For Art as Epic Theater

January 25, 2016 Adam Turl

Red Mars by Adam Turl, acrylic, sharpie, coffee, meteorite dust, glitter on canvas with found objects, 2016, Lewis Center, Sam Fox School of Art, Saint Louis, Missouri — *Red Mars* by Adam Turl, acrylic, sharpie, coffee, meteorite dust, glitter on canvas with found objects, 2016, Lewis Center, Sam Fox School of Art, Saint Louis, Missouri

In October, 2015 Red Wedge's Adam Turl gave a lecture, "For Art as Epic Theater" at the Brett Wesley Gallery in Las Vegas, Nevada and Project 1612 in Peoria, Illinois. These artist talks coincided with the "13 Baristas" exhibit in Las Vegas and the "Kick the Cat" show in Peoria. The audio above is from the Las Vegas presentation and includes the discussion that followed. The lecture ends around the 45 minute mark. Turl makes the case for seeing the art space as a theatrical space. In addition he advocates for the alternating of distancing and non-distancing artistic tropes. Finally, Turl argues for Epic narratives in art. This includes the ancient mythological nature of the Epic as well as the inclusion of a multiplicity of proletarian narratives (neither idealized nor detached from social and economic relationships). Turl would like to thank both galleries, and the generosity of the Brett Wesley Gallery in particular, for their help in facilitating both the exhibitions and artist presentations.

"Who Stole the Soul?" Understanding Cultural Exchange Under Neoliberalism

January 20, 2016 Alexander Billet, Bill Crane and C.S. Becerril

Ian Matchett, The Bench Sitters (2012) — Ian Matchett, *The Bench Sitters* (2012)

Contemporary capitalism has produced stark and contradictory forms of development that by extension produce equally contradictory ways of understanding culture and the phenomenon of cultural exchange. The exchange of commodities, ideas and forms of artistic expression has always been a feature of capitalist development. Neoliberalism, however, has accelerated and accentuated these phenomena; therefore the left must reconsider the way we engage with questions of culture and cultural exchange.

The term “cultural appropriation” is one such attempt at engaging with cultural exchange, and one which has moved into common parlance among the radical left over the past decade. However, much of the theory that has emerged to explain cultural exchange, although rooted in an anti-racist instinct, is a product of post-colonial theory.

The Rapist David Bowie

January 14, 2016 Margaret Corvid

Dirty his name? The dirt was always there,
just carried under nails of struggling girls,
in rucksacks, tossed in cupboards, hidden, curled
in elbows, tucked between their hats and hair.

The dirt was always there, beneath the shine,
between the lines we thought we understood,
in laurel leaves we garland round the good

Problematic Boogie: On David Bowie

January 12, 2016 Jordy Cummings

This is NOT an obituary. Indeed this article was written on Friday Jan 8th and Saturday Jan 9th. It is clear now that the meaning of "Lazarus" on the new record cannot be reduced to the Thin White Duke persona, though it is clear that, of all of his personae, Bowie felt most comfortable staging his death – his final work of art – using the persona of the dying, emaciated mid-seventies iteration of his chameleon-like ch-ch-ch-changes. The very act of planning an album release – including a tremendously disturbing music video of a very sick Bowie – around one’s death seems of a piece with Bowie’s lifelong artistic project…

Corpocracy: Engaged Art In Practice

January 4, 2016 Paul Mullan

Steve LambertCapitalism Works For Me! True/False (2011)Aluminum and electrical9 x 20 x 7 feet — Steve Lambert
*Capitalism Works For Me! True/False* (2011)
Aluminum and electrical
9 x 20 x 7 feet

"Corpocracy,” currently at the Station Museum of Contemporary Art in Houston, provides another opportunity to reexamine important questions of a genuinely militant and engaged art practice. The show features political, mostly contemporary work by artists such as Michael D'Antuono, Kenneth Tin-Kin Hung, Packard Jennings, Eugenio Merino, Yoshua Okón, Stephanie Syjuco, and Judi Werthein. One arts collective is featured as well: the Beehive Design Collective.

Modeled on retro, aluminum signage, with chasing lights that flicker on and off in different patterns, Steve Lambert’s Capitalism Works For Me! True/False (2011) spells out the work’s exclamatory title...

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