6th Party Machine (Dog Whistlers)

BACKGROUND: Creative work is an inquiry into critical agency through art and political cartooning in terms of grotesque method, dispersed trace of body and viewer agency, specifically Within the context of Austrian political cartooning traditions. Framed by key texts on the grotesque: Bakhtin, M (1984). Rabelais and His World, and space & time as dimensions of political change and agency; Massey, D (1992) Politics and Space/Time. Related to practices of artists Monika Sosnowska, 1:1 (2007), Venice Biennale and Nancy Spero, Maypole - take no prisoners (2008), Serpentine Gallery, London. Exhibition curated during the 2016 Austrian Presidential elections. The research asks; How can critical commentary on politics be enacted within an expanded field of drawing? CONTRIBUTION: Innovation, New Knowledge Research addresses issues of political communication and dissimulation. Artwork is installation of network of dyed paper spans, furniture, framed artwork, diagrams, with array of graphic effigies of Austrian Federal parliamentarians, presented with speech bubbles installed alongside the dried remains of an found animal carcass. Viewer experiences spatial event as fragmented political body by moving inside delineated space and contributing hand-written text. Research suggests tropes of political cartooning establish poltical critique through self-identification with grotesque political body via a 3 dimensional installation experience. SIGNIFICANCE: Evidence of Excellence Work was comissioned by Verena Gamper, Kunsthalle Krems as part of AIR Krems Kunstmeile International artist residency & exhbition program auspiced by the government of Lower Austria and presented at the Mödling Kunstraumarcade Gallery, Vienna. Accompanying Catalogue includes introductory essay by Curator. Work cponents held by the collection of the Karikaturmuseum, Krems, Austria.