Cultural Event # 2: Flawed Art - Mark Cooley

I just realized I never posted about a couple of the artist talks I have been to - so I figured I should do that now!

Mark Cooley is a new media artist. His work tends to involve US government foriegn policies, especially military interventions. One peice he showed us was called American Dreams. This peice was 62 packages that mocked department store toy packages. He installed them on 8 sections of 2'x4' pegboard. He had two rows of these packages. The first row of packages had images that were taken from popular culture. In addition, they had Countries and dates of where we have had military interventions. Inside the packaging, he had toys and games that represented the military such as toy guns. The second row of packages featured images taken from recruitment packages. On these there is a "made in SOME COUNTRY" and in the package, there is a product that was made in that country. On the back of these packages, there were scans of stock market reports and flesh with a word and things related to commerce.

Another peice he showed us was called Bad Dreams. This peice was about the insulated realm you enter when you go into a gallery. This peice had an oxygen tent that suspended over a pedestal with Jansens History of Art Textbook on top. In front of the pedestal, there was a desk facing it with a binder on top of the desk.

Another peice he showed us was called Enduring Freedom V.1. For this peice, he had two televisions on top of two pedistals facing back to back. The 2 pedistals were supposed to represent the twin towers. The TVs were supposed to represent how media and news comes from TV. One television was playing a video tape of documenturies that gave an overview of foreign policy since WWII. In front of this TV, there was a pile of dirt that the person watching the TV would be standing in. There was sureveilance camera that wwas directed at whoever was standing in the dirt. The second television was connected to the camera, which had a target on it. The target would be on the person standing in the dirt. In front of this pedestal, there was a mat that says "United We Stand".

I thought his lecture was okay. It got kind of boring after a while. While his ideas were good, I feel like the way artists and other people keep making political statements about our current government and war is becoming a little cliche.