US Department of Art & Technology
Media Release
For Immediate Release: July 14, 2008
SECRETARY-AT-LARGE RANDALL M. PACKER
CHRONICLES DESCENT INTO THE UNDERWORLD OF AMERICA
WASHINGTON, DC - The US Department of Art & Technology announces The Chronicles of the Secretary-at-Large, an account of Randall M. Packer’s perilous descent into the Underworld of America. The multimedia work, declassified from his forthcoming video opera, A Season in Hell, will be installed August 15th - September 27th at the Arlington Arts Center as part of the exhibition, Picturing Politics 2008: Artists Speak to Power, curated by Rex Weil.
The installation also includes America’s Grave, a memorial constructed by John 3:16 following the death of the nation, which offers viewers the opportunity to pray for America, to bear witness to the passing of its spirit.
The Chronicles of the Secretary-at-Large deliver a harsh look at post-apocalyptic conditions in America and the man he served for nearly four years as Secretary of the US Department of Art & Technology. They are certain to give fuel to critics of the administration, as Packer describes his descent into the ruins of the dominant order, a shadowy world, far from reality.
Packer originally entered into his official capacity as Secretary of USDAT in post-9/11 times of crisis with the promise of an artist-driven government. In 2005, disillusioned by the gathering doom of war and disinformation, he abruptly changed course and fled underground, declaring himself the Secretary-at-Large. His journey began defiantly with the pronouncement: “Where Art can contribute to the perpetual fight against Authoritarianism, I shall confront the Powers that be!”
With Orf as his guide, a sentient being from the Other World who transcends the boundaries between life and death, he infiltrated the most dangerous regions of America: a breach of security systems on the South Lawn of the White House; surveillance of the culture war in the President’s backyard of Crawford, Texas; a daring erasure of the US Pavilion and its contents at the Venice Biennale; a fiery protest of immolation in storm ravaged New Orleans; a ritual Baptism deep in the Bible Belt to drown the Moral Authority of the Religious Right; and the deliverance of last rites to an extinguished nation in the Desert of the Bottom of America.
Responding to a request for comment, Packer wrote: "I found myself crushed by reality. The bureaucracy I conceived turned against me. Tyranny in the pursuit of stability had only led to tragedy. I then armed myself against justice in a search for meaning, an attempt to break through the darkness, reaching for some elusive truth. Art must not be petrified in the art world!”
“I have written a tragedy whose perishing hero is mankind, whose tragic conflict between the world and the forces of human nature has a fatal ending. America was a nightmarish illusion of its own representation. For those who must enter into the abyss from which there is no return, I say to them: you who judge us will be judged by us, we are waiting at the turning.”
Secretary-at-Large Packer transmitted a final decree from his studio in Washington, DC, where he works in guarded seclusion, occupied with his final testament, A Season in Hell: "Let future generations understand the burden and blessings of artistic freedom. Let them say we stood where duty required us to stand.”
A Season in Hell is a collaboration with Charles Lane (Orf), John James Anderson (John 3:16), Gregory T. Kuhn, Yauger Williams, Steven Allen, Fernando Mares, et al. For additional information, visit: http://www.seasoninhell.com
Picturing Politics 2008: Artists Speak to Power
Curated by Rex Weil
Arlington Arts Center
August 15th – September 27th
Tuesday – Saturday, 11am – 5pm
Reception: Friday, September 5th, 6 – 9pm
3550 Wilson Blvd, Arlington VA 22201
703.248.6800
The US Department of Art & Technology (USDAT)
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.
Arlington Arts Center
http://www.arlingtonartscenter.org
The Arlington Arts Center is one of the largest venues for emerging and contemporary artists in the greater Washington DC area.
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Warning: You are entering the Underworld of the United States of America, which we have explored for artistic and socially motivated purposes. This is the way to a forsaken people and an eternal sorrow. You are hereby notified to abandon all hope, you who enter here.