Public Fiction’s The Conscientious Objector was a multifaceted endeavor that unfurled in parts from February to April 2018. It comprised a publication, a series of artist-made commercials for television, an exhibition of artworks activated by performances, and public programs.
Set in West Hollywood, The Conscientious Objector considered how art and culture can establish acts of resilience through ‘non-participation’ and elliptical routes, in contrast to more blatantly socio-political forms of resistance, as well as the ways in which they might use the tropes and platforms of entertainment, advertising and mass culture to reach its audiences.that is, without making any assumptions about who these audiences were.
The overall project was an exploration of different modes or degrees of ‘public address’ – most obviously through a live confrontation with actors in the exhibition, at a step removed via TV commercials, more obliquely via individual artworks, and in the longer term through the publication.
about the exhibition
The Conscientious Objector at the Schindler House presented new and existing works by Sam Gilliam, Anthea Hamilton, Lucy McKenzie, Dianna Molzan, and Suki Seokyeong Kang, plus a new durational performance delivered by professional actors and directed by Todd Gray. Each artist inhabited a different room of the Schindler House, which was progressively activated by a performance that employed the publication as script and prop.
