As the election for the next president of the United States of America quickly approaches, VDB is pleased to highlight work from the collection concerned with American politics, leadership, and state communications, in the VDB TV program Democracy and Demagoguery.
From today through Election Day 2024, we present a selection of works by Doug Hall, an artist who has returned to these themes throughout his career. From his days as a founding member of the multi-media performance art collective T.R. Uthco and in his individual work, Hall has explored the stylings and performances utilized by political leaders to sway populations and control national narratives. This program starts with his newest piece, A Brief History of American Demagoguery (2024), which is a found footage dive into the past surfacing in our present moment. This is followed by three short pieces Artist-President Speech 11-22-1975 (1975), This is the Truth (1982), and The Speech (1982), in which Hall performs as a variety of archetypical leaders.
On Wednesday, November 6th, the day after Election Day, the program will switch to the newest manifestation of Antoni Muntadas and Marshall Reese's ongoing 40-year-long video project exploring television's enormous importance in selling the presidency: Political Advertisement XI 1952-2024. This newest video is currently on a month-long "Swing State Tour" of screenings, which continues tonight through November 1st. Venues and dates are detailed below. As the artists continue to compile and update their anthology, they have released the new book Read My Lips, edited from talks with Bill Horrigan, Rick Prelinger, and Tanya Zimbardo. The phrase "Read My Lips," is taken from George H. W. Bush's acceptance speech at the 1988 Republican Convention, which Bill Clinton's campaign appropriated in a campaign ad in 1992.
Political Advertisement Swing State Tour
October 16 - Museum of Contemporary Art, University of South Florida, Tampa
October 19 - Busboys and Poets, Washington DC
October 22 - Great Hall, Cooper Union, NYC
October 24 - Minneapolis College of Art and Design, Minneapolis
November 1 - Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh
Featured Titles
This found-footage video looks at the demagogic aspirations of Huey Long, Father Charles Coughlin, Joseph McCarthy, and George Wallace, concluding with Donald Trump. American history is filled with such characters. In the past, they have all been defeated by stronger democratic forces that refused to acquiesce to authoritarianism. Today the future of this authoritarian urge as represented by Trump and the MAGA movement is uncertain.
In the fall of 1974 Doug Hall and Jody Procter began to develop a presidential archetype, which they called "the Artist-President." Procter wrote the speeches that Hall delivered "presidentially" in performances. Over time, the character became more explicitIy based on JFK, requiring a makeup artist and a speaking style more recognizably Kennedy-esque. On November 22, 1975, members of T. R. Uthco (at the Anthology Film Archives in New York) and Ant Farm (at a church in San Francisco) simultaneously screened media from their reenactment of President Kennedy's assassination.
This tape grew out of my fascination with Ronald Reagan and his uncanny ability to demonstrate what I called the 'Signifiers of Americanism'. Through gesture and intonation, he seemed to suggest many of the virtues that Americans hold dear. Although not directly about Reagan, The Speech suggests some of these issues, while remaining purposely ambiguous. The tape is really a speech about speeches.
— Doug Hall
This title is also available on Presidents and Elections.
“Similar in structure to The Speech, this tape suggests the gesture and language of the television proselytizer as opposed to the politician.”
— Doug Hall
“This Is The Truth is a recitation of the rules and social codes that makes evident the results of strategic posturing and facial expression on television. Through emblems and selected phrases, Hall dissects those components that produce the image of authority.”
— Bob Riley, The CAT Fund Presents: Doug Hall (Boston: Institute of Contemporary Art, 1986-87)