The Conversation

by Kirsten Forkert

The Conversation

 

Description

The Conversation is an examination of the political role of the artist and the intellectual. The work is anchored in a series of conversations around two labor disputes at cultural institutions: the current teaching assistants' strike at NYU and the 2000 strike at MOMA. I have decided to focus on these situations because they foreground the politics of our own behavior within the art or academic worlds (we who have traditionally considered ourselves to be outside of politics and especially class politics). The project takes these conversations as a starting point to consider the ideologies surrounding the role of the artist and the intellectual. For example, when we use terms like 'worker' or 'professional', do we include ourselves in that definition? The project also invites you to participate in the activity of defining, and redefining this language—beginning by asking how we can talk about class.