The Yes Men aren't known for subtlety. Case in point: this past Monday's spectacle involving the release of a "special edition" of the New York Post, distributed throughout Manhattan and online, focusing on the effects of climate change. Intended as a call to action, the elaborate (and very convincing) publication was accompanied by a group action in which co-conspirators donned absurd, climate controlled, inflatable suits, aptly named SurvivaBalls, for a "product demo" in the East River. This stunt, scheduled one day before the start of a United Nations joint session expected to focus heavily on climate change, landed yes man Andy Bichlbaum in jail.
It's an interesting time to be an artist in the United States. Coincidentally, this latest bit of performance art by The Yes Men just so happened to occur when the right vs. left cultural divide seems to be growing again. Could it be that the culture wars are heating up? I thought we were past all that but if you've been trolling the newsfeeds this week you might have noticed that everyone from relatively obscure bloggers to Sean Hannity to Glenn Beck seems to be sniffing around for some evidence of a national propaganda campaign orchestrated by the NEA in support of a radical left agenda. Insert eyeroll here.
Still, it's worth noting that The Yes Men seem to be in full recruitment mode. This Saturday in Liverpool they'll be taking their progressive training, brainwashing and indoctrination program (wink wink) across the pond as part of the Abandon Normal Devices festival. The workshop, "How to be a Yes Man," promises to expose the tricks of the political artist/activist trade as practiced by some of the boldest, brashest, wittiest, funniest, and most effective hellraisers the art world has ever seen. SIGN ME UP! Let's hope Andy is out of jail by then. Let's also hope I don't end up on some crazy watch list for attending something so, well, subversive.
DiverseWorks audiences may remember The Yes Men as part of Thought Crimes: The Art of Subversion, presented in the main gallery in 2005. They'll be returning to DiverseWorks in April for the retrospective exhibition Keep It Slick: Infiltrating Capitalism With The Yes Men. That is...if they can stay out of trouble that long.
Diane Barber
Co-Executive Director/Visual Arts Curator
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
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