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16/12/2011

Occupy

Athica - Athens Institute for Contemporary Art, Athens

We are delighted to be hosting OCCUPY: This is What Democracy Looks Like, a ‘pop-up’ exhibit of works in all media that will give voice to the three-month-old international grassroots pro-fairness political phenomenon that has been come to be known as the OCCUPY movement.

The exhibit features work by 99 artists from Athens, GA and well beyond, who all care passionately about the alarming increase in the gap between rich and poor as a result of unfettered capitalism and the gap’s effect on our democracy’s ability to function as such.

We are very pleased that artist and Organizer Tatiana Veneruso came to ATHICA with the idea of creating this exhibit, and that we were able to accommodate such a request immediately this winter. Through an Open Call and a vast network of artist friends, Ms Veneruso has assembled an amazing array of artists many of whom have created political protest artworks specifically for this exhibit, including participatory installation, video and many other works by artists with as many approaches and concerns as the 99% the artist expressions strive to address
Her statement below serves as an opening volley of what is sure to be a stimulating exhibition that will give rise to many a stimulating discussion among members of our community.

Tatiana Veneruso: Organizer’s Statement:
We are the 99%. This is our collective voice. We have something to show you. This is what democracy looks like…
Inspired by Occupy Wall Street movement, we are coming together to share our stories and raise awareness of a collective dissatisfaction with the socioeconomic state of our country and its increasingly imbalanced distribution of wealth. Alarmingly, our democracy is rapidly losing the capacity to be "for the people, by the people."
We are harnessing the power of artistic expression as a means of peaceful protest.

Descriptions of the inspiring artists images coming to ATHICA follow.:

Recent Athens ex-pat Jeff Owens’ OWS Bull is a powerful imagining of the large bronze bull sculpture that is an actual public artwork in New York City’s Wall Street district where it is an icon of the capitalist free-market forces whose unregulated excesses are being protested. In his print the bull has been being turned akimbo onto its back, its devil-tail rearing, roped down by a sea of small figures reminiscent of the fames Lilliputians from the original social satirist Jonathan Swift’s novel Gulliver’s Travels. (Owens has made this work available as a $6.00 T-shirt, the link for which h can be found on our home page.)

Judi Wright’s digital photographs-- Atop Peoples ’Pentagon & Peace Now were inspired by watching CNN's coverage of police/protester clashes at Occupy Denver on October 29, 2011. She went back and paused the video and grabbed her camera to take a digital photo of the iconic peace sign against a sea of blue cops with nightsticks. The artists states: “It was heartwarming to see young people getting politically involved as we did years ago when that same peace sign was almost universal on college campuses, at sit-ins and marches against the Vietnam War. My goal was to stylize the photo to represent the universal nature of the ever-evolving peace movement.”

Jason Lee Gimbel’s Occupy My Portrait was conceived after viewing an anonymous Youtube video threatening to take down Facebook on November 5th. This was in early August 2011, around the same time the promotional posters for the Ides of March movie were coming out. Inspired by these two separate ideas, he composed this printed digital media collage as way of combining both and set it aside to coincide with the November D-Day. A month later the Adbusters magazine issue devoted to OWS appeared and soon after NYC was occupied.

Gimbel’s portrait instantly took on a new meaning. No longer a gesture towards Anonymous, but rather an acknowledgment that behind every mask, every computer and every cause is a person whose ideas live on through social sharing. Thus the Occupy My Portrait amplifies the notion that while we wish to have a sense of anonymity in our private lives, we simultaneously wish to be seen and heard.

The Anonymous slogan set a series of events in motion which now seems serendipitously prophetic. Gimbel’s use of the Time Magazine cover folded over his face, simply stating 'Me' can occupy half of anyone's face. In the ATHICA installation multiple copies will be an adjunct to a wall installation, allowing users to try one out on their face, as well as take one home.

The Guy Fawkes mask reference also resonates with many OCCUPIER’s wearing the symbolic face mask during protests, culminating in the Guy Fawkes Day celebrations at OCCUPY sites around the world.

The Sartoris’ OCCUPY ATL Poster & Mural Photo project strikes closer to home. An Athens/Atlanta based street artist, The Sartoris, inspired by job loss and the circus of American Politics, began working in conjunction with OCCUPY Atlanta to create graphic images, as well as a proposed mural. Soon after the News International scandal hit he decided that Rupert Murdoch and his influence had been “unethical, unwarranted and un-American” and was inspired to create the image for this mural. The theme of his design is focused at the public’s desire to remove the influence of money on politics. It features Rupert Mudoch riding a Dali-esque Elephant uprooting one of the 99%. In front of him is Wendi Deng walking a fox. A powerful image the artist is raising funds for the project through sales of his artwork, which will go towards the mural’s creation.

Michael Scoggins’ marker drawing on paper, Police Brutality was created for a Police Brutality Coloring Book art project created in NYC with other artists. The coloring book—which is not for children—is available here. The proceeds from the coloring book will go to OWS efforts.

Local artist Larry Forte produced The OCCUPY: This is What Democracy Looks Like logo and announcement card design. His use of the upraised fist is rich with history from the Civil rights era on to the many images inspired by the OWS movement in the last few months. Forte combines the fist with the look of the historic ‘hatch-print’ and places the red-white & blue image on facsimile aged foolscap. Forte works by day as an art handler at the Georgia Museum of Art, where he was recently exposed to the history of the Tennesee Hatch Show Print, which serves as a source of inspiration for this exhibit's logo and look, as well as other designs he has recently created.

The fist ‘punches’ out dollars & cents symbols and patriotic stars, breaking through a confining ring reminiscent of GA state flag designs, a rich metaphor for the OWS movement. Forte, an Athens painter, designer and conceptual artist has created pro-bono designs for ATHICA twice previously, as well as exhibiting at ATHICA as far back as 2003!

Opening: december 17th

Athica - Athens Institute for Contemporary Art
160 Tracy Street -Athens
Hours: wednesdays: 1:00 - 6:00 pm
thursdays: 1:00 - 9:00 pm

friday - sunday: 1:00 - 6:00 pm

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