[This article originally appeared on Nettime.org, November 5, 2002/ "Mckenzie Wark speaks on the Theology of the Spectacle" ]
Masayuki Kawai "About a Theological Situation in the Society of the Spectactle" Queens Museum of Art, New York (Nov. 3-10) guest curator Cristine Wang There is something untouchable about the major works of Guy Debord, founder and animating force of the Situationist International. As someone who famously declared "we are not about to play the game", he is not so easy to assimilate into the play of institutional signifiers that is the art world. What makes Masayuki Kawai's video so fine is that it pretty much ignores the question of what it means to appropriate and rework Debord's work. This video just does it, and in fine style. What one learns, in the process, is that recession or not, Japanese commodity culture still furnishes the kinds of images that really do seem to bear out Debord's thesis. As Debord writes, "the whole life of those societies in which modern conditions of production prevail presents itself as an immense accumulation of spectacles. All that was once directly lived has become mere representation." This is a world in which "that which is good appears, and that which appears is good." The spectacle is not just an accumulation of images, "it is rather a social relationship mediated by images." Of course Debord made his own film version of his classic work, "The Society of the Spectacle". Part of the problem with that film is that Debord was using the image culture of mid century France, which was far from being the most highly developed of the time. Kawai's video, on the other hand, is effective precisely because one seems to peer over the brink of a future the bulk of the world has yet to quite enter. I'm not in a position to assess Kawai's development of the Debordian thesis from one viewing, but there too, this is a work of some value. There's something static, unreflective in the ways in which the thesis of the spectacle is usually taken up. Debord's empahsis on separation has its limitations in a world in which the vectoral and connective property of media seems more telling. The alienation Debord identifies hinges on a somewhat static understanding of a necessity that pre-exists its rupture in the commodity economy. It's not that Kawai has resolved these issues in the Debordian thesis. The video seems to me to offer a very elegant restatement and adaption of the classic situationist position. But he does offer a very useful artwork with which to think these issues through. Masayuki Kawai: "About a Theological Situation in the Society of the Spectactle" single channel video Queens Museum of Art (Nov 3-10) guest curator Cristine Wang Last day for viewing: Sunday, November 10 hours 12-5pm http://www.asiasociety.org/acaw http://www.queensmuseum.org http://cristine.org Queens Museum of Art New York City Building / Flushing Meadows Corona Park / Queens, NY 11368 Tel: 718 592.9700 www.queensmuseum.org Open Tue-Fri 10am-5pm, Sat-Sun12pm-5pm Directions: #7 train to Shea Stadium . By Car, Via the Grand Central Parkway, exit at Shea Stadium Support for this project is gratefully acknowledged from Name.Space, Progressive IMG, and The Wang Family Trust. Additional support from Frederieke Taylor. Closing party sponsored by Clay (202 Mott Street, NYC). Special thanks to Melissa Chiu (The Asia Society & Museum) and Hitomi Iwasaki (The Queens Museum of Art). \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ McKenzie Wark is a New York-based media theorist, critic, and the author of three books, including "Virtual Geography" (1994); "The Virtual Republic" (1997); and "Celebrities, Culture and Cyberspace" (1998). http://subsol.c3.hu/subsol_2/contributors0/warktext.html archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: [EMAIL PROTECTED]]
