary Art and Culture, Portland, Pacific Northwest College of Art, Printed Matter, Paris Photo, Los Angeles, LAND w/ Rob Pruitt, Los Angeles, Reed College, San Francisco Camerawork, San Francisco Public Library, and the Virginia Commonwealth University. In Europe: Den Frie, Copenhagen, Denmark, ESAD, Amiens, France, COSMOS, Recontres de Arles, France, Polycopies, Paris, SciencesPo, Paris, France, Miss Read, Akademie der Künste, Berlin, K/N-Context, Berlin, Germany, University of Bonn, Germany, Bielefeld University, Germany, Paderborn University, Germany, University of Munster, Germany, Mengi, Reykjavik, Iceland, Kaunas / Lithuania Photographers Association, Kaunas, Lithuania, Vandaler Forening, Oslo, Norway, Atelier Nord, Oslo, Norway, KiT, NTNU, Trondheim, Norway, Linnaeus University, Kalmar and Växjö, Sweden, London College of Communication (UAL), London, UK, University of Central Lancashire, Preston, UK, Coventry University, Coventry, UK, the Whitworth Museum, Manchester, UK, The Univeristy of Oxford, Oxford, UK

Shock and Awe continues to tour via book projects and exhibitions. In 2017: ABBA, Arizona State University, Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts, AWAKE 10x10, Ithaca College, Ithaca New York, Reading Room, Magnum Foundation, NYC, New York,  Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts College of Art & Design, Boston, Massachusetts