Resisting Subversion of Subversive Resistance.
Propositions towards urban (r)evolution
Marc De Jong, Paul J. Kalemba, Van Tran Rudd and Tom Sevil.
“Facilitator” Paul Kalemba. (Curator)
"No, painting is not done to decorate apartments it is an instrument of war".
Pablo Picasso. 1945.
Resisting Subversion of Subversive Resistance features the works and collaborations of four contemporary arts-activists. Romantic illusions of freedom fighters aside, serious business meets tongue-in-cheek as a homegrown R/evolution through urban edibles and the bicycle-peddling critical masses meet conscious consumption and political awareness.
The 20th century saw exponential advancement in many areas of human activity. The image was by no means excluded from this refinement. The total war of World War 2 saw not only mechanized militarism devastate European civilization, but the Third Reich and the allies alike bred the image for a new purpose. The manipulation of desire and fear was refined and exploited through the image, with propaganda aiming for nothing short of changing the opinions, and thus actions, of entire nations.
Enter the 21st Century. Commercial advertising carries on this imaging tradition into this decade, promising a veritable Shangri-La of sensual pleasure, luxury and convenience, tied firmly to a treadmill of competitive individualism. Meanwhile, headlines scream climate change, peak oil, environmental collapse, over consumption, finite resources . . . the new ideas now firmly in the zeitgeist. At face value it seems society as economy vs a sustainable future.
Resisting Subversion of Subversive Resistance seeks to defy this manipulation of fear and desire, employing a combination of loose scale model propositions and the graphic image, where WW2 style propaganda meets re-advertising, promoting consumer awareness and sustainable models via DIY culture. The artists dialogue with the notations of propaganda and resistance though subverting emblematic symbology and imagery of contemporary art, advertising and politics and their concurrent histories.
Thanks to Bulleen Art and Garden, for their generous in kind support, with this project.
