The title of Accoutrorama is a portmanteau of accoutrement and diorama, and the work examines the racial violence at the heart of the Capitol Insurrection on January 6, 2021 by looking at the role that architecture and, more broadly, the politics of space played in the events that unfolded that day. Within the larger biennial theme, Accoutrorama frames the concept of rehearsal within the discourse of  racial violence in America, in which each time racial violence erupts— from the Chicago riots of 1919 to the Capitol Insurrection in 2021— it is treated as a singular instance, an exception. But racial violence in America is pervasive, and the Capitol Insurrection is merely one of the most recent and spectacular instances of its sustained eruptions.  

In the aftermath of the insurrection, the various objects, artifacts, and accoutrements that were recovered will be a part of the future historical narrative. Will these objects be presented as evidence during the House Select Hearings and the trials of the over one thousand people arrested and charged with everything from assault to obstruction of an official proceeding? Will they be accessioned into the collection of the Smithsonian Museum of American Art as  historically significant artifacts? Accoutrorama places these vestiges in dialogue with their contexts through the format of the diorama. While the diorama evokes the tidiness and safety of a world of our own making, the surreptitious details in this staging of the politics of space arouse the horror of perennially experiencing racial violence in America.