Shifting Zero: DON’T ASK DON’T TELL / Miami Beach, 2015

Re-appropriating “Don’t Ask Don’t” by writing it in the sand as it gets repeatedly washed away by the incoming tide reflects Strauss’ identity as a queer artist and conveys a sense of urgency and absurdity in our grappling with sea level rise. In response to the regulations in Florida at the time prohibiting the official use of the words “climate change” and “global warming,” this public action equates strategies of the military’s historic discriminatory policy against LGBTQ people with the tourist and real estate economy that drives an often blissful ignorance regarding rising sea levels and the impending crisis.