CITIZEN ARTISTS MAKING EMPHATIC ARGUMENTS
Archive of Previous Statements on the Show
The Future of Nations- Part Three
Guest curated by Al Nodal
July 12-September 13, 2008
Artists:
Ala Plastica
Lauren Bon
BULBO
CoLabART ∞ LYNN SMALL + DENNIS PAUL
Echo Park Film Center
Fallen Fruit
Newton & Helen Mayer Harrison
Invisible 5
Natalie Jeremijenko
Tom Reddock
Shannon Spanahake
Kim Stringfellow
Robert Tannen, and:
Los Animistas, 18th Street Artist Fellow
It is my great pleasure to work with the 18th Street Art Center and with the impressive group of curators and artists assembled for this four part series of exhibitions: Future Of Nations. My focus is Environments. To me this signifies a new political, social, scientific and cultural movement that has come together to help individuals and communities understand and face the challenges of environmental justice, global environmental degradation and currently, US indifference to environmental issues facing our world.
This work has precedent in the important art activism that took place in the 1980s around the issue of AIDS desperation at the time and Government indifference to what looked like a disease of the “other”. Radical activists used cultural means to make the story human for the world. Groups like Act Up and other radical cultural activists produced great works of Art in the process and many other artists followed through with beautiful statements that made the world understand the issues related to the disease and the human side of the struggle.
In the environmental movement, a new era of collaboration with cultural and artistic activists has become a worldwide movement to urgent action with the goals of changing public opinion in this country and abroad about Global Warming issues and this has spilled out to full fledged political-environmental-cultural activism that has succeeded in capturing the imagination of individuals throughout the country.
The innovative work in this field is happening in small increments…certainly Government has not stepped up to the plate significantly in this country (with California as a noticeable exception and leader) and certainly the corporate sector has not yet unleashed it massive power to do good on this problem. Both sectors still have their heads-in-the-sand. Yet there is significant work being done by small non-profits, individual artist, scientists, small entrepreneurial start-ups, and just dreamers, inventors and outsiders. Today, in our new Web 2.0 Generation version of political and social networking there are ample approaches to make real change.
This is an art show. And this group of artists creates inspired works that make strong contributions to the development of contemporary art in America. Together they represent a great mix of ideas and approaches that are becoming a critical mass of activism and beautiful honest statements that are capturing the imagination of the world. Like other activist art movements, they are not shrinking flowers. Some are operating on a political level, others use Public art, and Guerrilla-Art methods against the government hegemony of denial and profit minded procrastination. Others are simply putting across important ideas that serve as beautiful arguments in the development of the discourse on the environment. The work is inspiring, and they have a strong commitment to their fellow human beings, their neighborhoods and the planet. They make beautiful art. List of artists to follow.
– Adolfo V. Nodal. Los Angeles.