West coast launch of Artificial Hells
Kadist SF welcomes Claire Bishop for the west-coast launch of her new book, Artificial Hells: Participatory Art and the Politics of Spectatorship . The event will be hosted by Dominic Willsdon (Curator of Public Programs at SFMOMA) as part of a Saturday series of events through the Reading Shop. “ Artificial Hells is a searing critique of participatory art by an iconoclastic historian. It is the first historical and theoretical overview of socially engaged participatory art, known in the US as “social practice.”Since her controversial essay in Artforum in 2006, Claire Bishop has been one of the few to challenge the political and aesthetic ambitions of participatory art. In Artificial Hells , she not only scrutinizes the emancipatory claims made for these projects, but also provides an alternative to the ethical (rather than artistic) criteria invited by such artworks. Artificial Hells calls for a less prescriptive approach to art and politics, and for more compelling, troubling and bolder forms of participatory art and criticism.” Event at 5pm