Reese Betts - It'll Cost You Something

It'll Cost You Something

Projection and Sculpture Installation

Exhibited at UB Art Galleries in February 2026

It'll Cost You Something is an interdisciplinary installation comprised of four works that consider speech, authority, and sacrifice in contemporary American ideologies. Each work includes a coded message. Some messages are hidden through Morse code, while others are found through material destruction and physical rearrangement.

A projection-mapped appropriated media montage directly compares the words and images of retro evangelical films with livestreamed political events. Sculptures of cut, unnaturally grown trees are made up of a combination of recycled church, government, and advertising print media. An incomplete paper weaving combines imagery of Uncle Sam, the founder of a surveillance startup, an AI-generated image of Jesus found in a Facebook group, and a satellite image of a data farm being constructed in my hometown.

It'll Cost You Something (Untitled 1 & 2)

Composite scraps, cardboard, paper pulp (spam mail, food packaging, bag tags, religious flyers, coupons, cardboard, expired temporary ID, calendars, gift wrap, tissue paper, glue), steel rod, yarn, rolled Victorian beads (calendars, glue)

It'll Cost You Something

Chicken wire, cardboard, paper pulp (outdated car insurance paperwork, spam mail, magazines, food packaging, religious flyers, Hershey's kiss wrapper, coupons, cardboard, calendars, gift wrap, tissue paper, grocery bags, glue), yarn, rolled Victorian beads (calendars, glue)

It'll Cost You Something (Untitled Paper Weaving)

Printed images (Uncle Sam, the founder of a surveillance startup, an AI-generated image of Jesus found in a Facebook group, and a satellite image of a data farm being constructed in my hometown), foam core, glue