Unpleasant Truths / Comfortable Lies
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / UNPLEASANT TRUTHS / COMFORTABLE LIES / CONTENTS HEATHER CHRISTLE Introduction 4 Gardens, Portals 62 ANTISTATIC & STUDENTS ZH0U JUNSHENG Flat Earth Pedagogies 5 ʂʐ\U+6630 66 ANTISTATIC MARGARET ELLIOT The Too-thick World 7 Circle of Vision 68 JOHN LAKE BEN BUCHANAN To the Ends of the (Flat) Earth 12 UNLOCKED; I AM COLIN [My Spirit is trapped in the GABRIELLE CIVIL Painting until Capitalism ends.] 71 S P H E R I C I T Y (or black time is not flat) 18 PRISON RELIGION W-I-P 75 JULIAN SMITH Untitled 25 BEK COOGAN Mud Woman 76 IVÁN MARTÍNEZ Felipe Zitecias 26 CHARLOTTE PARALLEL Research #2: rap rock rock-to-rap rock; PEEBLS Flat Earthers Radio: a Studio Visit with Freedom Movement 35 Rachel Leah Cohn & Flat Earth Society. 77 CARRIS ADAMS & RADNA RUMPING FOLA FAYANJUOLA Near and Further Distance 79 Untitled (The Sign that Screams Plantation) 38 KATHY BARRY Search Engine for her Future Self 88 MR STERILE ASSEMBLY Hurrē 2 41 MARCUS MOORE Looking Beyond the Ferris Wheel: HANNAH SALMON Search Engine for her Future Self. 89 You will never undo the hurt. 42 KATHY BARRY MURDOCH STEPHENS Origin Earth 92 Copernicus the Chad v The Virgin Flat Earthers 45 NIKOLAI NOEL & MATT SHELTON VLAD SMOLKIN “Untitled research collages Sad/Man 52 (‘more flat thin light,’ ‘standing from where,’ and ‘crack that egg’)”, RACHEL O’NEILL digital collages, 2020 93 The phantom of the diamond 53 Contributors 97 CASSANDRA BARNETT Separation Strategies 59 Acknowledgements 102 Flat Earthers brings together artworks from artists and writers around the globe, responding to Aotearoa New Zealand artist John Lake’s documentation of the 2019 Flat Earth Conference — an international gathering of people who believe the Earth is flat. John’s To the Ends of the (Flat) Earth works have been presented on a new website, built during the lead up to the 2020 election campaigns in Aotearoa and the USA. Between July and September 2020, John’s photographs and ‘research’ into misinformation in the ‘information age’ became a provocation for artists and writers to respond with new work using poetics and polemics to navigate landscapes of fear and possibilities of fearlessness. In July 2021, Flat Earthers will become an in real life exhibition at The Engine Room gallery, Whiti o Rehua School of Art at Toi Rāuwharangi College of Creative Arts in Pōneke Wellington. This project is being developed with generous support from Te Whare Hēra International Artists’ Residency and Creative New Zealand. 4 5 6 The Too-thick WorlD by Antistatic NODE 1: Flat Earthers In April 2019, a conference room at the Novotel Ellerslie was home base for the Auckland Flat Earth Conference, a get-together of people who believe the earth is a flat disc rather than a globe. This was the first conference of its kind in New Zealand, and attracted local flat earthers, prominent international figures in the movement and a handful of — often incredulous — local press. Flat earth theory and the supporting belief that NASA and governments John Lake, To the Ends of the (Flat) Earth, 2019 are covering up the “truth” from us falls into a category of narrative (Flat) Earth, there is a series of talking to each other, they are really that science writer Mick West calls images that particularly fascinate talking past each other, into a void. false conspiracy theories. West us. In one of the images, two men They both purport to present facts, notes that “these theories are populate the centre of the frame. which they earnestly hold to be efforts to explain some event or One is standing, clutching a globe, true, and the other’s argument will situation by invoking a conspiracy. leaning forward. He wears a dress unlikely sway them. They are theories that are either shirt with the sleeves rolled up. very likely false because they lack This is Henry Willis, member of the The photo shows two people at an the significant evidence needed Auckland Astronomical Society, a impasse, unwilling to budge from to improve over the conventional group invited to the conference their understanding of the world. explanation, or are demonstrably to debate whether the earth is Somewhere along the line, false.”1 False conspiracy theories are flat or spherical. The other man is the conventional, demonstrably often spread and perpetuated via Mark Sargent, prominent flat earth correct explanation fell short of the online platforms and, as West writes, advocate and star of the Netflix film mark for Sargent and the other flat can harm individuals, communities Behind the Curve. Sargent is sitting, earthers, and all that pointing at and society.2 unmoved, holding his ground with his a globe is unlikely to change their posture, looking like he’s listening. opinion. How did we get here? In artist and photographer John A piece of paper sits in front of him Lake’s documentation of the with a circular map of the world on conference, To The Ends of The it. While the two men are ostensibly 7 NODE 2: Spiral Space “The search for the missing subject” posts. Some of the recuperated as Gabrielle puts it, riffing off Bek histories are