Audrey Chan.

In Spring 2007 at CalArts, I was Teaching Assistant to Nancy Buchanan and Sam Durant for their new course, ID 517: Special Topics in Art and Politics: A Not So Simple Case for Torture. Students from the School of Art and School of Film/Video came together to discuss and make work about government sanctioned use of torture in war and interrogation. We investigated primary documents circulated within the Department of Justice that provided the legal justification for the use of torture. The title of the course referenced Martha Rosler’s video, A Simple Case for Torture, or How to Sleep at Night (1983). There were incredible guest speakers (including Martha Rosler, Dev Nathan, Ashley Hunt, and Gabriele Schwab), readings, screenings, and a class exhibition, Sam and Nancy organized a book project published through onestar press. The book is now available for purchase and download.

Download a free .pdf of the book or purchase a copy here:
http://www.onestarpress.com/A-Not-So-Simple-Case-for-Torture

Direct link to .pdf file: http://www.onestarpress.com/IMG/pdf/durant_int_OK-screen.pdf

As my contribution to the book, I wrote an essay about participating in the March 17, 2007 anti-war protest in Hollywood organized by ANSWER LA and reflections on our interaction with the news media, notably the LA Times. Follow the jump to read.

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Lloyd Hamrol and his sculpture Woven Cone (1973) at California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, California on May 22, 2007. Photo credit: Audrey Chan.

Link: http://www.afterall.org/onlinearchive.html?online_id=38

Last May, Tom Lawson invited me to interview artist and former CalArts School of Art faculty member, Lloyd Hamrol, whose collaborative rope sculpture Woven Cone (1973) was an iconic fixture on the CalArts campus for decades. During my two years at CalArts, I would pass it everyday as I walked to my studio. The sculpture had taken on a fairly legendary status - if decrepit in aspect - as a rumored site of marriage proposal and a totem to animistic pseudo-spiritual rituals. Regardless, it was one of the few pieces of public art on campus and its hippie aesthetic and modest presence hearkened back to the early days of the institution as much as Frank Gehry’s post-cataclysmic concrete fortress architecture. Read more »