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.