All’s Fair in Art and Politics – By Christina Vassallo

Death to the Fascist Insect that Preys on the Life of the People makes you feel like political art is alive and well.

All’s Fair in Art and Politics

By Christina Vassallo

 

 

 

 

Death to the Fascist Insect that Preys on the Life of the People makes you feel like political art is alive and well. The work featured in the exhibition harkens back to the significant artistic output inspired by the myriad of moral dilemmas the nation faced during the 1960s. This examination of the current state of world affairs is made possible through the efforts of curator, Peter Corrie, and TAG Projects, an arts group residing in a vacant space in DUMBO’s 70 Washington Street building.

Blending activism and cultural dissent, the work in Death to the Fascist Insect lays bare the link between the personal and political spheres. John Jodzio draws scenes of the rapidly developing downtown section of his one-time place of residence, Jersey City, NJ. His panoramas are of crowded and anxiety-ridden cityscapes that resemble a war-torn environment in flux. An installation of three unsynchronized television screens playing a video of Leah Meyherhoff applying makeup and wrapping her head in plastic creates a vague parallel between body politics and world politics. Matthew Fisher’s delicate drawings offer a glimpse into the heroic side of war as his 18th century French soldiers die quietly or sit in deep reverie.

Much of the art is playful and often borders on childish poo pooing of the courses of action in which recent and current leaders have taken the country. Specifically, Noah Lyon’s protest buttons and Keith Haringish drawings that exlaim, "Dick Cheney is a ho," and portray a pubic mound beneath the President’s name, place his activism on the playground, perhaps an appropriate forum considering the publicized antics of his targets. St�, too, with his Survival Kit #42–a scatological threat to the Republican convention–reverts back to the days of terrorizing your enemy with squirt guns, but now his gun is filled with urine in anticipation of the upcoming event.

Still other work in the exhibition takes on a less gimmicky tone and opts for a more deadpan illustration of life in wartime. Kyle Goen’s portraits of Palestinian freedom fighters and the collages of missile aircraft by Jeff Swartz emphasize the concrete reality of war that resides below the wittiness often found in protest art.

Finally, Peter Corrie’s suitcase bomb, Dear W., offers a homemade solution to the international conundrum in which Americans find themselves. But a real solution to this mess cannot be determined from the work presented in Death to the Fascist Insect, which leaves an agitated and helpless feeling in those who wish to change politics through art. Maybe that’s what it’s all about.