Monday Night — 04.07.03 — 'Over the Counter Culture' —
Comments Off on Monday Night — 04.07.03 — 'Over the Counter Culture' —Monday Night — 04.07.03 — ‘Over the Counter Culture’ —
Presentation/Discussion
Contents:
1. About Tonight
2.’Anything You Consume I Consume Better’Press Release
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1. About this Monday
when: Monday at 7:00 pm
where: 16 beaver street, 5th floor
who: all are welcome
This Monday Night we are pleased to invite UK based Ange Taggart (who
attended the Strategies evening in December) and artists/activists James
Leadbitter and Denis Buckley for’Over the Counter Culture’.
If you’re a fan of Adbusters, you’ll love Taggart’s subversive culture
jamming, this month she brings her war on consumerism from across the
Atlantic to our shores. Best known for her performances in contested public
spaces and one of the more interesting culture jammer’s on the European
scene, she’ll be discussing & screening work at 16Beavergroup joined by UK
artist/activists James Leadbitter and Denis Buckley.
She works and lectures out of Nottingham, England, where she co founded
Fanclub, and gave birth to its sequel My Dads Strip Club, she coordinates
a UK/USA based anti-consumer task force of CZW?s (Commercially Zoned
Workers). She describes her work as “experimental and risky in the sense
that it hijacks and re-appropriates public space. The glossy environment
of the department store provides a perfect context for her pseudo-shopping
antics right at the heart of the corporate superstructure. She reserves a
special vitriol and mistrust for Wal-Mart, Gap, Starbucks and the evil of
Martha Stewart products, her work has been noted by their CCTV camera
operators worldwide.
The relationship between political activism and the increasing interest in
this type of action (Buy Nothing Day, Rev Billy, Whirl Mart) demonstrates
the degree of frustration an increasing number of individuals feel.
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2. ‘Anything You Consume I Consume Better’Press Release
‘Anything You Consume I Consume Better’
Following her desperate ‘shopping trip’ to New York in December 02 to try to
make things better, UK performance artist Ange Taggart is making a return
visit to the USA to coincide with America going to war.
http://www.mydadsstripclub.com/duanereade.htm
This is part of a year long series of works she is producing which brings
together groups of artists who work in the commercial zone and comment on
the excesses of consumer culture in relation to the world order and global
economy.
Over the next 3 months she will be visiting major cities in the US and UK
connecting and communicating with artists to create, discuss and promote
work that feeds a culture of resistance.
In March and April 03 the activity will be focused in the USA where she is
joined by UK artist James Leadbitter – The Vacuum Cleaner and USA
artist/filmmaker Andrew Lynn from Breathing Planet. They will be working
with participants to perform in shops and on the streets of Chicago as part
of Version03 festival.
They’ll also be meeting up with the UK artist Denis Buckley in New York and
presenting work together at the heart of the financial district of New York.
The performances in Chicago and New York are backed up by a series of guest
lectures in galleries, arts schools, universities and artist projects to
present and discuss works by a group of UK/USA artists that create and
promote a culture of resistance.
10-17 March New School University New York
27 March 03 Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago
28 March 03 Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago
2 March 03 School of the Art Institute of Chicago
5 April 03 1/Quarterly Gallery Chicago
7 April 03 16Beavergroup New York
9 April 03 Hunter College New York
10 April 03 Parsons School of Design New York
10 April 03 Drama Department New York University
10 April 03 Wooster Collective New York
In May the attention shifts to the UK when six USA artists fly over to team
up with UK artists to create the UK Stop Shopping Tour.
>From the 8-20 May 03 the group will be presenting and performing in UK city
centres in Derby, Nottingham, Newcastle and London.
Highlights will include street preaching, Sunday services followed by
congregation-shopping, advice on how to produce hazardous biological
chemical and radiological weapons from popular branded goods, consumption
awareness rituals and disfunctional shopping trips. All this is backed up
by forums to engage and meet the artists as well as a series of lectures in
universities and arts establishments.
Artists include:
Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping
Retroactive Logo Distribution
How and Why
Conglomco
Whirl-Mart
My Dads Strip Club
Richard Dedomanici
Jon Burgerman
Nato
Space Hijackers
The Vacuum Cleaner
More information can be found at:
http://www.mydadsstripclub.com
http://www.breathingplanet.net/tour
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“I don’t think it’s an accident that in totalitarian societies they always
arrest the artists first, though we don’t seem particularly dangerous. I
think the responsibility of the artist, each of us in our way, is to tell
the truth. And the truth generally involves a great deal of ambiguity, and
in times of war ambiguity and paradox are the first things to go. People
want simple black and white answers.” ” André Gregory, theater director and
actor. ”