[-empyre-] empyre Digest, Vol 62, Issue 13

[John Haber]

The analogy to rebranding is very interesting indeed, in an excellent 
post.  Let me ask more about it, though.  Now, to me it's only an 
analogy, and of course whatever venting we may wish to have about 
torture and Israeli policy aren't instantly illuminating regarding art 
except as a kind of red flag.  (Hey, there's injustice in the world, so 
don't let it happen in this realm.)  Indeed, it could actually disguise 
the problem, by suggesting distinct realms after all, which the whole 
problematic of complicity in art is supposed to question.  Thus, my 
question would be this:  if the political analogy is silence, then does 
that open possibilities for art, in which making visible is part of the 
game?  Now, I realize that acknowledging something, as argued well, 
doesn't make it go away.  But it's still different from silence. 

John