Looking at France in the aftermath of the Algerian war of independence and decolonization, few would argue that the majority of North Africans have been excluded from the enjoyment of universalism once promised to them by Republican France. But, as well, few would explain this exclusion by indicting the principle of universalism itself or by denying that universalism exists first and foremost as a philosophical principle that might someday realize its true potential for consistency. This study aims at offering a different understanding of what universalism is, in part to explain 1) how North Africans have been denied access to it and 2) why this has not been perceived as a serious challenge to French republican principles and 3) how ordinary victims of racism attempt to refute racist stereotypes by enthusiastically participating in public space and culture. This project will look at universalism as a material practice: embodied (racially), organized socially in public spaces (schools, hospitals, courts) and symbolized in art, architecture, urban space, and housing. This project shows how a material approach (digital photography) to universalism in society makes it possible to understand (by literally seeing) the deep connections between universalism and exclusion, and how that these connections could be obscured by a continuing politically deceptive belief in universalism as first and foremost a principle of philosophy. The project will focus on images about the materiality of universalism through and in turn, revealing its operations/practices of exclusion. The result is a rhetorical study that analyzes how philosophical and theoretical definitions of universalism, assimilation, and cultural production collide with images of commodified and programmed living. For more images of particular universalisms click here.
American style capitalism promises that after years of hard work, people in their 60′s or 70′s can buy a condo in a retirement community and spend the rest of their life relaxing by a pool enjoying activities like shuffleboard, golf, and bingo. Retirement is supposed to liberate us from constant labor, commuting, fatigue and most important, responsibility. Also, retirement offers opportunities to do what I always wanted to do, or becoming my true self, or being the person I was meant to be. We can perform the life of complete leisure or continue to work. In any event, we continue to identify with and buy into commodified images of living, never transcending the marketplace in our retirement resort “reinvention.” For more photos of the structures of retirement click here.
This project combines contemporary images of Berlin and Paris with historical renderings of locations during the heyday of the Nazi and Vichy regimes, as a way of revealing and interrogating the repression of the sites and acts of fascism in postwar Europe. These images afford the opportunity to ask an entirely new set of questions about the relationship between cities, their past and present “lives,” and the role of historical knowledge in mediating the tensions between those lives. To view more images from this project click here.
These images capture aspects of the National Socialist strategies for art. They illustate how the “petty bourgeois” impatience in comprehending the modern combined with the state racist policies to create an art museum focused on the mythologies of national history. By cleansing German museums of “degenerate art” and by organizing art shows that reinforced the party line, the Nazis believed they could ecourage museum visitors to view and identify with a sanitized past. In the process, not only was the complexity of art denied, but history as well. Click Artful Dodgers to view more images.
This group of composites brings together images from Viewers as the Object of Displayand the spectatormuseum.org into a “framed” installation, which continues the analysis of viewers began earlier. Here, with ourselves as the audience participating in the social space of display, and with a virtual experience similar to “real” museum vistors, we begin to understand the process by which viewers fashion a self identity and search for self confirmation in the act of contemplating art, all happening within the immediacy of a simulated experience. For more information about the project see the 12.27.05 post, Adoration of the Standees, and read more here.
Last year I began to photograph homes and cityscapes in the Silverlake area of Los Angeles. Silverlake has gone through a number of transformations since it was first settled during the “first westward march of the suburbs” in the 1920′s. Home to one of the first suburban LA communities, it soon became known as a location where artists and writers and other “creatives” lived. During the 1960′s, 70′s and 80′s, Silverlake became less of an ideal area to live as more of central Los Angeles diversified and the western hamlets came to be seen as more desirable. In the late 1990′s, artists, musicians and other “hipsters” again moved into the area. The cycle of gentrification began. View more images from the LA? project in recent work or click here.
“Framed” viewers at the spectatormuseum.org. further illustrate the ideas discussed in the previous post. To see more work about this theme visit www.spectatormuseum.org and click Viewers As the Object of Display in the connections menu.
This series investigates the viewing practices of individuals in the social milieu of display and exhibition space. These representations of viewing practices establish museum visitors themselves as viewed objects. Through their participation in the social space of display, and more particularly the ways in which they fashion a self identity and search for self confirmation in the act of contemplating art, viewers constitute themselves as objects alongside the works of art. This results in a pardoxical overvaluation of viewers that is simultaneously acknowledged by viewers and is marshalled by display managers to increase attendance. To see more work about this theme visit www.spectatormuseum.org and click Viewers As the Object of Display in the connections menu.
Recently, there has been considerable discussion in art circles about the intersection of artistic practice and scientific ways of “knowing” and investigation. Just as important is how artists and scientists “use” social, political, and cultural values to shape the reception of their work. Emblematically, this reached its cynical height in the work of Dr. Hwang Woo Suk. His groundbreaking cloning research of last year was subsequently invalidated by an investigating panel at Seoul National University, which deemed it to be marred by falsified data. As mentioned in a New York Times article, Under a Microscope: High-Profile Cases Bring New Scrutiny to Science’s Superstars, “scientists are increasingly celebrities and millionaires, they (other scientists) said, the limelight can corrupt judgment.” Clearly, the social processes of culture have the potential to corrupt both artists and scientists. The article also mentions how scientists have become far less collegial in the past decade, pushing hard to be first in their field. “There are enormous pressures to be extremely productive and at the top of the heap,” Here the similarities of social process involved in scientific and artistic production seems clear.
During February 2005, Ava was diagnosed with oral melanoma. The course of treatment includes surgery, radiation, and a series of injections of experimental oral melanoma vaccine developed by the University of Wisconsin. Because of tumor regrowth, there have been two additional surgeries. So far, diagnostic tests reveal no metastases. To round out treatment, acupuncture and homeopathic supplements are also part of the regimen. Approximately three weeks ago the mass became smaller and is currently a fraction of its original 2cm size. While we remain optimistic, it is not possible to say with certainty what is occuring inside the body or even the home. Click here for more visual representations connected to this theme.
