Electoral collage: a portfolio

ArtForum, Sept, 2004 by Richard Serra, Rachel Harrison, Lawrence Weiner, Trisha Donnelly, Barbara Kruger, Tom Sachs, Jonathan Horowitz, Isa Genzken, Laylah Ali, Kelley Walker, Elizabeth Peyton, James Rosenquist, Chris Hanson, Hendrika Sonnenberg, Jeremy Deller

Following the release of the indelible

Abu Ghraib photographs this past spring, Richard Serra produced Stop Bush, a print that he has distributed widely both in art venues and in mainstream publications, as well as on the Internet. Serra insists that the piece is not an artwork but rather a "way to just get the message out," a tack that inspired Artforum to invite other artists to take up the cause. Our brief was simple and open-ended: We asked fourteen artists to make an original contribution to these pages on the occasion of the American presidential election. A few, like Tom Sachs (whose presidential seal adorns this month's cover), redesigned and formatted a preexisting piece specifically for reproduction here; yet most made a wholly new work, including James Rosenquist, who went so far as to paint The Xenophobic Movie Director or Our Foreign Policy from scratch. In either case, the artists were working in demanding circumstances. With invitations coming in early July, individuals were afforded just a few weeks to prepare their submissions--a significant obstacle that Rachel Harrison and Barbara Kruger overcame by actually producing their contributions in the Artforum offices, barely two blocks from Madison Square Garden, site of the Republican National Convention. Perhaps these last occasions best provide a sense of the project's urgency. Setting aside the matter of whether the portfolio would "preach to the choir" or exist on the peripheries of artistic or mainstream political discourses, artists felt absolutely compelled to concentrate their efforts and "get the message out."

Richard Serra

STOP BUSH

Rachel Harrison

SARATOGA HORSE AUCTION

Lawrence Weiner

INVITATION TO THE DANCE

Trisha Donnelly

UNTITLED

Barbara Kruger

UNTITLED

Tom Sachs

UNTITLED

Jonathan Horowitz

ARCHIVAL IRIS PRINT ON ACID FREE PAPER OF AN IMAGE DOWNLOADED FROM THE INTERNET WITH TWO COPIES OF THE NEW YORK POST ROTTING IN THEIR FRAMES

Isa Genzken

EMPIRE/VAMPIRE, WHO KILLS DEATH

Laylah Ali

UNTITLED

Kelley Walker

UNTITLED. PHOTO: JASON SCHMIDT

Elizabeth Peyton

JOHN KERRY, APRIL 1971

James Rosenquist

THE XENOPHOBIC MOVIE DIRECTOR OR OUR FOREIGN POLICY

Chris Hanson & Hendrika Sonnenberg

1 TO 1 (DETAIL). PHOTO: ORCUTT & VAN DER PUTTEN

Jeremy Deller

UNTITLED