The Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MOCAD)
Courtesy The Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MOCAD)
The presentation of Horowitz’s work comes in anticipation of the 2016 presidential election, similar to its preliminary reveal in the artist’s 2008 solo exhibition at Gavin Brown’s enterprise (Obama ’08). Inspired by a 1970’s Mother’s Day figurine, Horowitz crafted his own version as a nod to Hillary Clinton’s presidential candidacy.“We are excited to share this sculpture with Detroit,” says MOCAD Director Elysia Borowy-Reeder. “It not only exemplifies the spirit of the museum’s Mobile Homestead project, but the importance of active debate and political participation in our city.”
While politically ambiguous, the sculpture pushes viewers to question many of the issues today’s presidential candidates face; for example, this election’s overt sexism. The presence of gender bias in our culture has brought us to a crossroads this election: Hillary Clinton has again become a figure both vilified and championed by the electorate. Where does this leave us?
"It’s usually the powerless that have to ask to be recognized as human beings, which can be demeaning,” says Horowitz. “Ironically, Hillary, who is decidedly not powerless, has had to do similar things to seem more likable."
“Detroit is central to both candidates’ rhetoric about the US job market,” says Gavin Brown of Gavin Brown’s enterprise. “It is the ideal site for an artwork so entwined in our nation’s socioeconomic conversation.”
The project and exhibition will be on view through January 1, 2017.
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About Jonathan Horowitz
Since the early 1990s, Jonathan Horowitz has made art that combines the imagery and ambivalence of Pop art with the engaged criticality of conceptualism. Often based in both popular commercial and art historical sources, his work in video, sculpture, painting and photography examines the deep-seated links between consumerism and political consciousness, as well as the political silences of postwar art. Recent painting projects have explored the personal psychology of mark making, at times, prominently employing the hands of others. Solo exhibitions include Occupy Greenwich (Brant Foundation, 2016); Your Land/My Land: Election '12, presented concurrently at seven museums across the US (from the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles to the New Museum, New York, 2012); Minimalist Works from the Holocaust Museum(Dundee Contemporary Arts, Scotland, 2010-11); Apocalypto Now (Museum Ludwig, Cologne, 2009); and the retrospective exhibition, And/Or, (P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center, New York, 2009). Horowitz lives and works in New York.
About MOCAD’s Mobile Homestead
Inspired by Mike Kelley's Mobile Homestead, MOCAD has embarked on a multi-year examination of artists who seek to create participatory and socially transformative art. Known primarily as social practice, its practitioners freely blur the lines among art making, performance, political activism, community organizing, environmentalism, and investigative journalism, creating a deeply participatory art form.
About Art as Social Force Exhibition: It's Your Party, Cry If You Want To
Don’t Swap Horses in the Middle of the Stream, In your Heart you Know He’s Right, and Not Just Peanuts. Are these titles of country songs or campaign slogans? If you guessed campaign slogans you're correct! But who won these elections and who lost? Find out this fall when we celebrate the winners and losers alike with It's Your Party, an exhibition of presidential campaign memorabilia drawn from the vast collection of Morry "The Button Man" Greener. Campaign posters, bumper stickers, pennants, and other ephemera from elections past and present will fill the Mobile Homestead. In the garage we'll be screening election related films and historical debates and broadcasting the live coverage of the 2016 presidential campaign. Join us for debate and election night parties where you are welcome to commiserate or celebrate with your friends and neighbors.
The Mike Kelley Mobile Homestead is commissioned by Artangel in association with MOCAD, LUMA Foundation and Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts with the generous support of the Artangel International Circle. Support for the Mike Kelley Mobile Homestead is provided by the Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts. Support for Hillary Clinton is a Person Too has been provided by Gavin Brown’s enterprise.
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