Dedicated to critical cultural production at the intersection of art and activism.

While transition teams and stock market crashes capture the public’s attention, Kelly Jo Shows has pieced together a farewell to the man still running the show. Believe me, I’m as tired as you are of Bush graphics, but rather than focus on the work here, I want to point out that Shows has a boldness unforeseen in her context.

Bushwhacked is showing near my hometown, at Susan Maasch Fine Arts in Portland, Maine.  Dedicated readers might remember the stir that Bud Swenson’s Portraits in a Time of War caused last summer in southern Maine – Swenson successfully battled censorship by curators who, citing their organizational ties to the Bush family, nearly cancelled the show.

So, while this show might be cliche elsewhere, Shows’ Big Oil (above) carry a certain weight here, especially when paired with camoflauged and bomb-draped crosses.  Particularly tragic and controversial is her piece We had the sympathy of the world, a mixed media installation.  Shows has pinned the September 12, 2001 Portland Press Herald newspaper to the gallery wall, made it pour with blood, surrounded it with a graffiti-like memorial to the live lost the previous day, and emblazoned the site with its eponymous tag-line.

It’s more anger and antagonism than the area usually tolerates, but the show closes at the end of this week, and so far the controversy hasn’t hit the web.

Related posts:

1. Opposable Thumb @ Sea Change Gallery
2. Sarah Lewison and Da War Mal Was
3. Everything You Want, Right Now!, Steve Lambert’s Solo Show at Charlie James Gallery
4. Without You I Am Nothing: Cultural Democracy from Providence and Chicago

Discuss (0)