Enright’s research into official race categories began a decade ago during the 2010 census, with an interactive wall painting, Sense Us 2010, and his interest in the far-reaching implications of such surveys has continued in subsequent artworks. The artist states: “I am fascinated by the history of these ever-changing checkboxes that begins with the first census of 1790, when there were only three categories listed: ‘free white persons,’ ‘other free persons,’ and ‘slaves.’”
In 2013, Enright created an artist book titled, Race Through the Census, that explores the history of the questionnaire. Because although science has debunked the notion of racial difference, former slave nations such as the United States continue to classify people along such imaginary lines. The 2000 Census recognized the questionable notion of “mixed race” people—Enright’s official status in the population count—whereas before that, an individual could not officially choose more than one box. Furthermore, there is no institution in the United States unaffected by the nation's continued obsession with race categories.
