SORRY USAD goes to London! Part 1
SORRY USAD next to the Ronald Reagan statue, Grosvenor Square, London, November 21st, 2025
Background:
After the success of SORRY as staged in Edinburgh and two days in Aberdeen, Scotland this past summer, (the latter events occurring to strategically coincide with Trump’s visit to his golf properties in the North of Scotland) – I wished to expand the project to other locations. My first thoughts were towards taking the project to London in September to be there when Donald Trump was to be hosted by King Charles for a formal dinner. I began researching for locations that might resonate. I was quite excited to discover there is a monument to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in Grosvenor Square, only to learn that the square is currently closed as it is being renovated to reopen next summer of 2026. As things went, September became rather hectic with other matters, in particular prepping work for shipping to the states for a mini-retrospective show of my work at Stanford University in California opening in October. I was unfortunately thwarted in my hopes to get everything together in time to be there for Trump’s visit. The timing was further complicated by events back home, the week prior to Trump’s visit Charlie Kirk was assassinated in Utah –things were quite tense and fraught in the immediate aftermath of this shooting so likely it was just as well. When performing the timing and circumstances are key, you know it when you feel it.
I did however visit London later that September to see my mother-in-law, which afforded me some brief time to explore the city with the thought of where to stage the work in the future if the opportunity were to arise. I visited Grosvenor Square, this is where the former site of the US Embassy is located (it is now a very posh hotel). In visiting I could see the Roosevelt statue under scaffolding (quite bummed as this would have been such an ideal location), but also notice a Ronald Reagan statue which is part of the park but remains publicly accessible at the South East corner of the square, just across from the former Embassy building/hotel. This visit was to prove fortuitous.
It was just before departing for the US for the opening of my Stanford show that I came across a call for projects, artists, and organizations for an event entitled “Fall of Freedom”. This event was open to any creatives across the country to join together in a nationwide two days of creative responses to the rise of authoritarianism, threats to the freedom of expression – a collective response by artists in the USA. I was familiar with some of the organizers, including the amazing Dread Scott. There were no restrictions as to location stated in the CFP - this could be a perfect opportunity to finally realise my goal of staging SORRY in London. I registered on the website upon returning to the UK in late October.
The Fall of Freedom website and the larger project are quite amazing. The site includes an interactive map showing what is now over 700 events, exhibitions, performances, screenings, readings, interventions and other actions, most of which were taking place in the USA. As far as I know, SORRY was the only project registered in the UK.
Planning:
The two weeks of so prior to the event I worked through the complicated logistics of staging the work in London, which did pose some specific challenges. The custom table and the chairs needed to be transported on the train to London (the table, flag and chairs are all essential to the installation/action). I removed the non-foldable legs from the custom-made table built from IKEA spare parts and wood. I replaced these with bespoke legs made from wood poles that could be easily attached and removed for ease of transport and setting up on site. Taking all on the train in a quite bulky makeshift bag of sorts, using a grey packing blanket and some gaffers tape with a wood fashioned handle. In London I bought a foldable hand cart to transport all via the tube to the locations for the performance. All worked flawlessly to transport all to and from the performance.
The Where?
My first thoughts toward performing the work in London as part of the larger “Fall of Freedom” was to go bold, suggesting to perform the work in front of the new US Embassy and Consulate that was formally opened in 2018 on the South Bank of the Thames. I visited the building many times via Google street view prior to traveling to London, (I’d never been there before). It looked as though there were some publicly accessible plaza/park like spaces with concrete benches just adjacent to the facility. On Tuesday, the 18th, I made a pilgrimage to scout out the site. On visiting the US Embassy, it was clear that this would not be a hospitable site to conduct my action. Firstly, it was a bit of a ghost town, very few people wandering about. While the architecture of the embassy building is quite stunning, the surrounding area was quite simply soul-destroying – the kind of planned, mixed use space with very slick and over designed plazas, fountains, ground floor restaurants and looming glass towers. I am assuming this was all private property to boot. As well, the level of security was intense with bunker like guard posts on all corners of the property – I could feel their scrutiny even just walking around the building. It would have been cheeky for sure to set up my un-official, personal diplomatic mission in this space, but in thinking it through – the point of this work is to connect with people, non-Americans preferably, to have discussions, and to express my deep regret at the state of my country and it’s effects upon the rest of the world. I am not doing this to talk to Americans or deal with embassy security, etc. I re-thought my approach to being in London and chose to move the work to a more central and lively area.
