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Flumen Orationis, from The Principalities, 2012
Video, 41 minutes
Photo by Rob Strong.

Adkins combines Dr. Martin Luther King’s “Why I Am Opposed to the War in Vietnam” sermon, given on April 30, 1967, at Riverside Church in New York City, with Jimi Hendrix’s “Machine Gun” from his Band of Gypsys live record, as well as other live-recorded versions. These audio tracks accompany a montage of black-and-white photographs of dirigibles and hot air balloons. The work seems to be a meditation on the lofty military goals and moral failures of the United States.