Bring
The War Home, the title of this exhibition, is most recognizable
as the title of Martha Rosler’s series of Vietnam era photo
collages. It was also the battle cry of the Weather Underground,
who protested that war by blowing up police cars and the
offices of war profiteers. This show, however, is not about
Vietnam. The war we are fighting, if it even is a war, is
against the current political/economic state of affairs that
has brought us not only Iraq and New Orleans, but also an
art world bubble of endless art fair drudgery and too many
boring exhibitions that ignore the current state of affairs.
All of the artists in this exhibition understand the paradoxical
position from which they operate. They accept the terms of
the social contract into which they have entered, but sometimes
bite the hand that feeds them. They understand the importance
of commercial galleries but also the importance of artist-created
systems of distribution that exist alongside of, but separate
from, the gallery system; interventions , subtle and otherwise,
in the belly of the beast. All are involved in practices
and projects that operate in this way. back continue