Review of Seized in Afterimage issue september/october

For the magazine see: http://www.vsw.org/afterimage/

seizedand displayed

seized

criticalart ensemble and institute for applied autonomy

hallwallscontemporary arts center

buffalo,new york

june7?july 19, 2008

?SEIZED?marked the end of a four-year trial by the Justice Department againstSteve Kurtz, a Critical Art Ensemble (CAE) founding member and StateUniversity of New York at Buffalo art professor. Kurtz?scollaborator, Robert Ferrell, a human genetics professor at theUniversity of Pittsburgh, previously accepted a plea agreement due tothe deterioration of his health during the trial (he is a survivor ofNon-Hodgkin?s lymphoma).

Theshow centered on the works and materials seized during a FederalBureau of Investigation raid of Kurtz?s residence in Buffalo in May2004. Among the items that were on display were books (personalproperty of both Kurtz and CAE); an invitation to CAE?s exhibition?The Interventionists? at the Massachusetts Museum ofContemporary Art in 2004; photos; and several videos documenting fourprojects by the group on the subject of biotechnology, namely?GenTerra? (2001?03), ?Molecular Invasion? (2002?03),?Free Range Grain? (2003?04), and ?Marching Plague?(2004?07).

Thespatial layout of ?SEIZED? followed its dialecticalconceptualization. The show was constructed around a centerpiece oftrash left at Kurtz?s home by police and federal investigators thatwas comprised of ?hundreds of empty drink bottles, pizza boxes,Hazmat suits, and other assorted refuse,? according to CAE'scontribution to theshow's brochure.Photos of confiscated research materials and visual documentation ofCAE?s four projects are displayed on the peripheries surroundingthe waste pile. Other documents on the walls are ?contributions?by authorities, such as a hand-drawn map of Kurtz?s home, a to-dolist, and a discarded cigar.

Whilethe first three works link the emergence of ?new? subjectivitiesvis-à-vis nature (i.e., bodies, animals, and plant life) withspecific epistemologies framing the scientific and technologicalpillars of the ?information economy? (which rests on thecommodification of bio-technologies and digital products), CAE?smost recent project, ?Marching Plague,? traces the ontology ofpresent economic conditions to state funding of military research.The concept and central themes of the work are characteristic ofCAE?s oeuvre: the piece draws on contextual relations,collaboration, amateurism, and transparency to formulate a critiqueof the corporatization, insularity, specialization, and opaquenessthat surround scientific investigation. ?Marching Plague? wascommissioned by the UK-based art-science initiative, The ArtsCatalyst, and produced in collaboration with scientists from theHarvard-Sussex Program on Chemical and Biological Weapons Armamentand Arms Limitation. The work follows CAE?s signature multimediaformat comprised of an installation, video, book, and publicperformance. Each component is conceived to engage a wide range ofaudiences in issues surrounding germ warfare programs and the cost oftheir development to global public health issues.

Morethan any other artifact in ?SEIZED,? the framed cigar identifiedas a ?Don Julio cigar, imported from the Dominican Republic, andcommonly sold at Wal-Mart,? conveys the sphere surrounding Kurtz?sstate-mandated [is this phrase necessary? we propose to skipstate-mandated and keep persecution] persecution. As a sardoniccomment on the surrealist overtones of the case, the captionhistorically traced the cigar to its signifier: ?the romantic imageof the federal agent,? specifically pinpointing it to DepressionEra popular media reporting of, ?Agent Purvis?s use of the cigarto signal the arresting officers in the apprehension andassassination of John Dillinger.? At the same time, the artifact?sconnotations also reference CAE?s strategies of introducing countermemories and itineraries for confronting current conditions, whatWalter Benjamin once called the ?anthropological? dimension ofsurrealism.

Theshow was conceived and presented as an archeology of the present, oras CAE writes in the accompanying catalog, ?a rare window into theanatomy of a ?bioterror? investigation.? To this end, thebizarre accusation of bio-terrorism as the premise for Kurtz?sprosecution was foregrounded through an equally bizarre juxtapositionof reclaimed fragments from the scene of judicial ?investigation?and the ephemera of creative dissent. The pieces of ?art? in theshow are mere reconstructions and representations of materials seizedin 2004 and have not been returned to date.

broaderimplications

Thelifting of the haze over Robert Ferrell and Steve Kurtz does notherald a particularly improved environment for political artists inthe United States. Just before the charges against Kurtz weredropped, the New York City Law Department issued a subpoena to TadHirsch, a graduate student at Massachusetts Institute of Technology,a member of the Institute for Applied Autonomy and creator of TXTMobsoftware(2004).TXTMobhas been used extensively by activists throughout the world toorganize and mobilize during protests by sending short messageservice (SMS) messages. The subpoena issued to Hirsch demanded thathe give up records of SMSs, including dates and times, addresses, andlists of people who used the service during protests at theRepublican National Convention in New York City in 2004. The city iscurrently fighting a series of civil lawsuits brought by activistswho have charged that they were illegally detained during theconvention; Hirsh?s subpoena is part of these lawsuits. But thesubpoena also serves as a silencing agent, a warning to those whomight create, manage, or use such a service, as their profiles couldbe released in future legal proceedings. As of this writing, the caseis still ongoing.

In addition toHirsch, Iraqi-born artist Wafaa Bilal has been subject tointimidation by university and city officials from Troy, New York,for his recent project VirtualJihadi(2008). The work is based on an online first person shooter videogame, TheNight of Bush Capturing (2006),which gained notoriety as an Al-Qaeda production (its goal is tocapture George W. Bush). This game is itself a parody of Questfor Saddam(2003), a commercial game widely praised in the American media forits subject matter (the capture of Saddam Hussein), despite itsstereotypical images of Iraqis. In VirtualJihadi,Bilal?s avatar appears as an Al-Qaeda suicide bomber dressed in?traditional? Arab warrior garb, seeking to avenge his brother?sdeath by killing Bush. Bilal?sintention with the piece is to expose the violence, racism, andpropaganda disguised as entertainment. VirtualJihadiwas to be presented at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in the Springof 2008, but the university president, following protests by campusrepublicans, canceled the show. When Bilal and his supporters triedto move the opening to a local gallery, it too was shut down oncharges of building code violations.

Whilesupport for Bilal, Ferrell, Hirsch, and Kurtz has been significant,the tactics of harassment and persecution have set a dangerousprecedent within the United States. Artwork that is politicallycharged?sometimes in subtle ways, as with Ferrelland Kurtz?s critiques of trans-national biologicalcapitalism?becomes the target of oppressive and ruthless legalproceedings that have injurious impacts on the artists involved.

?cp & nk

For the magazine and fotos see: http://www.vsw.org/afterimage/