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