Filed under: cartoon, comment, political Tagged: Billy Joel, cartoon, current events, editorial, humour, Kim Jong Un, politics, Trump
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Art Threat: Hot Docs 22: CanCon and BrandCon
North America’s largest and most sweeping doc-deluge, the Canadian International Hot Docs Festival, is once again in full swing, and the moment wouldn’t be complete, for me at least, without some form of commentary that assesses this institutional giant as it marks another year. In that spirit and as with
Continue readingArt Threat: Daniel Higgs at Café Oto: A refuge of cultural integrity
In the mosh pit of global corporate excess that claims so much of London (UK) circa 2014, Café Oto is an oasis of cultural intelligence and inspiration. I popped in last night to check out Daniel Higgs and Michael Zerang, and I wasn’t disappointed. Daniel Higgs (formerly of Lungfish) is
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: Rehtaeh Parsons: Cartoon depicts RCMP neglect and bias against women
Editorial cartoon via: The Chronicle Herald The Canadian Progressive recommends: Rehtaeh Parsons: Anonymous Says It Has Rape Confession War on women Scathing report accuses RCMP of raping, abusing B.C. Aboriginal women We recommend:Rehtaeh Parsons: Anonymous Says It Has Rape ConfessionRehtaeh Parsons: Top Liberal strategist asked Anonymous to interveneScathing report accuses
Continue readingArt Threat: Canadian gov’t approves filming immigration raid, deportation process for reality TV
The Canadian government has approved what appears to be the crass exploitation of human suffering for entertainment. In a new low, Safety Minister Vic Toews approved the filming of an immigration enforcement raid at an East Vancouver construction site for a reality TV show. In the raid, workers were arrested
Continue readingArt Threat: Buying music online is a bad deal
In the United Kingdom, music retailer HMV is on life support. Although HMV Canada’s parent company is mounting a rescue attempt, the brand responsible for 35% of the CD market in Britain may soon collapse, in large part due to the shift towards purchasing music online. While many consumers would
Continue readingArt Threat: Qatari poet jailed for life for poem celebrating Arab Spring
Qatar is home to the international news network Al Jazeera, including Al Jazeera English whose coverage of the middle-east and international news in general has garnered increasing respect from Western audiences. It is a cruel irony indeed that the government that funds such journalistic integrity also restricts freedom of speech in such a violent and reactionary manner.
Continue readingArt Threat: Representing Eisenhower – The ongoing dialogue around the design of the Eisenhower Memorial
I caught wind of a different kind of political art and politics of art this past weekend while reading the latest issue of Vanity Fair. As anyone who’s done any kind of planning in teams can imagine, building a monument can be a mighty task. As it turns out, the
Continue readingArt Threat: 7th Berlin Binennale highlights political art – Curator Artus Zmijewski creates exhibition of activist art
When you go to the website for Berlin’s 7th Binennale, you encounter a stream of changing photographs from occupy and protest movements from around the world — Venezia, Toronto, Florence, Malacky, Athens and on and on. It is emblematic of curator Artur Zmijewski’s approach the largest art exhibition in Germany,
Continue readingArt Threat: Ai Wei Wei installs live webcams in home – Artists winks at Chinese authorities with a Big Brother flourish
Artist Ai Wei Wei has installed live webcams in his home so that authorities – and worried supporters – can keep track of his day-to-day whereabouts and welfare. Feeling hemmed in by increasingly invasive state surveillance – being followed day-to-day, round-the-clock surveillance on his home, searches of his studio, phone
Continue readingArt Threat: Some kind of monster – Film screening cancelled amid unsubstantiated copyright fears
Canadian filmmaker and activist John Greyson is no stranger to controversy — whether haranguing Justin Bieber to pull concerts scheduled for Israel, supporting queer film festivals in hostile environments, or scuffling with TIFF over the erasure of occupation in special programming, the prolific auteur has seen his share of messy
Continue readingArt Threat: News Remix: Mar 23 – April1, 2012 – A bricolage of (some of) last weeks news stories
Nairobi graffiti by artists Uhuru B, Swift, Smokilah and Bankslave Kenyan graffiti artists are painting the walls of Nairobi with reminders of government corruption. Executions are up in the Middle East – in Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq and Yemen – as governments there continue their efforts to quell political turmoil.
Continue readingArt Threat: News Remix: March 15-22, 2012 – Bricolage of (some of) last week’s headlines
This is the first in a new (ir)regular installment summing up last week’s news headlines using a ‘remix’ style — a quirky restless glance into the wreckless feckless immediate past. (Inspired by Harpers Magazine’s ‘Scientific Summary’.) Aerial photo of tsunami debris from Japan US peacekeeping forces joined with Congolese army troops
Continue readingArt Threat: KONY 2012 and the mischievous media habits of slacktivists
Video still from Kony 2012. I was swamped at work last week, when I took a little Twitter break to see what was going on in the world. My feed was bombarded with what appeared to be a video gone viral, called Kony 2012. Even celebrities like Rihanna, Taylor Swift,
Continue readingArt Threat: WikiLeaks dump reveals Dow Chemical spies read Art Threat
Today WikiLeaks began releasing a collection of emails obtained from the servers of Stratfor, an American private espionage firm with a client list that boasts such warm and fuzzy companies as Dow Chemical, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon and the US Department of Homeland Security. According to WikiLeaks, “the emails
Continue readingArt Threat: What’s the value of an art school? – Contextualizing the crisis at NSCAD
NSCAD's modern new Port campus overlooks Halifax harbour. Photo by Rory Hyde. Celebrating its 125th anniversary next year, The Nova Scotia College of Art and Design is the oldest of Canada’s four dedicated art universities. With slightly over 1000 full time students and spread across three campuses in downtown Halifax,
Continue readingArt Threat: Looking for the Political at Art Basel
The politics at Art Basel, one of the largest contemporary art exhibitions in the US, may be hard to find, but they’re there for those who know where to look. On December 4th Karen Rosenberg wrote an article in the New York Times (entitled “Art Basel: Business Over Activism”) highlighting
Continue readingArt Threat: Networked Shock Art: Voina in the News – Analysis of political interventions of Russian art collective
For the last year Vorotnikov and Nikolaev have been waging a legal battle with Russian authorities for their freedom. While these challenges facing Voina have been well documented on Art Threat, Free Voina, and other alternative media sources, another battle is being fought: against state, art world, and dominant media
Continue readingArt Threat: VOINA member arrested, whereabouts unknown – Russian art collective faces ongoing harrassment
Leonid Nikolaev's arrest, December 4, 2011 Yesterday, founding member of the Russian art collective VOINA, Leonid Nikolaev, was abducted by Russian police and his whereabouts are unknown. Nikolaev was attending a rally against election fraud in St. Petersburg when he was grabbed by police along with other protesters and taken
Continue readingArt Threat: Happy Birthday Nietzche & Foucault!
There’s only a little to say about this – Michel Foucault was born October 15, 1926, and by weird coincidence, Friedrich Nietzsche was born on the same day 82 years earlier- October 15, 1844. Big thinkers in the canon of Dead White Men. So what, you might be asking — and what does that have […]
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