How Can We Think of Art at a Time Like This? is an online exhibition, co-curated by Barbara Pollack and Anne Verhallen as a platform for the exchange of ideas at this time of crisis. We invited artists who are considered thought leaders, artists who struggle with futuristic pessimism, political outrage and psychic melt-downs. The invited artists have responded with unbridled enthusiasm and we will be posting new artists every day for the foreseeable future.
This site is also a platform for free expression, inviting visitors to post responses on our Commons page. We hope to open a dialogue at a time of social distancing. Art offers solace or has instigated resistance and rebellion. This was true during the AIDS crisis, in the weeks after 9/11, at the shock of Hurricane Sandy and all the other signs of global warming altering environments around the world.
We invite you to join in the conversation and appreciate art responding to times like these.
Deborah Kass
“This crisis started Nov 9 2016 and has not let up since when the FSB fixed an American election and installed Donald Trump. Every day our collective trauma and degradation continues. Everyday since his inauguration Trump has worked to destroy the rule of law by declaring himself above it. He has destroyed the administrative state by gutting every department that has kept Americans safe, firing experts with decades of experience and replacing them with cronies who have zero expertise or experience. The result is a pandemic. I still wonder when Americans will wake up the fact that Trump was installed to literally kill Americans. Maybe now? He has committed Crimes Against Humanity against men women and children who are not Americans. His treason and torture continue unabated. In fact, have now accelerated to point that made we might begin to call him what he is: the enemy. I so admire artists who can escape into their own process. I never have been that kind of artist.”