Moving the Body Politic

The show closes this weekend. We've made it through the long election season and have arrived at a fascinating moment in history.

Join us Sunday November 16th from 2-5 to celebrate the small actions and grand heroics that moves the body politic.

Bring something you’ve written, read, or continually referenced since election night. We will be sharing ideas, making art, and continuing to take it out of the gallery and into our streets, homes, and communities. We'll be doing activities that engage our minds, bodies and creativity and result in action lists, a 'zine, and plans for future gatherings.

Post election events begin this weekend

A lot to consider in this incredible moment. The election of our first black president is amazing and at the same time thousands of folks have taken to the streets here in California protesting the results of Prop 8.
In LA, everyone gathered in front of the Mormon church in Westwood, celebrating the sanctity of marriage between one man and as many women as he wants.
How do we talk about these two events without collapsing black civil rights movements and the right for same sex couples to marry as the same struggles?
And did you check out our new first lady proudly wearing the black and red? Viva la revolucion!
Hang out with us the next couple of weekends to consider all of this and more.


Saturday November 8th -- 8pm
FOCUS: The Culmination
Interactive Multimedia Presentation, with Dance Party
Over the summer, Jeff Foye and Gordon Winiemko were commissioned by a progressive arts organization to do a piece about "participation in the political process."
Their response was to emulate one of the most ubiquitous forums for participation our society has to offer — the focus group.

Now, after a summer of surveying the opinions and preferences of the Los Angeles progressive arts demographic, Jeff and Gordon culminate this performative research project with an interactive multimedia presentation and dance party -- the latter courtesy DJ Troll Baby.


Saturday November 9th — 6pm
Violations and Obfuscations
Videos produced over the past eight years that revolve around themes of political and democratic process and violations of either under the current administration.
Curated by Nancy Popp as a part of The Audacity of Desperation and Habeas Lounge http://habeaslounge.org/

Paul Chan
RE: THE OPERATION, 2002 (excerpts)

Hillary Mushkin
As We Go On, 2005; Animated Drawings, 2008

Nabawia Jane El-Soudani
Human Beings, 2004

John Davis
Between Subjects, 2003

Nancy Popp and Serena Wellen
United States Code Section 2340A, 2007

Jessica Lawless and Von Edwards
Dick!, 2007

Martha Rosler
Prototype (God Bless America), 2006

Mark Boswell
The End of Copenhagen, 2004

Anjali Taneja interviewed us on LAist.com
The full interview is here

Pictures from LA opening

Desperation in Los Angeles October 26-November 16

After stops in rural Illinois and New York City, The Audacity of Desperation will open in Los Angeles Sunday October 26, 2008 at Sea and Space Explorations.

Taking to heart the idea that random acts of kindness are central to social change, each artist has made a work of art in multiple editions visitors to the exhibition can take away. The exhibition creates a free exchange of ideas that challenges the culture at large as well as the international art market of which Los Angles has become a central location. The exhibition includes a series of events addressing the Nov. 4th elections:

Sunday October 26: Exchange Rate: 2008 presents performances in the gallery space. Exchange Rate: 2008 is an international performance exchange organized by artist Elana Mann in response to the US presidential elections and includes artists from Brazil, Denmark, Israel, Mexico, South Korea, Ukraine, and the US among others.

Saturday Nov. 1: Evil Dead 8: the end is near, a Day of the Dead inspired memorial for the final days of the Bush administration. Celebrating the end of one evil while not knowing what is lurking ahead, Evil Dead 8 includes skill sharing, music, dancing, a bookmobile project created by Irina Contreras and Kelly Besser called The Miracle, and guerilla interventions by AK-Ami and her mother Maleeka Kobrah.

Tuesday November 4: Election returns will be projected in the gallery with several of the participating artists present and Lee Azzarello and Sarah Kanouse "Voices of America” internet radio project will be broadcast.

Saturday November 8: FOCUS Group Findings -- What Now?
Jeff Foye and Gordon Winiemko, present their findings from focus groups staged this summer as part of Trade and Row’s Campaign Trail project. The duo solicited ideas about ways artists can reclaim their power in the political process. Stay for a dance party following the presentation.

Sunday November 9: A screening of video works that address the numerous political disasters, violations and obfuscations of the past eight years. Curated by Nancy Popp. 6-8pm

Sunday November 16: “So now what?” or “HOLY FUCK! NOW WHAT?” Whether it is Obama/Biden or McCain/Palin, immediately after the elections we’re still in debt, looking for work, without universal health care, and occupying Iraq. Adam Overton and Nancy Popp facilitate conversation and activities that will lead to concrete actions to make change in our own communities.

