THE BLAME SHOW: DISSENT+FREEDOM

Larry Litt
Dan Perkins (aka Tom Tomorrow)
Svetlana Mintcheva
Sarah Glover
Tim Rollins + KOS
Artist Network of Refuse and Resist
Independent Media Center
Eleanor Heartney
Daniel Kurtzman
Political Artists Open Media Lab

Curated by the Blame Committee (Eleanor Heartney + Larry Litt)

1 - 11 May 2002

Sponsored in part by American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) & National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC)artists, activists, videographers, designers: Sarah Glover , Larry Litt, Dan Perkins (aka Tom Tomorrow), Tim Rollins and KOS, Artist s Network of Refuse & Resist, Dread Scott, The Indypendent Newspaper

May 8th Public Forum: "Art Now: Polite, Politic or Political?"
Sarah Glover, artist; Eleanor Heartney, art critic; Larry Litt, videographer; Svetlana Mintcheva, ncac arts advocacy coordinator; Tim Rollins, artist-educator; Dread Scott, artist-activist

This public forum is co-organized by the national coalition against censorship.

PRESS

Show: The Blame Show: Dissent and Freedom
Publication: The ADVOCATE AND GREENWICH TIME , NY ARTS. Sunday, October 13, 2002
Article/Writer: L.P. Streitfeld

Sept. 11 generated a great deal of patriotic flag waving, but what about the flip side of the war on terrorism that the commercial media is loath to reveal? Observing both the art worldŐs uniform denial of the cultural impact of the watershed event and the personal agenda of the talking heads dominating the airwaves, Larry Litt and Elanor Heartney decided to take matters into their own hands.

The result is "The Blame Show", a rare attempt to broaden the political and social dialogue in the form of a multimedial art exhibition devoted to topical, political and satirical videos, visual art and graphics from a diverse group of artists and writers.

Tina LaPorta, the newly appointed curator of Fairfield UniversityŐs Lukacs gallery, will open the exhibition Tuesday with a reception followed by a discussion. "The Blame Show Live: Polite, Politic and Political." Sponsored in part by the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Coalition Against Censorship, this provocative show originated at White Box, the most progressive independent gallery in Chelsea. Fairfield University is the first stop out of New York City on a national tour.

"Whom do you blame?" Litt, in the role of Mephistopholes, asks at the start of "The Blame Show," a 13 minute video at the core of a multimedia experiment progressing form a simple equation: DISSENT=FREEDOM. Here the public had an opportunity to voice their opinions on the current state of political and social affairs in the homeland. Litt edited 90 interviews onto a fascinating multicultural mosaic synthesizing America at the start of the 21st century.

As a political commentator, Litt is no stranger to censorship; he lost a position as a regular newspaper contributor when the introduction of religion into his food column aroused the ire of advertisers. His trnasition to digital filmmaker occurred after a post-Sept. 11 discussion with Heartney, a prominent New York art critic. "It was out of our frustration," he explains. "We were screaming at television and radio because all we saw was heroes and talking heads. Among our friends there was much more diversified opinion."

"The Blame Show" constitutes a technological democracy, incorporating a visual aesthetic with individual voice as grass roots antidote to corporate domination of the commercial media.

Heartney, who appears in the video as a respondent, confirms that "The Blame Show is extending the definition of art for a new century. "Art institutions are open to us doing this kind of thing, yet it challenges art curriculum the way a regular aesthetic doesnŐt," she says.

The artistic dialogue is further extended in a manner that the original collaborators couldnŐt possibly have anticipated. Here we discover filmmaker and critic appearing in their own unique self-perpetuating visual art form, by which spectators are also invited into participation. "We are here to educate people that it is okay to be political in a society that wants you not to be," Litt proclaims.

"I am pissed off at the government," declares participating artist and educator Jim Costanzo, whose two-year investigation of the relationships between art practice and politics is also on view this month in Chelsea. "The American people are facing a similar choice as the Germans did in the early thirties."

"The funding for political work is nonexistent," says Litt. "There are very few curators that will take the risk. You have to see these exhibitions at the moment they happen."

The moment is clearly now. A new installment of "The Blame Show" video happens to be the centerpiece of a unique investigation of place on exhibit at the Queens Museum of Art. Comprised of interviews with random museum visitors stating their collective concerns, the most engaging element is visual. By brilliantly depicting todayŐs global consciousness in a specific locality, the video celebrates the multicultural tapestry that is America, where-regardless of age, sex, race, nationality, economics or social status- what matters most is the freedom to express what is on oneŐs mind.

 

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