Joy Garnett, Molotov (detail)
Susan Meiselas, Sandinistas at the walls of the Esteli National Guard headquarters, Esteli, Nicaragua, 1979, © Susan Meiselas/Magnum
- Bloggy observes the Susan Meiselas exhibition at ICP is sponsored by Shell, a company with no business claiming support for the artists’ documentation of human rights issues in Latin America given their own behavior internationally. From the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre website:
In 1996, Royal Dutch/Shell was sued in US federal court by Ken Wiwa (son of the late Ogoni activist Ken Saro-Wiwa who was executed in 1995) and other members of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP). MOSOP campaigned against the environmental damage caused by oil extraction in the Ogoni region of Nigeria and for increased autonomy for the Ogoni ethnic group. Ken Saro-Wiwa and other members of MOSOP were detained illegally in 1994, held incommunicado in military custody, then tried by a special court established by the military government using procedures in violation of international fair trial standards, convicted of murder and executed. The plaintiffs allege that the Nigerian military government and security forces committed human rights violations, including torture and summary execution of MOSOP members, to suppress MOSOP's activities and that Royal Dutch/Shell was complicit in the commission of these abuses. The case is currently in litigation; the plaintiffs have won several pre-trial rulings, including on motions by the defendants to dismiss the case.
- Bloggy also notes that Susan Meiselas is well known in the web community “as the person who sent her lawyer after Joy Garnett accusing her of “pirating” [her] photo when Joy created the painting titled Molotov…“
- James Wagner has a number of early shows picks in the Lower East Side worth taking a look at if you plan to be in the neighborhood. Also, his post titled “In America, Anyone Can Become President“, reminded me of my mother’s grave words to me this week as she lamented that this phrase had come to mean, “In America, Anyone Should Become President”. We were discussing the Palin VP pick, and 8 years of failed Republican leadership. Related: Dealer Edward Winkleman breaks down who he’s voting for and why. Also related: An Obama fundraiser September 11th at Sutra Lounge. Support Obama and Sarah Palin’s baby.
- This week’s recipient of the dumbest art headline goes to TimesOnline, which ran Does Damien Hirst’s Auction at Sotheby’s Mean the End of the Gallery? No dealers were interviewed for this piece, which is pretty much the only way a professional could come to such absurd conclusion; of course the sale doesn’t mean the end of the gallery, auction houses don’t have a hold on every collector, nor does everyone want to buy that way. TimesOnline also provides the most empty assessment of the artist’s work I’ve watched in years, the video narration quipping, “I love the show. No artist has ever shoved this much work straight into the auction rooms.” The article itself spends most of its time talking about how Damien Hirst is radically changing the art world, impervious to recessions, and gawking at the artist’s grandiose investments. Were the article not so insipid, it would be utterly boring.
