Prophets of Deceit

This exhibition has been organized by the CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco.

Lecture: Vitaly Komar, March 12, 6 p.m. Canzani Center Auditorium Sponsored by Neil K. Rector

The Columbus College of Art & Design presents Prophets of Deceit, an exhibition that looks into predictions and prophecies as guidelines to the development of history. This exhibition explores the significance of messianic and apocalyptic cults as systems restraining social behavior. Rather than announcing unsuspected events, claims of anticipated knowledge tend to administer fear and uncertainty in order to dictate the outcome of the future.

“Looking into notions of mysticism, religion and the occult as guidelines that assess the development of history, Prophets of Deceit constitutes an essay on the pervading significance of messianic and apocalyptic cults both as systems of restraint of social behavior, and as seditious exercises that seek to subvert those very same structures that brought them into play,” says curator Magali Arriola.

The works in the exhibition posit a series of scenarios in which retroactive myths and self-fulfilling prophecies are enacted as exercises of ideological juggling. In doing so, they not only point to the symptoms of a widespread phenomenon that embraces the specter of authoritarian irrationalism, but also investigate the role of art within the culture industry by questioning artists’ function and the interpretation of their messages in a media-saturated society.

Artists include Craig Baldwin, Tacita Dean, Rod Dickinson, HCRH, Christian Jankowski, Joachim Koester, Komar & Melamid, John Menick, Melvin Moti, Raymond Pettibon, Mungo Thomson, PHAUSS (Carl Michael von Hausswolff and Erik Pauser).

www.ccad.edu/events.htm#prophets

Prophets of Deceit
Kurator: Magali Arriola

mit Craig Baldwin, Tacita Dean, Rod Dickinson, HCRH , Christian Jankowski, Joachim Koester, Komar & Melamid, John Menick, Melvin Moti, Raymond Pettibon, Mungo Thomson, PHAUSS  (Carl Michael von Hausswolff / Erik Pauser)