Un-Entitled Certificate (2012/2018), Ink-jet print, 36 x 47 in.
Modeled after an 18th-century marriage certificate and ducal seal, Un-Entitled Certificate endorses a revolutionary form of uncivil unions and gender relationships. Brooke’s revision brings attention to the framework of state authority through hyperbole, breaking their legal paradigm and refusing the presumption of heterosexuality—part of a comprehensive upheaval of our cultural values and institutions. Un-Entitled Certificate with Unofficial Seal (2012) (made in collaboration with Gala Porras-Kim) is part of Tit for Twat (1992, ongoing), a revisionist creation story in photo-novella form that features Madam and Eve as the first women in the world. The complete certificate is drawn with hand-lettered decorative flourishes, clothbound between covers, lined in ornamental endpapers and connected by a gold-colored ribbon to a large circular wax seal. Originally shown in Brooke’s 2012 survey show at The Badischer Kunstverein in Germany, it poses a series of questions about the nature of truth and identity formation.