ARTISTS
Robert Rauschenberg: Currents, 1970
This exhibition features 17 large-scale prints and a related sound piece from Robert Rauschenberg鈥檚 Currents series of 1970. During a tumultuous political moment in the US, the artist conceptualized the Currents project as an experience of immersion and overstimulation meant to jar viewers into action. 鈥淐urrents鈥� refers to current events as much as forces of nature 鈥� ocean currents, electrical currents 鈥� phenomena that can sweep someone away or jolt them into attention.
Each screenprint is composed of dozens of newspaper clippings superimposed atop one another, prompting a pattern of looking based on searching, reading, and decoding. An accompanying soundscape features a jumble of audio clips taken from newscasts of the period. The experience is overwhelming, an activation of the nervous system.
Rauschenberg explicitly understood his art practice as capable of stimulating political consciousness. 鈥淚 want to shake people awake,鈥� he explained. 鈥淚 want people to look at the material and react to it. I want to make them aware of individual responsibility, both for themselves and for the rest of the human race.鈥�
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This exhibition features 17 large-scale prints and a related sound piece from Robert Rauschenberg鈥檚 Currents series of 1970. During a tumultuous political moment in the US, the artist conceptualized the Currents project as an experience of immersion and overstimulation meant to jar viewers into action. 鈥淐urrents鈥� refers to current events as much as forces of nature 鈥� ocean currents, electrical currents 鈥� phenomena that can sweep someone away or jolt them into attention.
Each screenprint is composed of dozens of newspaper clippings superimposed atop one another, prompting a pattern of looking based on searching, reading, and decoding. An accompanying soundscape features a jumble of audio clips taken from newscasts of the period. The experience is overwhelming, an activation of the nervous system.
Rauschenberg explicitly understood his art practice as capable of stimulating political consciousness. 鈥淚 want to shake people awake,鈥� he explained. 鈥淚 want people to look at the material and react to it. I want to make them aware of individual responsibility, both for themselves and for the rest of the human race.鈥�
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