Series: Art
Opening Reception Date: Friday, January 23, 2009
Time: 6:30 - 9:00 p.m.
Venue: Visual Arts Building

Exhibition dates: January 23 - February 22, 2009

Ticket Prices: Free

This exhibition offers a diverse and creative perspective of members of “Artists for Social Justice,” who address the social and environmental inequities that are a consequence of a new world order. Expanded from their inaugural exhibition StayBite at CalArts last year into a larger symposium, this year’s performance series and exhibition will be shared by UT Dallas.

Diego Garza's artist statement

"[...] a more recent work titled The Agitators are Ignorance, Power, and Poverty is a one-channel video piece that depicts social unrest as a reactionary method towards the mishandling of social order and the incompetence of the state. The narrative of this video is loosely based on the student massacre that occurred in Mexico City in Tlatelolco (October 2,1968). Within this narrative, puppetry and performance are employed as forms of visual representation that have the potential to "sneak by" as being non-threatening forms of entertainment.

I am interested in a type of puppetry that uses its form and aesthetics to deliver a message that can be read superficially as being silly and nonsensical, but the undertone being more devastating in the afterthought. In this video, puppetry not only acts as the form for which the content is disseminated, but is also used as a powerful metaphor for power, control, desire, failure, and master-slave relations.

Through reenactment and recreation, the question of dissidence as an answer to dissatisfaction is asked. "The Agitators" illustrates that despite development, movements must continue to fight against the politics that were practiced in 1968, as well as the politics of our times."

http://artistsforsocialjustice.blogspot.com/