Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Can't Get Arrested, Even

We noted just below the most recent of our failures to win a so-called genius grant from the nitwits at the MacArthur Foundation. Here's another failure: We can't get arrested. Oh, some people, who must think they're really special, can get arrested, but us, the beacon of despair in the illuminated world? No such luck. And look what an arrest can get you!! Art, w/ a capital "A."
Pieces assigned to individual rooms elsewhere in the building come across more strongly, and at least three of them brilliantly. A few are archival displays, the most arresting by the collective called Critical Art Ensemble and the Institute for Applied Autonomy, which for years have operated at the intersection of art, science and politics. In 2004 a founding member of Critical Art Ensemble, Steven Kurtz, was indicted under the Patriot Act, accused of illegally obtaining bacteria samples, among other charges. The charges were eventually dismissed by a judge. But outrage over the affair is still strong in the activist art world. And the piece at the armory titled “Seized” is Exhibit A in its ethical brief: at the center of the installation is heaped-up trash, including pizza boxes, left behind by government agents who commandeered Mr. Kurtz’s home.
Sadly, the shitheels at The New York Times will print photos in their dead-tree editions that are unavailable in the "on-line" edition. For example, the shot of the trash left by said agents at the art boy's house.

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