Sometimes one’s first thoughts are the best. While Grosvernor Square and the Roosevelt statue was out of bounds, the Ronald Reagan statue intrigued me. The morning prior to visiting the new US Embassy I did an artist’s talk at Goldsmiths University in the Art and Politics MA program. I shared with the students a new talk I had presented while visiting Stanford University in October when I had been invited to talk to the Digital_______ Group. In this talk I showed for the first time some work I did as an undergraduate student just down the road from Stanford at SJSU. In 1984 I was quite active in exploring non-traditional processes in photography. I created my first ever series of works, entitled “Gott Mitt Uns (God With Us)”, which were made by double exposing black and white film shooting from 1980’s era contemporary news magazines and advertising then carefully rolling back the film to randomly shoot images from historical photographs from Nazi Germany. The resulting images are montages made in camera. This being the early days of the Ronald Reagan presidency, and the press breathlessly informing us that “America was back!”, combined with my newfound politicization (thank you San Francisco hard punk scene, the Dead Kennedy’s etc., and my new Norwegian anarchist punk roommate) – the notion to bring together imagery from our contemporary political and consumer realities with that of historical fascism just made sense. The resulting photos are deeply critical of Ronald Reagan and the emerging “American Exceptionalism”. Looking back on this work, at what is happening today, these seemingly radical expressions are scarily prescient.
In sharing these works with the students I had hoped to provide some background to how I came to regard myself as an artist/activist, while also noting how formative this period was for me as an artist and citizen. Having talked about this work early that day, undoubtedly informed my decision to refocus the location for the work to commence at the foot of the Reagan statue (sitting of course to his LEFT).
As such, staging “SORRY USAD” to Ronald Reagan’s left, with a back drop of the former US embassy just made sense. The US Embassy on Grosvenor Square is an iconic building, designed by American architect Eero Saarinen and completed in 1960, which became the site for numerous protests from Vietnam through the Iraq war. Furthermore, it was the Reagan era that largely cemented neo-liberal politics and policies in the US (and the UK through Thatcher). This was the time that laid the foundations for the authoritarian direction the USA has currently embraced (whist being led by yet another famous entertainer).
Debriefing: Sorry - USAD (United States Apologies Desk)
SORRY - USAD (United States Apologies Desk), July 5th, 2025, The Mound, Edinburgh, Scotland
This past weekend I spent two days, July 4th and 5th, conducting a new work here in Edinburgh where I live. It was quite an exhilarating and exhausting experience; I am taking this opportunity to try to get down some initial personal reactions to the work as they remain fresh in my memory. To begin, a brief recap of just what it was I was doing, the following are directly from my media release:
On Friday, July 4th, 2025, American-born, Edinburgh-based artist and activist Joseph DeLappe will perform SORRY, a one-day public art intervention in Edinburgh that sees him setting up the USAD (United States Apologies Desk) to engage passers-by in dialogue and to offer his apologies for many of the USA’s failings, on this, America’s Independence Day. “This is performance as an act of public atonement.” says DeLappe. “On America’s Independence Day, I want to reclaim the act of speaking plainly, and humbly, as an American. How we can move beyond feelings of helplessness and dread while also extending an invitation to consider what creative resistance to the Trump regime can look like. To make an apology as one American citizen – to highlight all the damage the USA is inflicting upon the world, and to show that Trump’s regime and actions are not condoned by this American, and many millions of my fellow citizens.”
How it went:
We extended the engagement for one additional day, Saturday the 5th of July, we had intended to move to other locations in Edinburgh on the 4th, but the increasingly windy and wet conditions on the 4th made doing so impractical. (When I say “we”, I mean myself and my wife, Ellie, who was along for moral support and to help document the event). The 5th was no less windy, in fact dangerously so with 35mph gusts, but we forged ahead regardless. In the end we spent two three-hour sessions on the mornings of the 4th and 5th speaking to approximately 75 passersby, many of whom stopped to sit for a chat, others chose to stand, many walked past, took a look, then would do a double take, usually with a big smile on their face. The conversations generally started with me either asking folks if they would like an apology, waving them over to encourage them to have a seat, or people who just walked up to the table asking about why I was there. I would invite them to sit and talk with me for a while.
I would then explain that I am an American citizen, an immigrant to Scotland, having lived here for near 9 years. I would further say that I, like so many, I have been feeling quite helpless, sad, angry, and hopeless, that there seemed to be nothing I could do from a distance as we watched the USA descend into fascism.
I would then apologise for the embarrassment that is our President and for the chaos that has now wrought over the world.
I would then continue to discuss with each sitter, and many times their friends or family standing alongside, often just simply listening to people, sometimes for 5-10 minutes, as sitters who were equally distressed at what is happening in the world and what has happened to the USA shared with me their concerns and appreciation for what I was trying to do. From tears, to hugs, to smiles, and simply sitting to engage in dialogue – what transpired was truly transformative.
