The Joke’s on Us | Ann Landi | December 2011
College Art Association audience, 2011.
Scholars are looking at the history of modernism through the history of its pranks
During a panel called “The Art of Pranks” at the College Art Association (CAA) conference in New York last February, a participant identified as Clark Stoeckley, “artivist,” maintained an impassive demeanor as his scholarly copanelists delivered papers on Dada, Fluxus, and other notorious movements past and present. Stoeckley stood out on account of his cop’s uniform, and when he got up to speak on the topic of New York City pranksters, identified himself as a member of the NYPD Vandal Squad Task Force. He explained that he was a former undercover detective in the East Village who became a “street-art archivist” and was eventually promoted to the rank of lieutenant for his insider knowledge of graffiti crews and activist groups.
Stoeckley’s talk covered the gambits of street artists from Banksy and Shepard Fairey to the Guerrilla Girls and the artist known as Mat Benote (Make Art That Benefits Everyone Not Only the Elite). Although he seemed a bit awkward in front of an audience, he punctuated his stories with wry observations that drew appreciative laughter. “This is the stuff that really brightens our day,” he remarked about the graffiti, “and in many cases teaches cops like me a lesson about the Constitution.”
The presentation was so entertaining and unexpected that this reporter wrote it up for ARTnews—only to be informed by editors that “Lieutenant” Stoeckley had no affiliation whatsoever with the NYPD and was himself an artist with a long history of performance-based work. It was like getting rooked into buying a line of cosmetics from Rrose Sélavy.
(Read the rest of the article on ARTnews.com)
I still believe I can change the world for the better with satirical art and activism, or what
some call "artivism." Spell check does not recognize that word yet, so it must be cool. I
have written many artist statements, but none spoke with more truth than the art itself.
I paint, draw, silkscreen, write, perform, design, and make video art. When the concept
permits I have also investigated combining traditional forms with digital technologies
such as interactive media, computer animation, and algorithmic art. I am specifically
interested in areas of relational aesthetics, subversion, culture jamming, street art,
participation, and conceptual art.
Often my work is a direct response to the day's headlines. By adopting various identities, uniforms, and class, I use serious humor to comment on society's dilemmas. For example, I have organized public interventions to hoax the media about Wall Street bailouts and military recruiting. Currently my interest is to bring attention to WikiLeaks and the detention of accused whistleblower Private First Class Bradley Manning.
My interest in politics has also inspired me to shoot and edit high definition
documentaries about the issues of homelessness, protest, over-consumption, and police brutality. I do not like preaching to the choir. Nor do I like fueling the opposition's flames. Like any politician or anyone overtly political, many love my messages and tactics, while others hate them as well. My goal is to reach out to everyone in between, to educate, to inspire action for change, or at least get them to look at the world differently.
Presenting: Clark Stoeckley
an EIDIA HOUSE project
January 20 to February 18, 2012
Live 24-hour continuous performance with reception beginning at 7pm, Friday, January 20
EIDIA House Studio / 14 Dunham Place / Williamsburg Brooklyn / NY 11211 / 646 945 3830 / eidiahouse@earthlink.net / http://www.eidia.com/
Hours: 1-6pm Wednesday – Saturday
EIDIA House announces its continuing exhibition initiative, PLATO’S CAVE. The twelfth artist in the series, Clark Stoeckley presents performance and in situ installation: Collateral Torture.
Collateral TortureClark Stoeckley’s 24-hour live performance will portray a day of Private First Class Bradley Manning's tortured imprisonment—commencing at 5pm on Friday the 20th and concluding at 5pm on Saturday the 21st. This performance will be recorded, and the documentation will be projected in Plato's Cave for the remaining duration of the exhibition.
Now an international figure with a huge following, Private First Class Bradley Manning has been ‘detained’ in solitary confinement since May 2010 for allegedly passing classified video and documents to WikiLeaks, blowing the whistle on war crimes in Iraq. During his imprisonment at Quantico Marine Base in Virginia, Manning was subjected to psychological torture. He was placed on a Prevention of Injury assignment, which meant that he had to sleep in only his boxer shorts, with no blankets or pillow, and was woken up every 5 minutes by guards. His treatment has been described as "ridiculous and counterproductive and stupid" by State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley, who resigned shortly after making those comments. He stood by his opinion stating "exercise of power in today's challenging times and relentless media environment must be prudent and consistent with our laws and values." That same week Clark Stoeckley emblazoned a former U-Haul truck with signage that read "Release Bradley Manning", "WikiLeaks Top Secret Mobile Information Collection Unit" along with the WikiLeaks hourglass logo. He then drove it around the White House, and was quickly arrested and interrogated by Secret Service without ever being charged with a crime. His WikiLeaks Truck has been a staple of Occupy Wall Street since day one, delivering food and supplies to the revolution in New York, D.C., Boston, Philadelphia, Newark and Bradley Manning's trial at Fort Meade in Maryland. Using multiple personas and costumes Clark Stoeckley mixes humor and political activism into a conceptual ‘stew’ that tackles head on, distorted and dishonest news headlines, to provoke action, comic relief and debate.
For PLATO’S CAVE, EIDIA House founders Paul Lamarre and Melissa P. Wolf curate invited fellow artists who create installations along with accompanying editions for the underground space; PLATO’S CAVE. EIDIA House Studio boldly states that it does not function as an art gallery, but collaborates with the artist to create provocation in art forms, keeping within an ongoing discipline of aesthetic research.
Clark Stoeckley is a New York City based artist, activist, and performer working in wide variety of media and under several monikers. Stoeckley is a recent graduate from Brooklyn College's Performance and Interactive Media Arts program and now teaches painting, drawing, and digital art at Bloomfield College in New Jersey. Though widely covered by the news, the WikiLeaks truck and Stoeckley’s work is rarely noticed by art writers. However, the artist was featured in the December 2011 ARTnews in an article titled "The Joke's on Us", describing a hoax lecture about New York City pranksters that Stoeckley presented, dressed in NYPD Vandal Squad Task Force police garb. His art has shown in the Pratt Manhattan Gallery, Emily Harvey Foundation Gallery, Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, and the Detroit Institute of Art. Stoeckley maintains that the works he is most proud of are those visibly engaged in everyday life—experienced on our streets.
Stoeckley’s edition: WikiLeaks Top Secret Mobile Information Collection Unit consists of 33 of 3 different signed and numbered 11" x 14" digital photographs of the WikiLeaks Top Secret Mobile Information Collection Unit (a total of 99 photographs.)