Tax Release

As a sociologist and Professor of Architecture who has witnessed public art for many decades, I finally have a project of my own--a display of all of the bundles of tax preparation that I have completed since I started filing taxes in 1963. 

What began as due diligence (holding onto my prior year returns for seven years) was fed by an eccentricity in me that has kept my entire and complete history of tax filings intact, in my attic. 

As my life became more complex, I observed that the bundles got bigger. I also noticed the amount of work involved in preparing my returns – for me, the equivalent of writing and publishing an academic paper, each year. I believe in the value of taxation to maintain and improve the quality of our common life, but I experience filing taxes according to the US tax code as a waste of my time and effort – except for the extent to which tax prepreparation allows me to review my year socially and psychologically. 

On Sunday October 25, ten days after the IRS annual extended filing deadline, I will lay out all of my returns publicly in a one-day installation at Oakland's Local Economy, so that I can see, and share, this accumulation of bureaucratic effort that is personal to me and relatable for us all. I invite the public to join me anytime between 11 am - 4 pm to view the sculpture/layout of my returns, and to bring your own prior tax documents (older than 7 years!), either to shred manually in two machines that will be onsite, or to be dropped for free in secure bins that will be collected by Berkeley Shreds and shredded at their facility. At the end of the day, 56 years of my documents will be similarly released. 

Through this project I have learned that other countries handle taxes differently than the US. In some nations (Denmark, Sweden, United Kingdom, Spain, Germany, Japan) the government knows how much you made and sends you a bill, often referred to as "return-free" or "Ready Return" filing. Our more complex tax code often requires “taxpayers to spend time and money calculating their own taxes or paying someone else to do it." Google Gemini, 20 Mar 2026. 

Tax Release makes me wonder if there is a better way for US taxpayers to fulfill our tax obligation. The exhibition sheds light on the amount of collective effort that filing taxes requires, and asks us to think about what uses of our time could be more productive.