The Audacity of Desperation: June 2008

Monday, June 16, 2008

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.

The Audacity of Desperation

Why are we so 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 are still firmly rooted in the abyss of a 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 black man or the first woman or Latino vice president, is not enough. The Bush white house knew the power of representation, and they delivered: Condoleeza 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?

Despite the the crisis in American leadership, there's a real utopic moment before us. Electing the first president of color, indeed, might bring change. But our political system, in which any president would work, is fraught with inequities, violence and power plays in which change looks like reform. Movements, not leadership, new technologies, or more consumer products, is what makes long term, change.

Now is not the time to congratulate ourselves for supposedly moving past our radicalized state, we must not be complacent. 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. How do we connect communities, select alliances, establish coalitions? 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?

Detour/Detournement

The Audacity of Desperation had an additional stop in NYC in June. Steven Lam has organized a very cool 3 day event based on the original questions raised by this show. The fact that this project can be fluid and morph as necessary in different spaces, connecting with artists/activists/concerned folks beyond those of us already involved is one of the ways we understand The Audacity of Desperation to be "political," and also a catalyst for social change. Creating relationships -not for networking or career building but to break out of the deep isolation and sense of desperation we all feel after the last 8 years under the Bush Administration becomes one of the few radical acts that cannot be legislated away.

If you're in or near New York, check out what Steven has put together and meet other folks involved. If you want to host another The Audacity of Desperation stop, let us know ideas you have for more collaborations.

Situationist texts on Detournement
a users guide to...
as negation and prelude

Continental Drift Through The Midwest Radical Culture Corridor

On June 4th this conference kicked off at the Audacity of Desperation exhibit at the Urbana IMC. The folks who organized this - including our own Sarah Ross and others participating in the Desperation show- did an incredible job. Being in the Midwest, we learned first hand the consequences of food shortages and depleted crops as well as the politics of supporting local and organic farms versus corporate and government subsidized farming and food sources. Check out the below links for more information about this conference and the larger " Continental Drift" project. It's a fantastic ongoing event we had the honor of connecting with.
(note: in the midwest ending a sentence with a preposition is kosher)

Temporary Services blog on Continental Drift through the Midwest

Continental Drift: the other side of neoliberal globalization
Brian Holmes blog on the larger project. Be sure to read Articulating the Cracks in the Worlds of Power, a link under the "Continental Drift Resources" section.

The Audacity of Desperation

Monday, June 16, 2008

NYC Stop / Audacity of Desperation

Audacity Network

desperation video

"I'm so desperate I voted"