FROM THE STUDIO TO THE WORLD

A profile of Ligorano/Reese

It was 2006 and as they left the Jim Kempner Fine Art gallery, Jim’s partner, Dru Arstark, asked, “Do you have any ideas for a garden sculpture?” And that was the beginning of The State of Things, an ice sculpture spelling out the letters for the word “democracy.” Marking the 3rd anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, the sculpture is a comment on the wasting away of democracy in our society. Marshall Reese observes that most viewers experience this sculpture for only a few minutes and see few changes, but by the end of the day, democracy is gone.

Nora Ligorano and Marshall Reese are conceptual artists. Their work has encompassed video, spoken word, artists books, prints, postcards, installations, and chrome-plated pacifiers, among other items. Whatever medium best expresses them is the medium they use. Nora graduated from the Maryland Institute of Arts with a BFA cum laude in painting and was a Fulbright fellow in design arts; Marshall is a poet and video artist, who studied classics and is the recipient of an NEA Creative Writers Fellowship for poetry. Together, they form Ligorano/Reese. They have been making art together for over 20 years.

You can buy their products on-line: the John Ashcroft snowglobes have sold-out, but Fuck snowglobes are still available, as are Homeland Security Nutrition Kits, The Party’s Over gift wrap, and the ever-popular Contract for America underwear. Ligorano/Reese began "The Pure

Products of America Go Crazy" series 15 years ago with The Original Bible Belt:

This Evangelical New Testament Bible comes belted and bound in leather. It fastens with a gold-plated buckle in the name of "Jesus." Fits like a fanny pack, yet really protects your rear.Since then, “Pure Products of America” has grown into a series of limited edition works that comment not only on the role of politics in today’s world, but on the packaging of these politics to the American citizen. In their view, politics and consumerism have become inextricably intertwined.

Their first big media attention came in 1995, when an Associated Press reporter

interviewed Jim McDermott, the Democratic Representative from Washington State, and saw a pair of Contract for America underwear on McDermott’s desk. The reporter contacted Ligorano/Reese and an item about the underwear went on the wire. The same reporter also suggested to them that they send a pair to Newt Gingrich, an idea they promptly followed up on, sending him a pair via Federal Express. The Republican National Committee followed up on that, by sending Ligorano /Reese a letter threatening to sue them for copyright infringement. The history of this underwear goes on: in February 2007, Nora and Marshall attended a debate between Mario Cuomo and Gingrich at Cooper Union. After the event, they handed Gingrich a pair of Contract for America underwear and asked him if he would sign it. He did – without looking to see what it was. Two weeks later, Tom DeLay was in New York promoting his memoir, “No Retreat, No Surrender,” which was written following his indictment in a corruption scandal. When Nora told him that Gingrich had signed their product, Delay took pen in hand as well.

This story highlights an aspect of Ligorano/Reese’s work that goes past the creation and selling of an object. What brings their art to life is not only its reference to recent political history, but its intersection with that history. There is a socially oriented thread that has always run through their work.

In October 2007, the New York Public Library presented an exhibition of prints from their permanent collection called, Multiple Interpretations. News coverage of Ligorano/Reese’s series, Line Up, upstaged the rest of the exhibition. Consisting of photographs of President George W. Bush, Vice-President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice and other high-ranking government officials, which had been doctored to look like fake mug shots. Each official appears holding slates with numbers, which refer to dates when “the ‘suspects’ made ‘incriminatory’ statements about Iraq.”1 The Daily News, USA Today, and the radio station 1010 WINS covered it. Fox News hosts were appalled by it. Steve Doocey described this situation on Fox and Friends as, "Little kids thinking, 'Oh, is that a picture of my president?'" 2

Nora and Marshall were at a residency in California when the news stories broke. They received an email through their Pure Products website from Fox News, who wanted to interview them. The pair contacted the New York Public Library for advice and were told that NYPL didn’t think Ligorano/Reese would be able to make their point, but that, ultimately, they could do whatever they wanted. When they told the producers at Fox that they couldn’t go on the show, Fox responded, “It’s because we’re Fox, isn’t it?”

Multiple Interpretations was on exhibit concurrently with a show on Jack Kerouac. Ken Grossinger and Michiline Klagsbrun of Crosscurrents Foundation, saw Line Up when he came to New York to see the Kerouac show and wanted to work with them. They sponsored BrushFire, a series of public art projects, with Provisions Library, an organization in Washington DC dedicated to art and social change. Provisions wanted to do a series of art interventions in the mid-west – “bring it to the other camp,” as Nora says. Ligorano/Reese suggested installing The State of Things at the Democratic and Republican conventions – though they didn’t want it to be about Democrats and Republicans, but about the “state of things.”

Nora describes their work as “looking at social systems that can be critiqued, commented on, or experienced together.” This was very much in evidence when the “Democracy” ice sculpture was installed near or adjacent to both the 2008 conventions – the Democratic convention in Denver, Colorado and the Republican convention in St. Paul Minnesota. Democracy, installed in the courtyard of the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver, lasted 22 hours. In St. Paul, it was a very hot day and it lasted 4 hours. Nora says, “They consumed it, they drank it, they ate it.” A small boy pulled letters down from the sculpture and stomped on it, yelling, “I’m smashing democracy! I’m smashing democracy!”

This is not the first time their work has elicited such a visceral reaction and it probably won’t be the last, but their work is so topical that is interesting to contemplate its potential for longevity. When I asked Marshall about this, he said, “It’s a very good time for [political artwork] now,” adding, “ I have a feeling that this work will have more significance as time progresses.”

Their latest piece was “Economy,” installed on Wednesday, October 29 a Foley Square in front of the New York County Supreme Court in downtown New York City.

1 http://www.nypl.org/research/chss/spe/art/print/exhibits/multiple/multiple3.html

2 From the November 29, 2007 broadcast of Fox and Friends.

In the studio: Snowglobe production.

In the studio: Images from Line-Up and the ice installation,