These U.S. civics test questions are written in Neue Haas Grotesk. Can you answer them?
“100 Civics Questions” (2022) uses the original version of Helvetica to pose the questions to viewers
One requirement to become a U.S. citizen is to get at least six out of 10 questions right on a U.S. civics test, which draws from 100 possible questions on U.S. government and history, like “What is the capital of your state?” and “When was the constitution written?”
Those questions are now art by Lebanese artist Rayyane Tabet, who’s preparing for the test as part of his application for U.S. citizenship. “100 Civics Questions” (2022) uses Neue Haas Grotesk, the original version of Helvetica found in the Whitney Museum of American Art’s type-centric branding, to pose the questions to viewers across the museum and on the museum’s website and social media for its 2022 biennial.
The idea for “100 Civics Questions” came while Tabet was reading through the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services study guide, he said.
“While looking through those study guides, I realized that if these questions and phrases were taken out of context and disseminated throughout the space of the museum and across the website, they could be read like concrete poetry or open-ended, contradictory, and often hermetic questions,” Tabet said in a statement.
The test has a cumulative pass rate of 91% between October 2009 and June 2021, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, but most Americans wouldn’t do very well. A 2018 survey of 1,000 U.S. adults by the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation found just 36% passed.
Tabet moved to the U.S. as a student in 2004. He is in the provisional phase of the citizenship process and expects to complete it in three to five years, the museum said. The 2022 Whitney Biennial, Quiet as It’s Kept, runs through Sept. 5.