LG Williams · Est. 1969Samizdat Archive
LG Williams Samizdat Archive
SAMIZDAT
1993–2026
Essay: LG Williams frames Fuckthatgallery's Big Bad World group show as an allegory of the gallery as prison, asylum, and white room, 2009

The Big Bad World

This press release announces FUCKTHATGALLERY's group show The Big Bad World while turning the exhibition itself into an allegory of confinement. The gallery is described as a prison, asylum, ward, and white room where art is separated from society, neutralized, consumed, and converted into merchandise. The repeated phrase "The Big Bad World" becomes both brand and cage, overwhelming the text until institutional critique turns into verbal claustrophobia. Page two visually intensifies the argument with highlights, strike-throughs, red circling, and black redactions, making the document itself feel marked up, censored, and attacked. The final claim is the sharpest: it would be better to destroy the exhibition than produce illusions of freedom within confinement.

DATE:
October 15, 2009
DOCUMENT TYPE:
Essay / Critique
NAMED ARTISTS / FIGURES:
LG Williams; Lani E'Iolani; Laupahoehoe Beth Punahou; Nanakuli Mililani Olomana; Fivos Sakalis; Meredith Dunn; B. F. Skinner
INSTITUTIONS / VENUES:
FUCKTHATGALLERY; Waikiki; The Estate of LG Williams; The Big Bad World Galleries
KEYWORDS:
gallery as prison; white room as cage; art separated from society; neutralized and consumed; Big Bad World as confinement metaphor; art converted to merchandise; group show as allegory
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