U.S. Department of Art & Technology
Office of the Press Secretary, press@usdat.us
For Immediate Release: June 12, 2006
AMERICA ON THE BRINK
A POLITICAL EXEGESIS UNDER THE AEGIS OF US DAT
WASHINGTON, DC - In advance of the fall midterm elections in November, the US Department of Art & Technology (US DAT) announces plans to lead an ambitious artistic response mobilization. America on the Brink: A Political Exegesis Under the Aegis of US DAT, will be open to public viewing at the ATHICA: Athens Institute for Contemporary Art from September 9 - November 5, 2006, at 160 Tracy St., Unit 4, in Athens, Georgia. The opening reception will take place Saturday, September 9, from 7:00 - 9:00 pm.
US DAT participation will confront the dangerous collapse of the separation of church and state in America, which Secretary-at-Large Randall M. Packer believes is leading us steadily down the path to Armageddon. According to Packer, "the frightening, apocalyptic conditions we see today are expected to worsen as the Far Right Christian Fundamentalists carry out a desperate last ditch effort this fall to save the crumbling, scandal-ridden, fear-mongering, bible-toting, born-again wing of the Republican National Party - the biblical prophecy fulfilled."
For the exhibit Packer will oversee a large site-specific installation consisting of America's Grave, a symbolic burial site for the nation; End of the World Headquarters, an information portal and urgent fact-finding mission to chart the End Times; and the Situational Tours: USA Bible Belt, weekly video dispatches from the Secretary-at-Large, reporting on and documenting extremist religious activity and cultural divisiveness to track the nation's descent into perilous days that lie ahead. Additionally, regional and national artists are contributing works that also address current political conditions; including Bill Fisher (Milledgeville, GA), Cecelia Kane (Atlanta, GA), Tim Klimowicz (Brooklyn, NY), Richard Lou (Milledgeville, GA), Isabella Natale (New York, NY) and Dietrich Wegner (Erie, PA), among others. As US DAT Under Secretary of Southern Cultural Hegemony, Bill Fisher notes, "the culture wars undermine our fragile democracy… and the legions flocking to Bush's call live in silent, surveilled fear of unseen, dark enemies as proof of their patriotism.
The exhibition curator is ATHICA Director Lizzie Zucker Saltz. US DAT staff artists include: John Anderson, Dan Busey, Graham Childs, Bill Fisher, Charles Lane, Carrie Mallory, and Randall M. Packer.
The US Department of Art & Technology (US DAT) | http://www.usdat.us
The US Department of Art and Technology is the United States principal conduit for facilitating the artist's need to extend aesthetic inquiry into the broader culture where ideas become real action.
ATHICA: Athens Institute of Contemporary Art | http://www.athica.org
The Athens Institute of Contemporary Art is dedicated to exhibiting challenging and provocative contemporary art in a non-commercial, uncensored, politically and socially engaged environment.
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US Department of Art & Technology | Washington, DC | E-mail: press@usdat.us
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