Democracy in America

"Tactical Ice Cream Unit," Center for Tactical Magic

Democracy in America
Creative Time at the Park Avenue Armory
Sept. 21-27 (closed)

I'm bending the rules a bit with this review. This isn't a museum show, but rather a public art expo called "Democracy in America" put on by the good folks at Creative Time back in late Sept. Named for the classic 19th Century travel memoir-cum-treatise by Alexis de Tocqueville, and timed for the election season, it put the spotlight on current activist art, with dozens of videos, performances, interactive assignments, even ice cream.

The show was testament that, despite the darkness of Bush Years, creative individuals and groups bravely made their political voices heard -- and with energizing doses of wit. Parked in the middle of the Armory's Parade Ground is an ice cream truck, or Tactical Ice Cream Unit, as the folks at the Center for Tactical Magic like to call it. Along with a free ice cream sandwich or bomb pop, you get printed information on topics like Marxism and global climate change. Nearby is Steve Powers' "Water Board Thrill Ride." For a $1 admission, you witness a disturbing animatronic display of torture. (The Creative Time-commissioned work was on display at Coney Island over the summer.) Pia Lindman invites Armory-goers to step on soapbox and speak their minds; while we were there one man was sounding-off about the economy and the election. Steve Lambert presents us with a map of the Pentagon, inviting us to relabel it with magic markers. Someone has re-imagined it as a cat box/scratch pad. Another, as a homeless shelter.

Videos document performance-protests. Chicago's Feel Tank raises the question of "political depression," asking the valid question of whether our behavioral health is linked to larger sociopolitical dysfunction. Rodney McMillian and Olga Koumoundouros's Creative Time-sponsored dance-protests in locations such as outside a Texas supermarket tackle discrimination, take on the death penalty and the prison system -- something De Toqueville, student of incarceration, might find equally disheartening and inspiring -- the spirt of democracy and its blind-spots still evident these many years later.

Some of the better projects made a nod towards history. A fiendishly smart protest by the United Victorian Workers, documents how the group, in period dress, crashed the annual Chamber-of-Commerce-sponsored Victorian Stroll in Troy, NY, calling attention to the less-than-prosaic 19th Century working conditions. Appropriately enough, the group is busted by a police officer, also dressed in historic attire. Mark Tribe's Port Huron Project, also sponsored by Creative Time, reinacts performances of classic speeches of the 1960s by progressive leaders like Stokely Carmichael, Cesar Chavez and Angela Davis. Less pointed, is an installation by Duke Riley, who built a replica of a submarine used in 1776 against the British in New York Harbor. After launching this summer, he was busted by the NYPD for getting too close to the Queen Mary 2.

Working in documentary mode is Greta Pratt, who took a photo every day of american flags in the wild -- on everything from mailboxes to mugs, bumperstickers to billboards (Web site here). A deeply personal and powerful video by Chris Sollars tells the story of his younger sister who works for the Bush Administration, Born Again Christian father and lesbian mother. Steve Kurtz documents his experience being raided by the FBI and detained in suspicion of bioterrorism. The installation features pile of garbage left by the agents, including pizza boxes.

In a charming but uncessary gesture of earnestness, "Democracy in America" had on display early copies of all the key documents that underpin our democracy -- the Declaration of Independence, the Emancipation Proclamation and the Constitution reproduced and the the Bill of Rights.

The tone of the exhibit was more effectively set by the stuffy, militaristic Armory. Unlike the Whitney Biennial's insignificant afterthought of an exhibit (my review here), which was overwhelmed by its environs, "Democracy in America" held its own. And, unlike the lifeless "That Was Then ... This Is Now" at P.S.1 (my review here), this show had spirit and urgency.

My only criticism of the show was that it was entirely missing any Internet-based art. Certainly the Web offers ample opportunities for protest. One good example: Josh On's They Rule.