Sunday, September 28, 2008
"It's Only Paper" : Slacktivists Protest "Outsiders" on the Bowery ...
Paper taped to a window , considering our increasingly expensive neighborhood and our current financial uncertainty , perhaps today becomes an act more poignant and prophetic than it would have been even a year ago . Of course its money , this paper , and it was the instrument of protest for slacktivist John Penley at 282 Bowery Friday night .
The slacktivist protest--not an angry or combative encounter but an evening that went well for all--as we understand it was an attempt to point to the fact that everything material and otherwise here today in our downtown NYC , including "outsider" art works presented here by Lazarides Gallery of London , is measured in value in dollars , i.e. , paper money . Lots of money ; amounts large enough just to have a minimal dwelling space and food that most artists have been forced to leave this part of the city .
Even the artists with works displayed at this temporary gallery , outsiders as this exhibit seems to try to claim , are represented in a 2 week exhibit on the Bowery with pricing from $400 to $150,000 per piece ; with most works priced in the thousands of dollars. To us hardly prices associated with the work of true unknowns outside the system . You have to be part of it all to get this kind of change for your work .
Nothing new here concerning the financial and social ways of the art world but this exhibit is in fact an interesting show ; the works being diverse in spirit , theme , method and materials . It was refreshing to not be surrounded by white walls , squeaky clean floors and properly hushed conversations . Materially there was little difference between the inside of the gallery and the world outside on the Bowery sidewalk and street . A very large open door served to bring the street , sounds and all , into the gallery .
The slacktivists for a while did have a bit of a debate with the organizer of the show concerning their protest activities . The Lazarides Gallery people were concerned that their windows would be covered with dollar bills . This did not happen in fact as an enterprising scoundrel quickly scraped dollar bills from the window and absconded with a fist full of dollars into the night 3 separate times .
At the end of the protest passers-by were offering dollar bills in exchange for ones marked and taped to the window .
The police did stop to look at the event 3 times during the time that we were at the gallery . They had pre-positioned a stack of disassembled barricades just in case there was a crowd control problem .
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