is an art exhibition expressing and unraveling states of political desperation. Activists, artists and very concerned people have created posters, manifestos, DIY kits, postcards, stickers, buttons and multi-media projects for free distribution.
Traveling through the country, this show creates space to build relationships and foster dialogue around the desperate state of affairs laid by a disastrous administration, complacent congressional leaders and a un-empowered populous
why are we so desperate?
In November 2008 something is going to change. The worst president ever will finally be voted out of the White House. But, as the infamous writing on the wall reads, IF VOTING CHANGED ANYTHING THEY'D MAKE IT ILLEGAL. The desperate push by progressives to include Ralph Nader in the 2000 elections and then their desperate about face towards Nader in 2004 is forgotten history. Now, in 2008, even though Nader is back in the race, we are still firmly rooted in the abyss of a two party system.
For many of us born after the assassinations of JFK, MLK and Malcolm X, belief in revolutionary change through electoral politics is not easily resuscitated. Our first political memory falls somewhere between Nixon's resignation and Bill Clinton's lies about having sex with Monica Lewinsky. Obama's seductive oratory style that instills nostalgia for movements we can't remember, Clinton's ability to go up against the men weighing down the glass ceiling, and Edwards' anti-corporate power to the people rhetoric is countered by Nancy Pelosi's miserable failure to radicalize the senate and end the war in Iraq as the first woman Speaker of the house.
The potential for the executive branch to be made up of firsts: the first president to be a black man or the first woman or Latino vice president, is not enough. The Bush white house knew the power of representation, and they delivered: Condoleeza Rice, Alberto Gonzales, John Yoo, Clarence Thomas and Mary Cheney's baby. Choosing to vote based on community affiliation has led to more exclusive tendencies, not less.
what are our options?
Despite the the crisis in American leadership, there's a real utopic moment before us. Electing the first president of color, indeed, might bring change. But our political system, in which any president would work, is fraught with inequities, violence and power plays in which change looks like reform. Movements, not leadership, new technologies, or more consumer products, is what makes long term, change.
Now is not the time to congratulate ourselves for supposedly moving past our radicalized state, we must not be complacent. How much do we compromise when we chose to participate in a stubborn old beast of a system that is unlikely to learn new tricks or rollover. How do we connect communities, select alliances, establish coalitions? Is it possible to be so reckless that desperation can be re-imagined as a tool for political organizing? Do we need to delve fully into an emotional crisis or can we wallow in our desperation and find creative possibilities for effecting social change?
Jessica Lawless is a video artist and founding member of the Seattle based self-defense and arts organization, “Home Alive.” Her videos have screened internationally in film festivals, activist spaces, art galleries and universities alike. She co-facilitates the FTM Alliance group for loved ones of transgendered and gender queer folks. Jessica teaches Media Studies and Women/Gender Studies at the Claremont Colleges.
Sarah Ross is an artist whose works focus on myths of health, safety and cleanliness that surface in the physical and visual structures of everyday spaces. She teaches at various institutions including the Illinois State University and an Illinois state prison, and works with U-C Books to Prisoners, and Education Justice Project.
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