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The stakes are changing as we near the November 4th elections. When we first came up with the concept and curated the show, we had room not to focus in on specific candidates or personalities. It has come back to the cult of personality culture that is US politics. Which makes it even more important to offer critical analysis of systemic issues and not just get lost in the fray.

This is of course tricky when we are in the midst of a presidential race that has shifted the playing field many times resulting in the phenomena of a black man who rose to prominence as a community organizer being criticized for elitism, a rich white woman became a working class hero for a minute, and the 18 million cracks in the glass ceiling did not resuscitate feminism but instead left us with a gun-toting, anti abortion, evangelical pin-up girl turned hockey mom VP candidate.

Yikes.

Check out the new links posted addressing some of the issues of race and gender being discussed these days. Some are probably familiar, some are hopefully new information. Send us more to share.

NYC Stop / Audacity of Desperation

DEMO Space 122 presented the NYC stop of “The Audacity of Desperation”, a 3-day nomadic exhibition of take-away projects (initiated and curated by Jessica Lawless and Sarah Ross and organized by Steven Lam) in conjunction with a series of performances and workshops responding to the spin of the upcoming election.

TAKE-AWAYS:

Artworks by activists, artists, enthusiasts and very concerned people are made in unlimited editions to be freely distributed. These artworks function as counter-propaganda. Like a virus, they are activated outside the exhibition context, in domestic and public spaces, on bodies, clothes, bags... This collection of take-away posters, manifestos, DIY kits, postcards, stickers, buttons and multi-media projects will travel throughout the country, creating a space to build relationships and foster dialogue around the desperate state of affairs resulting from a calamitous administration, complacent congressional leaders and a disempowered citizenry.

MODES OF ENCOUNTER:

In parallel to the take-away work on display, the exhibition will be structured as a succession of modes of encounter orchestrated by interested volunteers. Utilizing the exhibition parameters as a site of social experimentation, this open-ended program of conversations, workshops and performances will solicit the active and reciprocal participations of visitor and artist alike, thereby inviting reflection on how communities become connected, alliances selected, coalitions established.

PARTICIPANTS:

Wanda Acosta, Avi Alpert, Katja Aglert, Alas (Randy Wallace & Rae Culbert), Eric Anglès, Steve Ausbury, Mark Bechtel, Daniel Bejar, Lindsay Benedict, David Bench, Caitlin Berrigan, Mary Billyou, Jody Buchman, Center for Urban Pedagogy, Coco Rico, Theresa Columbus, Heidi Cunningham, Solidad Decosta, DJ Lightbolt, Andrea Domesle, Feel Tank Chicago, Von Edwards, Sarah Ferguson, Elaine Gan, Anthony Graves & Emily Votruba, Dara Greenwald & Steve Lambert & Josh MacPhee & the Anti Advertising Agency, Benj Gerdes, Patrick Grenier, Tamar Guimaraes, Carla Herrera-Prats, Sarah Kanouse & Tianna Kennedy & Lee Azzerello, Caroline Kelley, Scott Kiernan, Rosamond S. King, Anné M. Klint, The League of Imaginary Scientists, Norene Leddy with Ed Bringas, Erin Ming Lee, Let's Re-Make, Runo Lagomarsino, Ilya Lipkin, Douglas Minkler, Carlos Motta, Huong Ngo, elin o'Hara slavick, Sreshta Rit Premnath, Sheila Pinkel, Jenny Polak, Jill Posener, Nancy Popp, Jeremy Eilers & Davis Rhodes & Nic Xedro, Anthony Rayson, John Richey, Lizabeth Eva Rossoff, Stephanie Rothenberg, Edward Schexnayder, Dorothy Schultz, Heath Schultz & Brad Thomson, Robert Samel Snyderman, John Wedger, Gordon Winiemko, Audra Wolowiec, Carrie Yury, Huang Xiaopeng, Xtine, among others

DEMO Space 122 will officially open in 2009. A parallel exhibition space to the PS122 Art Gallery, DEMO Space 122 (located on the 2nd floor) is a not-for-profit organization that catalyzes new futures for contemporary artistic production with programs that utilize the intimate and participatory setting of a former classroom as a site for inquiry and process. Envisioned to be a laboratory for community participation, DEMO Space 122 seeks to further the mission of PS 122 Art Gallery by providing cross cultural dialog and a venue for art exhibitions and social activism.

Opening at the Urbana Champaign IMC

The Audacity of Desperation Opening

The Audacity Of Desperation
First stop: The Urbana- Champaign Independent Media Center
May 7th - June 15
202 S. Broadway Suite 100
Urbana, IL 61801

Urbana Almost Closing Party: June 4, at 7pm, with the kick off of Continental Drift -
an itinerant discussion on Neoliberal policies and cracks in global power. Continental Drift will be traveling though the Radical Midwest Cultural Corridor, starting at the IMC with conversations about the Audacity of Desperation and presentations by Kevin Hamilton and Brain Holmes. For more information see:
http://radicalmidwest.blogspot.com/

Links to videos screened at the opening can be found at: http://desperationvideo.blogspot.com/
The Desperation Video site is in progress. Everything is there, but a bit hard to read- Google Docs is not as great as indicated...
In addition, links to view videos (as available) are at the bottom of each slide.

