“Your Land/My Land: Election ’12” is an installation by New York- based artist Jonathan Horowitz (b. 1966, New York City) that coincides with the 2012 American presidential election season.
“Your Land/My Land: Election ’12,” 2012. Exhibition view: New Museum. Photo: Jesse Untracht-Oakner
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The exhibition is being staged simultaneously at seven museums across the United States and provides a space for people to gather, watch coverage of, and talk about the presidential election.
The title references the song “This Land is Your Land” written by folk musician Woody Guthrie in 1940, originally addressing the issue of land ownership. At each location, red and blue area rugs divide the exhibition space into opposing zones, reflecting America’s color- coded political and cultural divide. Back-to-back monitors are suspended between the carpets, with one broadcasting a live feed of Fox News, the other of MSNBC.
Since the early 1990s, Horowitz has created work that combines the imagery and ambivalent attitude of Pop Art with the engaged criticality of Conceptualism. Often based on popular commercial sources, his work examines the deep-seated links between consumerism and political consciousness.
To post comments about the presidential election and to learn more about Jonathan Horowitz’s project “Your Land/My Land: Election ’12,” visit yourlandmyland.us. The website is accessible on the computer at the back of the Lobby; to connect to the project on Twitter, use #YLML.
Other participating venues include Contemporary Art Museum St Louis, MO, Contemporary Art Museum Raleigh, NC, Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, TX, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, Utah Museum of Contemporary Art, Salt Lake City, UT, and Telfair Museums, Savannah, GA.