Introduction.

The 2014 Duck Hollow International introduces some of the most relevant artistic voices today. These are voices that ooze relevance from every pore. They drool relevance when they sleep. Their defining characteristic is that they are more relevant than you. They expose us to new ways of understanding the world, showing us an alternative vision of life as the pursuit of grant money for childish pranks and lazy recycling of found objects. As the foremost exponents of contemporary art today, they demand our attention (see, for example, Eli “Bonkers” Johnson’s video installation, Hey, Look at Me).

For the first time this year, the International spreads beyond the stodgy galleries into unexpected spaces, such as the rest rooms next to the cafeteria. (Please be careful to distinguish the art from the fixtures.) Going beyond the museum’s walls, it engages the community with pioneering works such as The Parking-Lot Project, which replaced the white stripes in an entire suburban parking lot with yellow ones, and Pop Quiz, which replaced the entire English faculty of the Luke Ravenstahl Junior High School with crash-test dummies.

The exhibition affirms that art is essential to everyday life in all its inanity, that beauty is in the eye of the beholder if the beholder can write a proper grant proposal, and—above all—that it is the artist’s duty to make us pay attention to art whether we like it or not.

Please note that, as a courtesy to our guests, the museum’s no-snickering policy will be strictly enforced.