How long can we tolerate this? An incomplete record from 1933-1999
Colby Museum of Art
2017
Photo Credit: Jason Paige Smith
Review by Charlotte Marratta
Colby student reflections on the artwork
Colby Museum of Art
2017
Photo Credit: Jason Paige Smith
Review by Charlotte Marratta
Colby student reflections on the artwork
How long can we tolerate this? An incomplete record from 1933-1999 (2016) is a thirty-four foot long photo assemblage comprised of press photographs of evictions taken during the years of the Glass-Steagall Act. Assuming the form of a city skyline, it is at once a timeline, a historical archive and a representation of working and middle-class material displacement. In the context of an increasingly divisive 2016 federal election, this work speaks powerfully to the role the press plays in shaping political consensus about what constitutes a shared ethical responsibility towards others. The Glass-Steagall act was signed into law shortly after Franklin D. Roosevelt took office in 1933, and his inaugural address has been adapted to speak to the present in Modigliani’s work Only a Foolish Opportunist Can Deny the Dark Realities of the Moment: A Presidential Address (2016). The astute relevance of many of FDR’s words eighty-three years later, in conjunction with the past and present evictions of working class people remind us that democracy is a powerful symbol, an imperfect goal, and a work in progress.
Originally this work was exhibited alongside a physical print of this text: Only a Foolish Opportunist Can Deny the Dark Realities of the Moment: A Presidential Address, 2016
Top: Detail. Photo Credit: Nathan McChristy
Below: Details of original press photos used in this work.
Below: Details of original press photos used in this work.