[NetBehaviour] YOUR TOWN, INC.

[marc garrett]

(via Yes Men to Netbehaviour list)

YOUR TOWN, INC.
Big Box Reuse with Julia Christensen

Curated by Astria Suparak
August 29 - November 23, 2008 @ Miller Gallery at Carnegie Mellon University

September 19, 6-8pm: Hometown BBQ Reception
November 13, 4:30-6pm: University Lecture Series, Big Box Reuse 
Presentation + Book Signing

What happens when Wal-Mart moves out, leaving behind massive and 
drearily generic buildings amidst acres of paved land? Rather than 
focusing on multinational retailers for their relentless, smothering 
expansion, artist and writer Julia Christensen chooses to focus on 
community, and is optimistic about our ability to move on. She has 
researched and documented the ways that American communities have 
creatively adapted and transformed these mega stores into more 
constructive uses – while asking her audience to think critically about 
what a landscape of reused big boxes actually means for our future. And 
she offers a response to the big box concept: Christensen created an 
architectural installation for Your Town, Inc., providing us with a 
starting point and a site for discussions about urgent issues like 
sustainability, public space, car dependency, and corporate ownership.


KEEP IT SLICK
Infiltrating Capitalism with the Yes Men

Curated by Astria Suparak
September 4 - October 26, 2008 @ Feldman Gallery at PNCA, Portland, OR, 
in connection with PICA's Time-Based Art Festival
November 14, 2008 - February 15, 2009 @ Miller Gallery at Carnegie 
Mellon University

Reaching countless people through websites, newspapers, and television 
broadcasts, the sometimes anonymous Yes Men are among the most visible 
and effective artist-activists of our time. Over the past decade they 
have fearlessly taken on the world's biggest corporations and 
bureaucracies through a process they call "Identity Correction." 
Infiltrating the elite realm of the influential and the moneyed, cloaked 
in the sheerest layer of authority – thrift-store suits, quick-print 
business cards, forged press releases – these social activators urge us 
to question where ethics belong in our capitalist-driven society.

This survey represents the first-ever solo exhibition of the Yes Men. 
Here you can walk into a re-creation of their past exploits in the 
Conference area, witness a comically apocalyptic future, and pay your 
respects to a janitor who generously donated his body to satisfy our 
insatiable energy needs. In the Executive Board Room, you may browse 
through the Yes Men's personal office items and orate along to their 
absurd PowerPoint presentations. The Yes Men seek to incite change. And 
above all, they urge us to do something better.


SIGNS OF CHANGE
Social Movement Cultures 1960s to Now

Guest-curated by Dara Greenwald and Josh MacPhee
September 20 - November 22, 2008 @ Exit Art, New York, NY
January 23 - March 8, 2009 @ Miller Gallery at Carnegie Mellon University

Hundreds of posters, photographs, moving images, audio clips, and 
ephemera bring to life over forty years of activism, political protest, 
and campaigns for social justice. This important and timely exhibition 
surveys the creative work of dozens of international social movements.

Although histories of political groups and counter-cultures have been 
written, and political and activist shows have been held, this 
exhibition is a groundbreaking attempt to chronicle the artistic and 
cultural production of these movements. Signs of Change offers a chance 
to see relatively unknown or rarely seen works, and is intended to not 
only provide a historical framework for contemporary activism, but also 
to serve as an inspiration for the present and the future.


The Miller Gallery at Carnegie Mellon University has supported the 
creation, understanding, and growth of contemporary art through 
exhibitions, projects, events, and publications since January 2000. The 
Miller Gallery was founded by Regina Gouger Miller, and is a unit of the 
College of Fine Arts.


MILLER GALLERY AT CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY
Purnell Center for the Arts
5000 Forbes Ave.
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
412.268.3618
http://www.cmu.edu/millergallery

For inquiries about touring exhibitions, or to sign up on our mailing 
list, write to: miller-gallery at andrew.cmu.edu
Media contact: Eric Sloss, ecs at andrew.cmu.edu

Images above:
Spam Museum, renovated Kmart building, Austin, Minnesota, J. Christensen
McDonald's McMascots: Rona McRiveter, the Yes Men
War Abroad Is War on US, Northern California War Tax Resistance.