Art Lies
Disruptors
Issue No. 62, Summer 2009
It has recently been proposed that we, as a society, are entering a “post-post-9/11″ era.
While this does appeal to me in a certain sense (as in, I may not have to endure the aroma of untold, unshod pairs of feet every time I travel), I find the impetus for such a proclamation totally irresponsible. I don’t know if I am suffering from an ideological hangover, but I do think this is premature postulation. A significant rhetorical change has certainly come with Brand Obama, but real social change occurs at a glacial pace—a never-ending source of frustration for politicos and provocateurs alike—and it is the latter that most concerns me.
The nature of provocation has certainly changed since my youth, a time of Act Up, the Culture Wars, “Take Back the Night” marches and the UT-16. Today, sophists breed like rabbits in the blogosphere, and outright radicality exists online, several removes from lived experience and real emotions. So what form must dissent take to be effective in the context of contemporary art in this “post-everything” age? The answer is as always: by whatever means necessary. Today’s provocateurs need not be overtly political; they simply must exist. This issue of Art Lies is dedicated to those who make the aesthetic and occasionally amoral choice to dissent—to disrupt societal norms, whether via the quiet splice of an image or a supersonic boom.
Everything changes and nothing changes. This is the burden of the present and all eras—but that can have fringe benefits. Such an existential paradox makes this current moment the most fertile ground for disruption since the halcyon days of the Reagan era (a dissenter’s wet dream). It is high time to draw on our rich and subversive history as artists/thinkers/critics, lest we forget the past. There are any number of issues that cry out for soapboxes, bully pulpits and fuse lighters. For those who truly possess the will to provoke, the present appetite for change could be nothing less than a free-for-all.
-Anjali Gupta, Executive Director | Editor
Purchase Current Issue: artlies.org/content.php?id=21&s=4
Feature Contributors:
Eric Anglès
Nathalie Anglès
Renaud Auguste-Dormeuil
Elena Bajo
Mary Ellen Carroll
Asli Cavusoglu
Anjali Gupta
Seth Maxwell Malice
Warren Neidich
Jakob Schillinger
Jason Jay Stevens
Gary Sweeney
Jennifer Teets
Michelle White
With artwork by: Renaud Auguste-Dormeuil, Mary Ellen Carroll, Asli Cavusoglu, Jeremy Deller, EXHIBITION, Harrell Fletcher, Aleksandra Mir, Gareth Spor, Survival Research Labs and Gary Sweeney.
Online Feature: Manon Slome on The Aesthetics of Terror
Reviews Include:
Austin – Kate Green on Lisi Raskin
Berkeley – Isaac Amala on Human/Nature: Artists Respond to a Changing Planet
Dallas – Charissa Terranova on Richard Patterson
El Paso – Alison Hearst on Tania Candiani and Regina José Galindo
Houston – Kurt Mueller on Jeremy Deller
Los Angeles – Tucker Neel on Kerry Tribe
New York – Keri Oldham on Nick Cave
New York – Marie-Adele Moniot on Matt Sheridan Smith
Paris – Lillian Davies on Ian Pedigo
San Antonio – Ben Judson on Jeffrey Gibson
Online Review: Valerie Cassel Oliver on Thunderbolt Special: the Great Electric Show and Dance after Sam Lightnin’ Hopkins at Project Row Houses
Cover Image: Aleksandra Mir, Plane Landing in Paris, October 20–23, 2008; courtesy
Laurent Godin Gallery, Paris
Purchase Current Issue: artlies.org/content.php?id=21&s=4
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Upcoming Art Lies Events:
Issue No. 62 launch and film screening at Creative Research Laboratory
Friday, July 31, 8 – 10 pm
Austin, TX
Issue No. 62 launch and whipped cream photo shoot at Unit B
Saturday, August 15, 7 – 9 pm
San Antonio, TX
Artelibro Book Festival
September 24 – 27, 2009
Bologna, Italy
Upcoming Issue:
Issue No. 63—False Positives with Guest Editorial Contributor Barbara Perea, Independent Curator, Mexico City
Art Lies is available in the United States at independent bookstores, museums and select Barnes & Noble locations, and internationally via the Web at www.artlies.org.
Founded and rooted in Texas, Art Lies provides an international forum for the critical examination of artistic practice, theory and discourse on and about the contemporary arts. Art Lies achieves its mission through the publication of a quarterly journal, our Guest Editorial Program, website, membership events and public programming, including the Art Lies Distinguished Critic Lecture Series. Art Lies is funded in part by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Houston Endowment Inc., The Brown Foundation Inc., Tocker Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, Texas Commission on the Arts, Houston Arts Alliance and our members.
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