Publication date:
15 October 2016Publisher
Intellect BooksDimensions:
229x229mm9x9"
ISBN-13: 9781783206711
Driven by a powerful belief in the value of free expression, Sheryl Oring has for more than a decade been helping people across the United States voice concerns about public affairs through her 'I Wish to Say' project. This book uses that project as the starting point for an exploration of a series of issues of public interest being addressed by artists today. It features essays by contributors ranging from art historians and practicing artists to scholars and creators working in literature, political science and architecture. All the contributors offer a different approach, but they share a primary goal of sparking a dialogue not just among makers of art, but among viewers, readers and the concerned public at large. The resulting volume will be an essential resource for politically engaged contemporary artists searching for innovative, cross-disciplinary ways of making and sharing art.
'Walter Benjamin famously asserted that mechanical reproduction would emancipate works of art from ritual, never anticipating the coming age of compulsive Instagam sharing, ritualized text messaging, and overall information-overload. In a counter-intuitive move artist Sheryl Oring improbably dusts-off antiquated slow-technology (the typewriter) in order to resurrect the declining art of non-digital communication (also known as composing a letter to your political representative). The unhurried, heart-felt messages generated by Oring’s I Wish to Say project calmly testify to the significance of her rescue plan for a society bedeviled by pixilated manias and the allure of electronic display screens. '