Campaign Buttons: Artists Speak Out

Campaign Buttons: Artists Speak Out
Miller Block Gallery, Boston MA
September 5th - October 11th, 2008

From the press release:

"An exhibition of artist-made campaign buttons.
In an effort to foster a dialogue between art and politics, Miller Block Gallery has distributed 500 blank campaign buttons to a wide range of Boston based artists in the hopes that they will visually explore the impact of political alliance and support during the pending presidential election."

 The piece I produced for this show consisted of five buttons, each 3" diameter, set in velvet and framed. 

 The buttons contained an enlargement of my left eye from every inauguration day since the project started: January 20th of 1989 (Bush 41), 1993 (Clinton), 1997 (Clinton), 2001 (Bush 43), and 2005 (Bush 43). Each button had the appropriate date printed in red, white and blue.

 The notion of observation, of watching what happens, had more appeal to me in terms of our electoral process than advocating for a specific candidate in a specific election.