“If The Artists Ran The Media” debuted at the end of the fall semester in the C33 Gallery. During my visit to the “collective show of artists’ responses to the often slanted and biased media outlet: the news” it was clear the pieces were cloaked in angst.
As the school’s static-y radio station was piped in from a corner of the room, I stopped in front of an old, hallowed-out television set. Inside sat an overweight couple stuffing crumpled newspapers and garbage into their mouths while a picture of a sports car hung over the dining room table. The artist, obviously irritated and disgusted by advertisements that promote material possessions, greed, excess, and lethargic attitudes, hoped that her piece would awaken a stoppage to our submission to consumerism, that only leaves us wanting more…and more…and more.
Another watercolor artist, angered by the hypocrisy of the tobacco business, painted a glossy cigarette box. Yet, in the place where we might find the small, ineffective Surgeon General’s warning about the presence of carbon monoxide, we see the words “Camel, Cancer-Big, Fat, and Delicious.” Our society, it seems, is so entranced by shiny packaging and the cool “idea” of a product, we deny the fact that drugs, like cigarettes, are essentially killing us, and buy them anyway. The photography, poetry, painting, video, installation pieces and illustrations in this show were chosen because they defy the ideals that are typically presented in corporate-run, government-sponsored media campaigns.
What confused me a bit about this show, and possibly was its one misstep, was the title itself: “If Artists Ran the Media.” While the showcased artists attacked advertisements, certain magazines, the sleek design of a cigarette box, etc. I realized that they are actually attacking the choices/projects of fellow artists. It would seem then that artists DO run the media, just not the ones we look to as pillars of positive social change.
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