Private Art for Public Protest: New York Galleries Voice Their Opposition to the Bush Administration
Sandra Garcia

We artists of the United States are divided in many ways, artistically and ideologically, but we are as one in our concern for Humanity…American artists wish once more to have faith in the United States of America. We will not remain silent in the face of our country's shame.
-- Artists and Writers Protest, open letter advertisement in the New York Times 1965

Walking along the trendy gallery-strewn streets of Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood, one would expect the public dissent that reverberated throughout Union Square and Madison Square Garden expressed through massive protest and public action during the 2004 Republican National Convention (RNC) to go relatively unnoticed. As an area known for its high-profile galleries, it is easy to get the sense that names like George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and John Ashcroft come second in Chelsea to the likes of Paula Cooper, Barbara Gladstone, and Lehmann Maupin. No one can deny that here, art is the ultimate commodity.

During the Republican delegates' visit from August 29th to September 2nd, Mixed Greens, a space on 26th Street, offered a lighthearted exhibition entitled "Ice Cream Social" where the gallery was converted to a festive soda shop and spectators could purchase hip items at a gift store set up by fredflare.com. Its second gallery featured "Nine Very Charitable Men," a series of portraits paying homage to CEOs from the most philanthropic corporations of 2001. But a few doors down, White Box, a non-profit space, wasn't going to let the current political climate go unaddressed. This year "Six Feet Under," White Box's annual eight-week summer series (running from July 7th-September 4th), featured the theme "Make Nice," which played on ex-New York City mayor Ed Koch's citywide ad campaign that warned New Yorkers: "The Republicans are Coming, Make Nice." Conceptualized by media artist Larry Litt and White Box director Juan Puntes, eight weeklong exhibitions openly criticized the current presidency. During the week prior to the Republicans' arrival, gallery-goers and passersby could peer into the gallery through sidewalk-level windows and see what resembled a brightly lit campaign hall, post-celebration. Artist Kyle Goen covered the walls from floor to ceiling with red, white, and black posters that featured George W. Bush and the caption "Elect A Madman You Get Madness." Banners with the same imagery hung from high beams while red and white confetti and balloons covered the floor. Unable to enter the locked gallery, spectators were forced to view the exhibition from the sidewalk. The inaccessibility and alienation of the seemingly festive space illustrated the sentiment already felt by many New Yorkers as streets, subway stations, and venues normally open to the public became exclusionary or closed off in preparation for the Convention. The exhibit expressed the artist's and the gallery's political view loud and clear: Bush is an unwelcome madman. This message effectively spread throughout the streets of Manhattan as protesters and avid gallery-goers purchased pins, posters, and t-shirts bearing Goen's design and exhibited them at public demonstrations. What initially began as a single political statement in a Chelsea gallery turned into a powerful sentiment espoused by many.

White Box was not the only art institution to present politically motivated shows during the RNC. Many museums and galleries featured exhibits of past American protest art, including the Whitney Museum's "WAR! Protest in America 1965-2004," which screened two anti-Iraq War documentaries as part of a larger political documentary film series for the exhibit. But it was a handful of private galleries throughout New York City and Brooklyn that took a bold political stance by decisively exhibiting work that openly protested and criticized the current Bush Administration. Clearly this daring display would not have been possible without the art world's participation in the antiwar movement of the late 1960s-mid-1970s, which gave rise to political art styles like "collage," "new genre public art," and "poster art." Moreover, visual art became more performative as "actions," "events," "happenings," "guerrilla theatre," and "street works" were presented in warehouses and on the streets. Artist organizations and various art collectives also emerged during this period.

