This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Jan. 25, 2009 - In the midst of all the hoopla, hope and humanity generated by the Barackalypse, it had to happen: a reality check, something to remind us that the world still is in a desperate state and one election won’t — can’t — change all that’s wrong with this country.
Actually, reality checks have been springing up all over the place, if you care to look for them, in magazines and newspapers and, naturally, the Internet.
Now at Boots, “Bad Moon Rising 3” is the art-world’s version of a reality check. Curated by Jessica Silverman and Jan Van Woensel, this traveling show is spreading serious cautionary tales in sometimes brutal, sometimes humorous language, and it ought to be required viewing.
More than 50 artists and cooperatives have put together a noisy bunch of videos, prints, flags, collages, montages, paintings, you name it.
Standing in the maw of the show, it’s hard to know where one work ends and another begins, and that sense of collectivity is admirable, forcing your attention toward the message, and away from petty distractions like titles and dates and who-made-what. And what is the message?
Not to abandon hope altogether, surely, but to temper it with a heavy dose of realism.
Ivy Cooper is an artist and professor of art history at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.