Could you, literally, wear your politics on your sleeve?
That's just one of the questions being asked by a new exhibit running at the Aspen Art Museum - and 19 other locations around town - that takes a unique approach to getting people to vote.
The show, from Florida-based conceptual artist Lisa Anne Auerbach, features more than 30 Nordic ski sweaters with hand-knitted slogans from past presidential campaigns. Some sweaters are on display at the Aspen Art Museum - where visitors can check them out for up to four hours and wear them around town - while the majority are embedded in the window displays of retail stores around downtown Aspen.
"I've always wanted to do an art project that would encourage people to vote, and I had never figured out a way to do that that wasn't didactic," says AAM Chief Curator Heidi Zuckerman Jacobson, who discovered Auerbach at a beachside emerging artists' gallery in Florida. "When I saw some of the other sweaters in the show, I saw that they definitely had a perspective and a sense of humor."
One such sweater reads: "Knock, knock. Who's there? 9/11. 9/11 who? You said you'd never forget."
"They were definitely poignant," Zuckerman Jacobson adds.
So she asked Auerbach to do an election-themed show at the museum, with one caveat: As the museum is a non-profit organization, the works had to be non-partisan.
"For me a lot of my works have been partisan," Auerbach says, who spearheaded a 2004 election-year project call "Knitters for Kerry." "But I'm mostly interested in history and language, and how they are used, misused and twisted. And I also want to bring people together and change their minds but in a friendly, seductive way, and not blatantly telling people what to think about and how."
One of Auerbach's recent projects included setting up a unicycle shop in Joshua Tree, Calif., where participants could rent a unicycle for 10 cents per hour.
"People really discovered a new idea of balance," she says, "and how they can use their bodies in a way they never thought they could."
And in many ways the Aspen Art Museum project shows people exactly that.
"I've always wanted to do things that were more active than sitting in a museum or gallery," Auerbach says. "So when Heidi and I discussed having people wear the sweaters around town, I thought it was great. I really like the idea of having people take part and using their own bodies as part of the exhibition."
But perhaps more than the idea of creating a town-wide exhibition with moving parts, the show provides an interesting perspective on American politics while concurrently offering a fascinating case study on the ultimate meaninglessness of words.
"Like most people, I thought that this was the first time these slogans have ever been used," Auerbach says. "So when I found out that Jefferson's slogan in 1800 was 'Is it Not High Time for Change?' I really got to thinking that history is a lot more circular than we think it is."
"I love the malleability of the slogans," Zuckerman Jacobson adds. "And they really show how empty the words can be, because after the fact, you have no idea who was saying them, what they mean, or what they were intending. So many of them could have been from any party at any time."
The town-wide gallery also features a cell phone audio tour, where participants can dial a phone number and hear comments on the artwork and exhibition by the artist, curator, historians, and other members of the public. Brochures are available at Aspen Art Museum.
damien@aspendaillynews.com