Next stop: Sea and Space, Los Angeles, CA,
October 23- November 16
(more details this summer - watch election results with us there)

The Audacity of Desperation is an art exhibition, political action, and on-going dialogue. This show confronts, expresses and unravels states of desperation. Artworks by activists, artists, enthusiasts, and very concerned people, are made in editions of 100 with the intention of free distribution to audiences. In this way, these artworks will be activated outside of the exhibition space and in domestic spaces, on bodies, clothes, bags, and in public spaces.

Why we are desperate?
In November 2008 something is going to change. The worst president ever will finally be voted out of the White House. But, as the infamous writing on the wall reads, IF VOTING CHANGED ANYTHING THEY’D MAKE IT ILLEGAL.

The desperate push by progressives to include Ralph Nader in the 2000 elections and then their desperate about face towards Nader in 2004 is forgotten history. Now, in 2008, even though Nader is 'back in' the race, we have fallen firmly into the abyss of the two party system.

For many of us born after the assassinations of JFK, MLK, and Malcolm X, belief in revolutionary change through electoral politics is not easily resuscitated. Our first political memory falls somewhere between Nixon’s resignation and Bill Clinton’s lies about having sex with Monica Lewinsky. Obama’s seductive oratory style that instills nostalgia for movements we can’t remember, Clinton’s ability to go up against the men weighing down the glass ceiling, and Edwards anti-corporate, power to the people rhetoric is countered by Nancy Pelosi’s miserable failure to radicalize the senate and end the war in Iraq as the first woman Speaker of The House. The potential for the executive branch to be made up of firsts, the first president to be a white woman or black man, the first Latino vice president, is not enough. The Bush white house knows the power of representation, and they delivered: Condoleezza Rice, Alberto Gonzales, John Yoo, Clarence Thomas, and Mary Cheney’s baby. Choosing to vote based on community affiliation has led to more exclusive tendencies, not less.

What are our options?
Given this desperate state of affairs, how do we connect communities, select alliances, establish coalitions? How much do we compromise when we chose to participate in a stubborn old beast of a system that is unlikely to learn new tricks or rollover? Is it possible to be so reckless that desperation can be re-imagined as a tool for political organizing? Do we need to delve fully into an emotional crisis or can we wallow in our desperation and find creative possibilities for effecting social change?

Participating Artists: AK-Ami, William Brown, David Sanchez Burr, CaFF, Chris Christion, Ryan Claypool/Austin Smythe, Heidi Cunningham, Anna Campbell, solidad decosta, Alexis Disselkoen, Von Edwards, Nicky Enright, Feel Tank Chicago, Dara Greenwald/Josh MacPhee/Steve Lambert with the Anti-Advertising Agency, Russell Howze, Jill Jeannides, Anné M. Klint, Caroline Kelley, Sarah Kanouse/Tianna Kennedy/Lee Azzerello, Norene Leddy/Ed Bringas, Let's Re-Make, Steven Lam, the League of Imaginary Scientists, DJ Lightbolt, Diran Lyons, Glendalys Medina, Tomas A. Moreno, Anne Elizabeth Moore, Doug Minkler, Robert T. Pannell, Sheila Pinkel, Nancy Popp, Lizabeth Eva Rossof, Anthony Rayson, Nino Rodriguez, Lián Amaris Sifuentes, Rick Salafia, simon strikeback, Dorothy Schultz, Heath Schultz/Brad Thomson, Lisa Tucker, Tammy Jo Wilson, Gordon Winiemko, Xtine, Carrie Yury

Update on the state of Desperation

our deadline for accepting work for "the audacity of desperation" has now passed. the dates of the show have changed in urbana and are not quite set. the dates for los angeles have been.
Urbana- Champaign IMC: May (3 or 10) - June 15
Los Angeles, Sea and Space: October 23- November 16

we are excited about everything submitted, and also humbled by how far and wide the call went out and the work came in.

we are in the process of contacting everyone now. we have around 60 folks to contact, so it will take a day or 2 more to complete it all.

please know that if we did not accept your work, it has nothing to do with the quality or concept as a distinct art piece. after looking at everything and discussing each piece, making lists, making more lists, and then making new lists, the decision making process comes down to our curatorial conception and/or the way the art works and projects are creating relationships with each other that provoke a variety ways of thinking about the work, the show, and the concept of desperation.

