Being an election year, there’s little I can do to escape the barrage of marketing and campaigning. It leaves my brain feeling a bit like an egg left too long in the skillet. But where I find TV spots and rallies and endless hand-shaking to be tedious, I never tire of looking at politics through the lens of contemporary art. Art can bring a conflict to me from thousands of miles away and make it personally relevant for me, something that the ceaseless sensationalism of network TV never manages to do.
Anyway, I just came across this video by performance artist Julia Mandle and wanted to share. This left me feeling raw. Like a direct implication with the Iraq occupation or illegal interrogations, the swarm of vacant hoods dangles just within reach. The omitted bodies serve as a chilling reminder of our suspension of Habeas Corpus. The viewer (both in real-time and virtually) is left asking, “Is this a participatory performance? What is my role?”
I wonder what would happen if presidential debates were centered around responses to relevant artworks?
Oh, and this may go without saying, but my opinions and those of the artist, Julia Mandle, are not necessarily the opinions of the Walker Art Center.