R. Luke DuBois: Politics As Usual
September 12 – October 11, 2008
bitforms gallery, 529 West 20th Street, NYC

Hindsight is 20/20, installation view, via bitforms.com

There ought to be a word to distinguish work like R. Luke DuBois' Hindsight is 20/20 series, from the more partisan, committed work that usually goes under the moniker, 'political.' Conceived as a procession of lexical snapshots, Dubois has arranged words from various State of the Union speeches in the format of eye-examination posters - here transformed into light boxes. The words appear in descending order of frequency, with the largest being those that appear most frequently in the speech's text. It is a concept that satisfies beyond its undeniable cleverness; both practically, as a fascinating visual distillation of political history, and metaphorically, as the each image begs the question of our access to it - prodding us to consider, quite literally, the degradation of our political senses. Hindsight... is included in the artist's solo show Politics as Usual opening tomorrow at bitforms gallery. There is an opening reception from 6:30-8:30, and an artist's talk at the gallery Saturday, October 11 at 4pm.