Watch Your Step
Flag Art Foundation
New York, New York
June 21 – August 24, 2012

Curator by Stephanie Roach

Watch Your Step marked our second inclusion in a group exhibition at The FLAG Art Foundation—Glenn Fuhrman’s private gallery space in Chelsea. At the time, we didn’t realize it would end up being just a block away from our future studio. The show explored sculpture that engaged directly with the floor, pulling the viewer into new spatial relationships with the work.

Our contribution, a piece titled Dad, was a gridded floor work composed of chocolate brown ultrasuede boxes—each about six inches square, but varying in height from just under two inches to about seven. The grid could be laid out as a landscapeor be reassembled into a singular stacked tower. Like so many of our works, it was modular and full of narrative weight.

Inside the boxes were rolled, wrapped structures created from looped belt trimmings sewn into circular forms. Into these forms, we pinned intricate patterns of?  beads—each one carefully threaded—creating crystal-like geode shapes that we’ve come to think of as “wounds in the process of healing.” These symbols, made from humble and personal materials, embodied memory, labor, and care.

Group Exhibitions

The title Dad came to us instinctively—when writing “Watch Your Step,” we thought of our dad walking down the stairs when we were kids, stepping on Legos and yelling, “God damn it!” It was one of those vivid memories that sticks with you, funny and real. We laughed thinking about how he always threatened to throw out all those Legos—and how, to this day, our parents still have them.

This piece was one of two works that year that honored our parents—the other being Om, which reflected on our mother. Dad was an homage to our father, a union electrician who worked long hours and instilled in us the value of hard work. Our first jobs were at gas stations, changing tires, pumping gas—because, as he told us, “you’re going to work from the moment you arrive until the moment you leave.”

He wasn’t just a hard worker—he was present. He came to our sporting events, worked the concession stand, and helped run the uniform distribution system behind the snack bar. He had four kids by the time he was 22, and we often reflect on how formative those early years were—for him and for us. This work was part of a larger body titled 9769 Radio Drive, which focused on those early childhood memories, including our time at Mary Queen of the Universe, the same grade school our dad had attended. Fittingly, Mary Queen of the Universe will host the National Scrollathon in 2025 as part of our 2026 semiquincentennial celebration at the Kennedy Center.

It made perfect sense: Dad belonged in Watch Your Step.

This exhibition placed us in dialogue with artists like Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Lynda Benglis, Kiki Smith, Richard Long, Tara Donovan, and Richard Serra. It was humbling, grounding, and an exciting moment in our early career.