we are both very familiar with the ups and downs of submitting art for exhibitions (articles and/or images for journals and conferences, job applications, health care applications, etc. etc. etc.). this is a significant part of how we started talking about "desperation." old skool feminism reminding us that the personal is always political and new skool thinking in how the political is always personal. yes we took this to the current state of electoral politics in the US and what it means to never have had hope in the State before this bush admin., under this bush admin, or in international relation to this bush admin.

here's a passage written by Arundhati Roy that speaks to ways citizens of other nation-states have a critical relation to the idiot, i mean president, in charge of the US right now. it is from the introduction to Noam Chomsky's book, For Reasons of State (2003), and in her book, War Talk (2003):

"I realize that for Noam Chomsky, a U.S. citizen, to criticize his government is better manners than for someone like myself, an Indian citizen to criticize the U.S. government. I'm no patriot and am fully aware that venality, brutality, and hypocrisy are imprinted on the leaden soul of every state. But when a country ceases to be a country and becomes an empire, then the scale of operations changes dramatically. So may I clarify that i speak as a subject of the U.S. empire? I speak as a slave who presumes to criticize her king." (p.83)

please check back in for updates about the show, panels, video screenings, discussions and other events happening at the urbana IMC, and a possible second call for work before the LA installation at sea and space this fall.

keep us posted about interesting projects, calls, exhibits, links, or whatever that we can post here to keep building on the idea of "the audacity of desperation" in its myriad expressions.

drop the charges! (click)
jessica and sarah

Call for work: The Audacity of Desperation

Deadline March 10, 2008
Exhibition dates
May 8-June 15 at the Indy Media Center in Urbana, Il.
October 23-November 16, Sea and Space, Los Angeles, CA

The Audacity of Desperation is an art exhibition, political action, and on-going dialogue. We are currently seeking distributable artworks addressing the topic of “desperation.” Works should exist in multiples with the intention to be freely distributed to audiences. Media can include, but is not at all limited to: posters, stickers, stencils, zines, stamps- ink and postage - buttons, CD’s/DVD’s, postcards, t-shirts and manifestos.

Why we are desperate?
In November 2008 something is going to change. The worst president ever will finally be voted out of the White House. But, as the infamous writing on the wall reads, IF VOTING CHANGED ANYTHING THEY’D MAKE IT ILLEGAL.

The desperate push by progressives to include Ralph Nader in the 2000 elections and then their desperate about face towards Nader in 2004 is forgotten history. In 2008, debates have fallen back into the abyss of the two party system.

For many of us born after the assassinations of JFK, MLK, and Malcolm X, belief in revolutionary change through electoral politics is not easily resuscitated. Our first political memory falls somewhere between Nixon’s resignation and Bill Clinton’s lies about having sex with Monica Lewinsky. Obama’s seductive oratory style that instills nostalgia for movements we can’t remember, Clinton’s ability to go up against the men weighing down the glass ceiling, and Edwards anti-corporate, power to the people rhetoric is countered by Nancy Pelosi’s miserable failure to radicalize the senate and end the war in Iraq as the first woman Speaker of The House. The potential for the executive branch to be made up of firsts, the first president to be a white woman or black man, the first Latino vice president, is not enough. Relying on identity politics has resulted in Condoleezza Rice, Alberto Gonzales, John Yoo, Clarence Thomas, and Mary Cheney’s baby. Choosing to vote based on community affiliation has led to more exclusive tendencies, not less.

What are our options?
Given this desperate state of affairs, how do we connect communities, select alliances, establish coalitions? How much do we compromise when we chose to participate in a stubborn old beast of a system that is unlikely to learn new tricks or rollover? Is it possible to be so reckless that desperation can be re-imagined as a tool for political organizing? Do we need to delve fully into an emotional crisis or can we wallow in our desperation and find creative possibilities for effecting social change?


Please send submissions, questions or inquires to: desperationexhibition@gmail.com We prefer digital submissions. The file size does not need to reflect your final piece.

If it is not possible to send a digital reproduction, send your submission to:
Desperation submission
C/o jessica lawless
7523 1/2 Lexington Ave.
West Hollywood, CA 90046

Include a SASE if you need anything returned to you.

Submissions Due: March 10

Both electronic and material submissions should include:
* Your Name
* e-mail address
*Materials and dimensions

Please keep in mind, if accepted, you will need to provide 50-100 copies of your piece. Shipping will be provided for by the organizers. We will have a second edition of the show in Los Angeles in the Fall.

We are working with a grassroots, anti-authoritarian philosophy that includes the anti-capitalist, non-competitive principle of mutual aid.
For a basic overview of mutual aid:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutual_Aid:_A_Factor_of_Evolution