Art Review- Global Priority

The process of “globalization“ – the movement of capital, culture, and ideas across borders – is nothing new. For thousands of years, trading, shifts in human populations, and war have meant interaction between distant and often very different peoples. More recently, “globalization” has come to describe a capitalist world system that seeks to dismantle local and regional sovereignty for the benefit of transnational interests.

In Global Priority – a multimedia exhibition currently on display at the San Francisco Art Commission Gallery – 63 artists from 33 countries share observations on the intersection between the process of “globalization” and the individual. The exhibition, however, also explores definitions of “globalization”, by appearing in multiple cities around the world and adding new artists at each locale, and thereby creating a global network among the participants.

Global Priority opened at the Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning in Queens, New York in November 2002. For the premier, the curators asked 30 artists they knew personally to provide insights on the subject of the ‘global’ and the individual. Each of these artists then invited another artist to contribute. According to Gordon Knox, co-curator of the exhibit with Hen-Gil Han, this created “a process, a movement of ideas, an unpredictable and mutating opportunity for communication.” He further describes the JCAL opening as, “the Guangzhou Province for Global Priority’s transition to global presence,” a reference to the South Korean uprising of 1980 which many describe as the opening salvo for Asian democracy movements.

But Knox and Han’s “anti-curatorial” approach – empowering the participating artists to solicit works as the exhibition moves from place to place – isn’t the only exploration of the concept of “globalization.” As an exhibition, Global Priority seeks to engage the viewer on what defines the term “globalization” and its impacts. According to Knox the term “globalization” defies a set definition. However, he says, “velocity, efficiency and the central coordination of today’s systems of intersection sets the era of globalization apart from the past.”

Eddie Yuen, editor of Confronting Capitalism (Soft Skull Press) which documents the anti-capitalist globalization movement, suggests that “Global Priority” is itself an expression of a type of globalization: “Taking a cue from the anti-capitalist globalization movements, Global Priority seeks to create art from below – a free flow of ideas and culture – and a challenge to the commodified aesthetics and top down method of transnational interests.”

Following its stop in San Francisco, Global Priority will travel to Seoul, South Korea in September 2004 and Berlin, Germany in 2005, before returning to New York in 2007 for its close.

Global Priority will be on display at the San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery, 401 Van Ness Avenue, until August 14th. Gallery hours are Wednesday through Saturday, 12 noon to 5:00 PM. Admission is free. For more information call 415.554.6080.

Rob Eshelman is a freelance journalist living in San Francisco. He can be e-mailed at robeshelman [at] riseup.net.