Feeling entrapped by the current administration's policies, the owner of Luxe Gallery heeded the call to action and hosted an impressive installation known as the Experimental Party's Disinformation Center. Located on the fifth floor of a posh Midtown high-rise only a few blocks away from Chanel's Manhattan headquarters, this artist-based political party created a liminal world between cyberspace and reality by taking the contents of its website www.experimentalparty.org and giving it a physical presence. Set-up to resemble the headquarters of a secret government agency, visitors were greeted with a disclaimer prior to entering which stated,

"Warning, you are entering a virtual U.S. Government installation, which may be used only for artistic and socially motivated purposes. The government may monitor and critique usage of this installation and all persons are hereby notified that its use constitutes consent to such monitory and critical analysis."

Within the gallery's black walls and ceiling an official Department of Art & Technology seal is pressed onto the floor. Brightly colored collages of politicians, journalists, celebrities, and government buildings are displayed against the walls while distorted footage from news outlets Fox and CNN play on monitors imbedded within the collages. Video recordings of protests, activists, and crafty VJ remixes redub George W. Bush and Tony Blair into serenading love song crooners or transform George W. Bush into a power-hungry turntablist with evil intentions. Luxe Gallery's intentions are loud and clear as the Disinformation Center effectively argues against the current Administration's manipulation over the media, and reaffirms the saying, "things are not what always what they seem."

Deitch Project, a gallery in SoHo, addressed the direct threat to artistic freedom that emerged after the enactment of the Patriot Act. A mixed media show titled "Freedom Salon," it highlighted over 40 contributing artists and covered a wide array of social issues including the RNC, the war on Iraq, world peace, racism, and injustice within the American judicial system. To illustrate the latter, Deitch Project included an inkjet printout of a poster titled The Flesh Machine Wants Your DNA, designed in 1997 by Critical Art Ensemble (CAE). It also displayed a large black binder filled with articles and information regarding the criminal investigation currently faced by one of CAE's founding members. An interventionist art collective, CAE is dedicated to exploring the intersections between art, technology, radical politics and critical theory. In May 2004, member Steve Kurtz was wrongfully accused of bioterrorism when he called 911 after finding his wife's lifeless body in their apartment/studio. Police became suspicious of the items in his studio and called the FBI who confiscated his wife's body as well as his art supplies, which included legal laboratory material. Kurtz was detained without explanation and later released. The bioterrorism charges proved to be inconclusive, but he now finds himself facing trumped-up federal charges of mail fraud. This incident created widespread concern within the arts community over the government's ability to arrest and persecute artists. Illustrating how our freedoms have fallen victim to Bush's war against terror, "Freedom Salon" showcased an artist community that recognizes the importance of solidarity and social awareness.

Brooklyn galleries such as Roebling Hall and Parlour Projects also featured exhibits of their own. Situated in Williamsburg, a neighborhood known for its large artist community and unconventional gallery spaces, Parlour Projects, headed by Dean Daderko, presented the exhibit "Republican Like Me" (August 17th-September 20th). A gallery space that is literally Daderko's living room featured a mixed media exhibition that included the now infamous Silence = Death posters from the '80s AIDS movement. A poster showing a demented Ronald Reagan reminded gallery-goers of his questionable presidential policies and unpopular anti-AIDS politics, thus giving a rather different perception of a man who after his recent death was reinvented by the media as an American hero and humanitarian.

The outstanding motive for curating these politically outspoken exhibits was not money; in fact, the consequences faced by galleries that made such strong political statements was very real. And these statements did not go unnoticed. The New York Times, Time Out Magazine, National Public Radio and other media and journalism outlets covered the exhibits as they reported on the various RNC protest activities. ArtForum magazine devoted its September issue to the topic of Art and Politics and featured articles of current political art (much of which was seen during the convention).

What the events and various exhibits surrounding the RNC illustrated was the eternal tie between art and politics. Throughout history, the arts community has stepped up to the plate in times of protest. Whether presented on the streets, in theaters, or in private galleries, the role art plays as an effective and convincing means of protest should never be doubted.

Sandy Garcia is a MA student in Performance Studies at NYU and has worked for various art organizations including Cal Performances (Berkeley, CA), MASS MoCA (Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art), Performa, and Pomegranate Arts.