On Tuesday Oct 15, 2002, The Lukacs Gallery of Fairfield University hosted the opening reception of “The Blame Show;” curated by Eleanor Heartney and Larry Litt.
The show features a collection of visual and documentary art reflecting the political unrest of America since the terrorist attacks of Sept 11.
Each piece is laced with heavy political symbolism, opinions and an appreciation for free expression. Upon entering the gallery, guests are greeted by a television monitor looping a video documentary entitled, “The Blame Show,” and “The Blame Show 2: Queens,” by Larry Litt.
The artist filmed a variety of New Yorkers and recorded their thoughts and feelings concerning discrimination, taxes, stereotyping, apathy, Corporate America, and the Bush Administration. Litt captured a sincere dissatisfaction in politics with the subsequent events in New York after Sept 11.
The video begs the question of who is to blame. To the right of the video hangs “Datamap: Chicago,” a photographic/graphic collage by Jim Costanzo. The images involve protestors, protests, permits, pickets, and authority figures.
The piece is further bordered with repeated black and white pictures of Martin Luther King, President Bush, Malcom X, miscellaneous Afghanis, and other highly covered media personalities.
Two identical street signs are hung in the archway between the two gallery spaces. Each sign resembles the familiar “one way” street sign, however, the artist has chosen “end war” as the appropriate text instead. The symbolism is deafening.
Immediately to the left after entering the large gallery room, a slide projector clicks through a series of paintings entitled “Animal Farm.”
Tim Rollins and the Kids of Survival painted caricatures of political figures ranging from Reagan to Clinton: all as farm animals.
The most powerful and educational piece was Svetlana Mintcheva’s”Censorship Timeline.” Within eight panels the artist outlined, in chronological order, every art controversy since 1989 to the present.
Each act of censorship was concise, crisp and succinct, leaving little for viewers to argue or further interpret.
Two of the show’s larger pieces were two wall panels displaying protest activities. The pieces were completed by the Artist Network of Refuse and Resist (www.artistsnetwork.org).
Dan Perkins, also known as Tom Tomorrow, completed a series of comic strip cartoons illustrating different perspectives of 9-11. His cartoons were titled “This Modern World,” and included animated characters resembling everyone from George Bush to Enron Executives.
Each week, Perkins attacked new issues with a satirical humor that trivialized our government’s attempts to remedy the economy, patriotic optimism, etc.
Towards the rear of the gallery, the film “Public Interventions” allows visitors to view the effect of public art in America. The video was written by Eleanor Heartney and directed by Branca Bogdanov.
The remaining posters were two pieces by Sara Glover for the ACLU’s current civil liberties campaign. The first poster exclaims, “you have the right not to remain silent.” The second poster, “A Patriot Act,” is a high-contrast photograph of the Washington Monument with a figure in the foreground cloaked in an American flag.
“The Blame Show” is on exhibit with the intent of applying artistic interpretations to current events.
The artists are optimistic that an active dialogue among guests will result, and political apathy will dissolve.
Leave a Reply