Press Release Archive
Politics of Fear
Gallery Project presents Politics of Fear, a multimedia exhibit in which 35 local, regional and national artists attempt to visualize sources and expressions of fear in American society today. The exhibit opens on Wednesday, September 8 and runs through Sunday, October 17. The opening reception is Friday, September 10 from 6-9.
Politicization of fear is a familiar historical means to power and control, achieved through the threat of danger and the promise of protection. These tactics, used by ideologues, politicians and corporate interests, are spread and inflamed via the ubiquitous voice of mass and social media. Threats are misrepresented, and required responses are distorted. Covert agendas are achieved and secret interests are fulfilled.
The politicization of fear for power, control and profit, is enforced from within by an individual’s sense of vulnerability. It is enforced externally by a sense of constant surveillance, the “faceless gaze”. A relevant metaphor is Michael Foucault’s Panopticism from “Discipline and Punish, the birth of the Prison.” The Panoptic, a circular transparent ‘inspection-house’ or prison-in-the-round, is characterized by continuous surveillance of a vigilant unseeable supervisor whose presence the celled can only sense. “The Panoptic arrangement is a seeing machine in which the exercise of power may be supervised by society as a whole. It programs the basic functioning of a society penetrated with disciplinary mechanisms.” (Michael Foucault)
This exhibit invites artists to voice their sense of current and historic politicization of fear and the mechanisms that drive and control it.
Contributors to the exhibit include Heather Accurso, Curtis Bartone, Jamie Berlant, Jackie Brown, Peter Bugg, Fred Burkhart, Carla Butwin, Nick Caramagno, Rocco DePietro, Rose DeSloover, Lynn Galbreath, Leon Golub, Richard Haley, Ed Janzen, Chido Johnson, Osman Kahn, Merrill Kazanjian, Margarete Koenen, Vijay Kumar, Christopher Lee, Melissa McGurgan, Tom McMillen-Oakley, Bert Menco, Eric Mesko, Mario Moore, Tim Péwé, Gloria Pritschet, Mark Reamy, Clare Rosean, Eric Ryser, Eric Smith, Diane Thodos, Vito Jesus Valdez, Peter Williams, and Marilyn Zimmerman. The exhibit is curated by Lynn Galbreath and Heather Accurso.
Gallery Project is a fine art collaborative. Its mission is to provide a venue for contemporary art that is culturally aware, individualistic, courageous, and thought provoking. Gallery Project is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. It is located at 215 South Fourth Avenue in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Spring/Summer gallery hours: Tuesday through Saturday, noon-9; and Sunday, noon-4. The gallery is closed on Mondays. For more information, please call 734-997-7012 or contact us through our website: www.thegalleryproject.com.