Ep. 32: On Brad Troemel, and Art & the Capitalist State

In this special episode of SPS, we discuss Joe Biden's inauguration and the relationship between Art and the capitalist state. Professional creative artists are facing unemployment at rates well above the national average. We take up the proposals for WPA-style intervention, a Ministry of Culture, and a White House Office for Culture. In the second half, we consider the artist Brad Troemel and his attempt to reinterpret “Liberal Cringe” into meme art. Images and videos for this episode can be found at: https://caesuramag.org/montezsps01292021 SPS is a production of the Platypus Affiliated Society, more at: https://platypus1917.org/ Links for this episode: Alison Hewitt Ward, 2010, RIP Art Trump https://caesuramag.org/posts/rip-trump-art Letter of resignation from the President's Committee on the Arts & the Humanities (2017) https://twitter.com/kalpenn/status/898547257062174724/photo/1 Chris Cutrone, 2010, What was postmodernism? -- Habermas’s critique An incomplete project? Art and politics after postmodernism http://chriscutrone.platypus1917.org/?p=955 Platypus Art & Politics syllabus https://platypus1917.org/2020/06/17/art-and-politics/ Brad Troemel, Patreon https://www.patreon.com/bst Barbra Kruger’s Selfridges campaign in London with Behance, https://www.behance.net/gallery/58329969/Selfridges-Co-Sale-campaign Ryan Long, 2020, When Wokes and Racists Actually Agree on Everything https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ev373c7wSRg Jason Farago, "The Arts Are in Crisis. Here’s How Biden Can Help," New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/13/arts/design/arts-stimulus-biden.html Susan Buck-Morss, response to Visual culture questionnaire (1996) https://platypus1917.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/buckmorss_visualcultquest.pdf Efraim Carlebach, “Forgetting Mark Fisher” Platypus Review 115 (April 2019) https://platypus1917.org/2019/04/01/forgetting-mark-fisher/ Original tracks by Tamas Vilaghy Hosted by Sophia and Pamela