CITY Issue 58

CITY LIFE / TEMPORARY CONTEMPORARY BY BILL POWERS CANVASSING VOTERS From Andy Warhol to Chris Johanson, painters brush the surface of election debates and social unrest, but does political artwork really make a difference? W THE WORK OF RIRKRIT TIRAVANIJA (SEEN ABOVE) IS ON DISPLAY NOW AT NEW YORK’S DRAWING CENTER. 48 CITY TY CHRIS JOHANSON’S “UNTITLED” 2008 TOM POWEL IMAGING, COURTESY OF DEITCH PROJECTS RIRKRIT TIRAVANIJA, UNTITLED (DEMONSTRATION NO. 203). COURTESY OF THE ARTIST AND 1301 PE, LOS ANGELES. ith the elections nearly upon us, I’ve been thinking a lot about the elationship between contempo a y a t and politics. The ﬁ st thing that came to mind was the Richa d P ince chestnut, “I can eat politics, I can sleep politics, but I don’t have to d ink politics.” Unless, of cou se, they’ e se ving spiked Kool- id. In gene al though, the social commenta y coming f om the ﬁ ne a ts community leans heavily — and explicitly — towa d the le , be it Richa d Se a’s Stop Bush poste of a hooded p isone at bu Gh aib o ndy Wa hol’s famous campaign cont ibution to the p esidential ace featu ing a smiling Richa d Nixon ove the wo ds, “Vote McGove n.” Speaking of which, I love how Nate Lowman ecently updated Wa hol’s vision to add ess the cu ent p esidential contende s. With “Vote Obama” sc awled in c ayon beneath it, Lowman has docto ed a photocopy of a John McCain head shot to look like one of ou founding fathe s. (Talk about old!) I eally hope it doesn’t jinx the Democ ats . . . again. Lowman is tight with anothe New o k–based a tist, dam McEwen, whom you may ecall f om the Whitney Biennial in . One of his best pieces was a blown-up newspape obitua y he did fo Bill Clinton. In fact, when my f iend went to tou the exhibition, she actually spotted Chelsea Clinton eading he undead fathe ’s obit on the wall, taking the p oject into the su eal. I’ve always enjoyed McEwen’s obits, a skill he honed w iting eal ones fo a B itish newspape when he lived in London. His othe fakes include Kate Moss, Jeﬀ Koons, and Nicole Kidman. McEwen has a solo show up in East Hampton th ough mid-Septembe at Glenn Ho owitz Bookselle on Newtown Lane. I asked cu ato John McWhinnie what to expect and he said, “It evolves la gely a ound the theme of g aphite — as the ca bonate we a e made up of, as an a tist’s substance, as the substance of the wo ld, and as stuﬀ used in weapons technology.” If you can’t make it out to Long Island, McEwen will have anothe show at Nicole Klagsb un in New o k late this fall. Did anyone see the indie a t documenta y Beautiful Lose s this summe ? The film was made by filmmake a on Rose, the guy who used to un the now-defunct lleged Galle y. The film ch onicles his old stable of a tists: Ba y McGee, Ma ga et Kilgallen, Steve Powe s, Ch is Johanson, Mike Mills, etc. In some ways, it’s like a snapshot of ’ s New o k, the e a just befo e P ada came to SoHo. Johanson himself has new wo k up at Deitch P ojects in Septembe and my f iend ty Nelson w ote the catalog essay. While you’ e t olling the shops and galle ies in the a ea, pop into The D awing Cente , whe e they just unveiled of Ri k it Ti avanija’s so-called demonst ation d awings. He app op iates ecent photog aphs f om political allies p inted in the pages of the Inte national He ald T ibune and then commissions othe a tists — often fo me students f om his native Thailand — to c eate hype ealist imitations of them in pencil on pape . Ti avanijia’s wo k has always st essed the value of pa ticipation; he has sometimes been efe ed to as a food a tist because his past pe fo mances involved cooking meals fo galle y goe s. The new demonst ation d awings continue this explo ation of inte action by econtextualizing images of communal st ife and instead affixing them to the ealm of political aspi ation. I’m still on the fence about whethe a tists can t uly aﬀect political outcomes. Maybe they can in the same way celeb ity endo sements do, only on a much smalle scale. If any of this wo k stands the test of time, it will p ove that at least a couple of us we e actually paying attention.

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of CITY Issue 58

CITY Issue 58 Contents Have You Heard Our Friends Action Wanted City Moment The Amused Bouche Fast Food Temporary Contemporary In Rogue Diary Nicola Vassell Everard Findlay Milan Vukmirovic Lucas Ossendrijver When Fashion Met Architecture People: Person Behind Every Man... Eyeing the Room Mates Vagrant Saints Amplify Where to Buy It Icon

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.