“We Have Entered a Stage of Overproduction”

Abstract

Karin Zitzewitz: Here we see stills from your 2019 vid eo, How to be a SUCKcessful art ist. It is just one in a se ries of video and text works that you've made to dis trib ute over so cial me dia plat forms, ex plor ing the po ten tials and lim i ta tions of your role as an art ist. It's a short vid eo, and with ex traor di nary econ omy it skew ers many typ i cal cu ra to rial ap proaches to the po lit i cal po si tion of "the fe male art ist from the Global South." As if in a par ody of YouTube mar ket ing or in struc tional vid eos, rolling text of ers as pir ing art ists ten ways to "max i mize your im pact" and "be come great ar chi val con tent," while you, an chor ing the vid eo, make sounds that ap prox i mate lan guage but that are ac tu ally un in tel li gi ble. Hands poke into the frame, mak ing ges tures that ap pear to re in force your words but in stead are also dis con nected from mean ing. Mithu, what's at stake for you in this work? What au di ences are you try ing to reach, and how? Mithu Sen: My SUCKcessful art ist video ad dresses the state of the cap i tal ist world, the art world in par tic u lar, and the mod els of pro duc tiv ity it pri or i tizes. The mock in struc tional mode, in ad di tion to be ing a ped a gog i cal sat ire, is used to draw at ten tion to the quick fix for mu las touting the ways in which an art ist can be come suc cess ful, that is, ac quire so cial, sym bol ic, and eco nomic cap i tal through their work. In the form of gib ber ish, how ev er, this en tire ex er cise is un pro duc tive (sim ply from an in struc tional point of view). I think the video also works against the prag matic and pro duc tive value of lan guage and its struc tures, which are used for com mu ni ca tion.

Topics & Concepts