As the election for the next president of the United States of America quickly approaches, VDB is pleased to highlight work from the collection concerned with American politics, leadership, and state communications, in the VDB TV program Democracy and Demagoguery.
From today through Election Day 2024, we present a selection of works by Doug Hall, an artist who has returned to these themes throughout his career. From his days as a founding member of the multi-media performance art collective T.R. Uthco and in his individual work, Hall has explored the stylings and performances utilized by political leaders to sway populations and control national narratives. This program starts with his newest piece, A Brief History of American Demagoguery (2024), which is a found footage dive into the past surfacing in our present moment. This is followed by three short pieces Artist-President Speech 11-22-1975 (1975), This is the Truth (1982), and The Speech (1982), in which Hall performs as a variety of archetypical leaders.
On Wednesday, November 6th, the day after Election Day, the program will switch to the newest manifestation of Antoni Muntadas and Marshall Reese's ongoing 40-year-long video project exploring television's enormous importance in selling the presidency: Political Advertisement XI 1952-2024. This newest video is currently on a month-long "Swing State Tour" of screenings, which continues tonight through November 1st. Venues and dates are detailed below. As the artists continue to compile and update their anthology, they have released the new book Read My Lips, edited from talks with Bill Horrigan, Rick Prelinger, and Tanya Zimbardo. The phrase "Read My Lips," is taken from George H. W. Bush's acceptance speech at the 1988 Republican Convention, which Bill Clinton's campaign appropriated in a campaign ad in 1992.
Political Advertisement Swing State Tour
October 16 - Museum of Contemporary Art, University of South Florida, Tampa
October 19 - Busboys and Poets, Washington DC
October 22 - Great Hall, Cooper Union, NYC
October 24 - Minneapolis College of Art and Design, Minneapolis
November 1 - Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh
Featured Titles
The 2024 installment in Muntadas and Reese's series documenting the selling of the American presidency features political ads from the 1950s to ads from the 2024 campaigns, and highlights the development of the political strategy and marketing techniques of the TV campaign process.
Resources
Read My Lips Book