Banned Booty

About the Book

American travel has changed radically since September 11. The Banned Booty series captures a small aspect of this change. What used to be a routine matter, checking into a flight, passing through the final magnetometer and bringing on board nail files, scissors and children's toy guns, has been transformed into a high-security procedure. We all learned to surrender to the new ways, Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officers searching through our carry-on bags, the shrill beep of the highly sensitive metal detectors, barefooted travelers, steel knives swapped for plastic ones - all this became normalcy.

The contemporary artist Steve Maloney is fascinated with the relentless search for pointy objects all over America. Is it a nail file or a threat to homeland security? Or both? As an artist and an American citizen, he complies with and supports the security efforts, but he couldn't help but notice and wonder. It seemed to him that in every nation travelers were becoming more conscious of their fellow passengers and in particular their belongings.

Curious to find out exactly what kind of items were the latest taboo, Steve Maloney started to shop for TSA confiscated goods. Through government agencies he bought run-of-the-mill banned booty such as scissors, Swiss Army knives and nail files. The more surprising paraphernalia were toy shot guns, cheese knifes and shredders, a Chinese frying pan, corn-on-the-cob skewers and deer antlers. "What were they thinking when they declared these items as weapons?"

Steve Maloney's Banned Booty series is a testament to the way we have magnified the meaning of these common items. It's serious and it's lighthearted. How can you not crack a smile when you look at some of the Banned Booty and wonder, How did we get here?