I would further share with people more details of the “why” behind my action, that I wished to share and model the behaviour that I think we need more of to help us break out of our current context of strife and conflict. Talking to each other, connecting with strangers (decidedly NOT online, but in person, face to face, one on one), this was part of what we need to return to. As well, I wanted to not be the ugly American, the arrogant American that believes “we are the GREATEST COUNTRY IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD”, but rather to sit as a humble American and say, “I am sorry” for what has gone so wrong with the United States of American.
Responding to queries:
These are questions that came from one of the posts I made sharing the work online:
Can you describe any of the conversations?
It is difficult to recap them here, I did not record any of the discussions, I think that might have made it more difficult for people to share openly. The discussions ran the gamut from people who would say “you don’t need to apologize, it is not your fault!”, to one guy who said he was a Trump voter but now regrets his vote, to many American tourists who would come stand behind me and say “I should be over here with you!”. There was an older American woman who burst into tears, she was so very upset, I got up and gave her a big hug. I talked with students, fellow immigrants to Scotland, a family from Russia, one from Taiwan, several from Denmark, an amazing group of 30 or so Italian high schoolers on a trip. I have not mentioned that when the discussion was wrapping up, I would ask if they would like a “sorry” greeting card as a memento – folks were generally quite thrilled, I asked their first name and then numbered, signed and dated each one.
Did you have a set script?
No, outside of apologizing and offering a “sorry” card, as with any such public interaction, each started a bit different, some were waved over after they made curious eye contact, some came over after I said loudly either “would you like an apology”, or simply “I’m sorry!”. Each chat started differently, organically, and flowed according to the back and forth.
Anything formal?
The most formal aspect of the work was the setting. Specifically, the flag. I spent a great deal of time and thought to get this right. I could have used stencils and spray paint to make the “sorry”, but I chose, rather to treat this as not only a very loaded symbol, but to treat the flag with respect by attaching finely crafted and carefully sewn on letters, in wool. I bought the flag in NYC on a recent visit this past April, when the idea to do this first came to me. The flag is 100% cotton, “Made in the USA”. The lettering is made from 100% felted wool – to represent through materiality my newfound identity as an immigrant and permanent resident of Scotland. I tried to find a suitable table for the performance but most portable camping tables look and are quite cheap and wobbly. In the end I found an IKEA table at a local second-hand shop, took off the legs, and used some solid wood planking I had in the studio as the basis for the table. I made this to be small and unintimidating, narrow enough to fit perfectly in my bike trailer, and to be just deep enough to be comfortable and intimate for two people to sit and chat. The “sorry” greeting card was as well quite formally considered, using the same design that is on the flag but have a more formal, written apology inside, these further go to some depth (with a touch of humour), to further define just what it is I am sorry for while also pledging to continue to fight against Trump and his fascist ways. Otherwise, it was just me sitting there and explaining myself and doing loads of listening. The amount of listening I did was unexpected aspect of all this – that I somehow created a space where people felt free to unload, one on one, with me how very sad, stressed, and overwhelmed they were about our current state of affairs. It was also unexpected how thankful so many of the people were – they were so appreciative of what I was doing.
What was the nature of the interactions beyond the positive reception?
There were a few groups of what I assumed were American tourists who were Trump supporters who looked at me sideways, ignored my invitation, and walked away shaking their heads, but these were the exception. Quite funny, some very snarky responses online, there is a post on Reddit that someone made, loads of the usual armchair critics weighing in, and on another that someone made in my former city of residence back in the states - Our Town Reno on Facebook.
What did you learn?
Every time I do a public engagement, I seem to remind myself how rewarding it can be, as an artist, to connect with people in the course of making an artwork. I do very much love spending time alone in my studio, isolated with my creativity, exploring ideas, processes, and to simply make things (that hopefully no less communicate with audiences once they are seen complexities of our political realities, etc.). But there is something so very special to connect with strangers in the course of what is a kind of social practice or intervention – the joy, the revelation, the sense that you are providing a rare moment of something genuine in our lives – this is very special.
And will it go on the road later, elsewhere?
I am planning to reprise this work, perhaps it will become an ongoing series of sessions, in Edinburgh and beyond. I have notices that Trump is threatening to visit his golf courses in Scotland sometime soon – I plan to be there and set up my desk. I’m as well very interested in taking this to London, perhaps Paris, (where I’d as well like to find a way to have my sculpture “Liberty Weeps” built either temporarily or permanently). I could see this work happening just about anywhere in the world outside of the USA.
A special thank you to Ellie DeLappe, who was there with me for both days and took all the amazing photographs!
