neon signs
X-ray Yankee Zulu highlights the technical, political, and cultural content entrenched in language. Two neon texts use the NATO Phonetic Alphabet to spell out the phrases: 'weapons of mass destruction' and 'improvised explosive device'. The NATO Phonetic Alphabet is a voice transmission technique that assigns code words to letters of the alphabet (A = Alpha, B = Bravo, C = Charlie) to ensure the accurate delivery of messages over radio networks. First adopted by international telecommunications agencies in the 1920s, this method of communication has been adapted by various Western militaries. The NATO version, universalized by International Air Transport Association (IATA), has become familiar though its use in pop culture in war dramas and spy thrillers.
The neon texts take their structure from this precise technocratic language but the visual result of their display is more layered and ambiguous. The texts can be mistaken for a nonsensical sequence of words or a line of automatic poetry. Some viewers may also see a reference to Bruce Nauman's 1967 work The True Artist Helps the World by Revealing Mystic Truths. The neologisms 'weapons of mass destruction' and 'improvised explosive device' are now widely used by the English-speaking media, but in abbreviated form, to refer to broad and volatile phenomena.