Everything Is Connected: Art and Conspiracy

Synopsis

For The Last Fifty Years, Artists Have Explored The Hidden Operations Of Power And The Symbiotic Suspicion Between The Government And Its Citizens That Haunts Western Democracies. Everything Is Connected: Art And Conspiracy Will Be The First Major Exhibition To Tackle This Perennially Provocative Topic. It Will Trace The Simultaneous Development Of Two Kinds Of Art About Conspiracy. The First Half Of The Exhibition Will Comprise Works By Artists Who Hew Strictly To The Public Record, Uncovering Hidden Webs Of Deceit--from The Shell Corporations Used By New York's Largest Private Landlord, Interconnected Networks Encompassing Politicians, Businessmen, And Arms Dealers. In The Second Part, Other Artists Will Dive Headlong Into The Fever Dreams Of The Disaffected, Creating Fantastical Works That Nevertheless Uncover Uncomfortable Truths In An Age Of Information Overload And Weakened Trust In Institutions. Featuring Seventy Works By Thirty Artists In Media Ranging From Painting And Sculpture To Photography, Video, And Installation Art, From 1969 To 2016, Everything Is Connected: Art And Conspiracy Will Present An Alternate History Of Postwar And Contemporary Art That Is Also An Archaeology Of Our Troubled Times.-- Since The Mid-twentieth Century, Conspiracy Has Pervaded Our Collective Worldview, Shaped By Events Such As The Assassination Of John F. Kennedy, The Vietnam War, Watergate, The Iran-contra Affair, And 9/11. Everything Is Connected Examines How Artists From The 1960s To The Present Have Explored Both The Covert Operations Of Power And The Mutual Suspicion Between Governments And Their Citizens. Featured Are Works By Some Thirty Artists--including Sarah Charlesworth, Emory Douglas, Hans Haacke, Rachel Harrison, Jenny Holzer, Mike Kelley, Mark Lombardi, Cady Noland, Trevor Paglen, Raymond Pettibon, Jim Shaw, And Sue Williams--in Media Ranging From Painting, Drawing, And Photography To Video And Installation Art. Whether They Uncover Webs Of Deceit Hidden In The Public Record Or Dive Headlong Into Paranoid Fever Dreams, These Artists Use Their Work To Take A Powerful And Proactive Stance Against The Political Corruption, Consumerism, Bureaucracy, And Media Manipulation That Are Hallmarks Of Contemporary Life.-- Knitting The Monster's Socks / Jonahthan Lethem -- Wake Up! Art And Citizen Journalism / Douglas Eklund -- A Wilderness Of Mirrors: Conspiracy And Identity / Douglas Eklund -- The Artist As Researcher / Douglas Eklund -- Modern History In And Out Of Context: Sarah Charlesworth's April 21, 1978 / Beth Saunders -- Extraterrestrials Underground And Other Artistic Sublevels In California / Ian Alteveer -- Disconsolate Tongues: The Visual Language Of Trauma And Survival / Meredith A. Brown -- History And Conspiracy / Kathryn Olmsted -- Politics Of Hate In The U.s.a.: Anti-semitism And Conspiracy Theory / John Miller -- Beyond The Grassy Knoll / Douglas Eklund. Douglas Eklund And Ian Alteveer ; With Contributions By Meredith A. Brown, John Miller, Kathryn Olmsted, And Beth Saunders ; Preface By Jonathan Lethem. Catalog Of An Exhibition At The Metropolitan Museum Of Art From September 18, 2018-january 6, 2019. Includes Bibliographical References (pages [178]-190) And Index.