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Passion and Politics We have become a polarized culture: right/left, conservative/liberal, red states/blue states, with us or against us; a dichotomy of diminishing civility with each side deeply entrenched with their politics. For the Mattress Factory Musuem exhibit Messages and Communications (October 2, 2005-April 3, 2006), book artist and photographer Dennis Marsico constructed a cylindrical "Rare Book Room" with an adjacent "Entrance Hall". The Entrance Hall houses a series of illuminated broadsides that hold clues to what the viewers will experience in the Rare Book Room. The broadsides are inkjet printed and letterpress printed with the hidden messaged inked, using invisible ultraviolet ink that can only be read in the Rare Book Room. The Rare Book room is divided into left and right perimeters. For the left-perimeter Marsico asked three poets to address the topic Passion or Politics from which three handmade books (Flinch, Blues not Blues and Blind Desire) were created. In Flinch Jim Daniels meanders through his daily routine, which includes constant reminders of an ongoing war. The photographs of Marsico also zigzag through his daily observations. The poems of Terrance Hayes, Blues Not Blues, oscillate between personal passions and social observations. Jeff Thomson's, Blind Desire, sidetracks the politics completely and makes a direct path to the sensuous. Because touch is so much a part of most personal passions Blind Desire is bilingually printed in English and Braille. For the right-perimeter Marsico asked his son, Jakob Marsico, a recent religious studies graduate, to address the political misuse of religion. The Infinite and Absloute Bible functions as a guidebook to common misinterpreted biblical readings. For photographs and a quicktime movie of the exhibit click here. |