Cheers, Joseph
Solo-exhibition PRZ NYC
Proyectos Raul Zamudio is pleased to present Joseph DeLappe: Tactical Resistance, Requiem for the Fall, a mixed-media, solo exhibition of works-on-paper, prints, photographs, video, sculpture, and AI-based artworks.
In the words of the artist himself: I have been making works that question "American Exceptionalism" for decades. This exhibition examines the seemingly unfettered march towards an authoritarian America - coinciding and perhaps aided by an enthusiastic embrace of a purely technocratic worldview as represented by emerging AI technologies. Tactical Resistance: Requiem for the Fall, features a selection of works engaging themes of religion, politics, AI, war, and remembrance. In these crucial times, how do we, as artists, resist? How do we create works that speak to the all too rapid slide towards authoritarianism in the USA? Featured works include: the AI shallow fake video "The Origins of Totalitarianism: A Reading by Donald Trump"; "Liberty Weeps" 3D print/sculpture; "dead-in-iraq" gaming intervention and memorial; "The Computerized Confessional" AI priest/chatbot; and "The Atone Project: Remembering the Ahmadi's", rubbings taken from the World Trade Center Site Memorial, among others.
Book - INCITE: Digital Art and Activism
Peacock & the worm would like to invite you to the launch of a new peacock & the worm Risograph publication, INCITE: Digital Art & Activism. Join us on Friday 10thNovember, 6 pm at the worm, 11 Castle Street.
Edited by Joseph DeLappe (Abertay University) and Laura Leuzzi (Robert Gordon University), INCITE: Digital Art & Activism is a collaborative artist book featuring creative responses from artists, scholars and activists connected through the Digital Art and Activism Network. Active since 2019, the network aims to investigate the relation between art and activism through new, emerging technologies and media, with an international outlook.
INCITE is available from our website in pre-order; books will be shipped from 11 November 2023.
INCITE: Digital Art and Activism features contributions by B.D. Owens, Donna Holford-Lovell, Elaine Shemilt, Ellie Harrison, Emile Shemilt, Eve Mosher, Gair Dunlop, Giulia Casalini, Hadi Mehrpouya & Duncan Nicoll, Iliyana Nedkova, John Butler, Jon Blackwood, Joseph DeLappe, Laura Leuzzi, Maja Zećo, Malath Abbas, Martin Zeilinger, Moza Almatrooshi, Niya B, Tom De Majo (Biome Collective), Va-Bene Elikem Fiatsi, Zoyander Street.
Thrift Drones in Las Vegas!
Thrift Drones as shown at SUMA in 2022 are headed to local thrift stores in Las Vegas.
Saturday, November 10th, 2023! Artist to Donate 130 Signed Artworks (“Thrift Drones”) to Las Vegas thrift shops.
Instagram: @thriftdrones
Media Artist and Activist Joseph DeLappe is donating over 130 signed artworks to Las Vegas thrift shops in one weekend starting November 10th, 2023. The artworks are from an ongoing series of works entitled, Thrift Drones. Over the past seven years, DeLappe has purchased hundreds of thrift store artworks which he carefully altered with the subtle addition of cut out images of Predator and Reaper drones which are pasted into the images. To date, he has “droned” over 275 found artworks, first in the USA and more recently in the UK where he relocated in 2017. The works reimagine discarded, everyday paintings, prints and photographs as visual reminders of droned skies.
Las Vegas is a hub of drone activity. The Creech and Nellis AFB’s are both major centers of command, control and training for “Unmanned Aerial Vehicles” (UAV’s) or drones. From November 10th to 12th, 2023, over 130 signed and numbered “Thrift Drones” will be strategically donated to thrift stores by volunteers (led by Southern Utah Museum of Art director Jessica Kinsey, where the “Thrift Drones” were shown in DeLappe’s solo exhibition in 2022).
These works have been widely shared using social media, including on a dedicated Instagram account (https://www.instagram.com/thriftdrones/), and on Facebook and Twitter. The larger concept behind the project involves the creation of the works, the sharing of images on social media, showing the works salon style in gallery and museum exhibitions and then, crucially, re-donating the works to second hand shops in proximity to major drone bases in the USA and the UK (Las Vegas Nevada/Creech and Nellis AFB, USA, and Lincolnshire’s RAF Waddington Airbase in the UK, ), thereby tactically infiltrating the artworks back into relevant communities, which will result in both initial, overt and then continued, persistent, impact as this is revealed. DeLappe has engaged in much work with weaponized drones over the years - much of the work seeks to drawing attention to the negative effects of the use of these technologies of remote killing. These works and others bring drones home, if you will, making the invisible visible and immediate.