Where the political left was once the clear bastion of free speech and expression in the U.S., it could be argued that the new left silences thought and speech perceived as antithetical or offensive to its values almost as much as the right wing does, or did. This is a problem for culture, and evidently, for art. “Political correctness,” says Slovenian philosopher and cultural theorist Slavoj Žižek, “is a desperate attempt by the public norms to tell you what is decent, what is not.” What Žižek suggests here is that political correctness can be harmful in its ability to obscure the truth and dilute public discourse; by sanitizing rhetoric we sanitize cultural meaning. This climate of over-the-top, politically correct theatrics has infiltrated the art world; art’s job is ultimately to push back on societal taboos and interrogate prevailing norms. Good art is almost always offensive to someone. Click here to read more
Adriana Lara "NY - USA" @ Algus Greenspon Gallery
Adriana Lara Algus Greenspon Gallery
Algus Greenspon presents NY - USA, the first New York solo exhibition by Adriana Lara. Lara’s work considers form and content in relation to their condition as language and its syntax. By presenting theories, symbols and words as structures of content these appear as meaning containers, sometimes begging for meaning (IT), sometimes avoiding it (text) and sometimes just playing with it (symbols). Either way, by shuffling signifiers and their context interpretation becomes form. NY - USA will be on view unti January 19, 2013 at Algus Greenspon, 71 Morton Street, New York