Over the course of a year SHIFTER, in collaboration with Avi Alpert, has been hosting a series of public discussions at The New School, each concentrated on unraveling a keyword – a term that carries with it both a sense of urgency and agency in our present climate. By inviting artists, writers, activists, philosophers and others to propose terms and lead discussions, we have opened up our editorial process to the motivations of others. Within the context of Smack Mellon’s call to “Respond,” we propose leading a collective discussion on the crucial topic of “Non/Violence.”
Alpert and Premnath, in collaboration with another scholar, artist, or community activist, will help lead a collective discussion on the question of political violence, and what the meaning and purpose is of nonviolent activity in the face of state repression. We are particularly concerned to provide an opportunity to reflect on the often hardened positions against or in favor of reactive violence in today’s political context. It is often the case today that while many support a political framework of “nonviolence,” few have stopped to unpack the logic by which they have come to this position. Equally, those who support violence do not always pause to consider how their means relate to their political ends. This public presentation and conversation will enable a collective reflection on our positions at this crucial political juncture.
The format of these discussions has been central to our project. We do not use the standard mode of lecture or presentation. Rather, we invite two or three speakers to prepare brief remarks of around 10-15 minutes around the chosen term and pose critical questions for all those present. The conversation is immediately opened up for all. We also recommend short readings to help stimulate ideas and discussion. Readings for this event would likely include excerpts from Henry David Thoreau, Martin Luther King, Mohandas Gandhi, and Frantz Fanon, which will be contextualized and explored within the context of the presentations.
This yearlong series will culminate in Shifter’s 22nd issue Dictionary of the Possible. This dictionary will catalog the keywords taken up for discussion over the course of a year, accompanied by a list of questions provoked during each discussion. Rather than providing static definitions we envision a dictionary that continually incites discussion. Through an open GoogleDoc, participants in the Smack Mellon conversation would be able to include their voices for the entry on “Non/Violence.”
SHIFTER is a topical publication that aims to illuminate and broaden our understanding of the intersections between contemporary art, politics and philosophy. SHIFTER remains malleable and responsive in its form and activities, and represents a diversity of positions and backgrounds in its contributors. Shifter is co-edited by Sreshta Rit Premnath and Matthew Metzger.
Avi Alpert received his PhD in Comparative Literature from the University of Pennsylvania in 2014. For 2014-2016, he will be a Mellon Postdoctoral Associate in the Department of English and Center for Cultural Analysis at Rutgers University. He is currently at work on a book project with the working title, Unbearable Identities: Essaying the Globe in Idealism, Transcendentalism, and Zen. He was previously in the Critical Studies section of the Whitney Museum’s Independent Study Program, and a Sauvé Scholar at McGill University. His articles are published or forthcoming in diacritics, Early American Literature, Third Text, Twentieth Century Literature, and Postcolonial Studies. He is also a member of the collective Research Service, a collaborative experiment in performative scholarship. Research Service has performed at the ICA-Philadelphia, the Drawing Center, the Palais de Tokyo, the Lisa Cooley Gallery, and elsewhere.
From the rooftops of Brooklyn to the Pedestrian plazas of Times Square, Brooklyn-based artist Molly Dilworth has created outdoor site-specific paintings in New York City and exhibited across the United States. She has been a resident artist at the Salina Art Center in Kansas and in the Art & Law Program with the Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts in NYC. Her work was part of Spontaneous Interventions: design actions for the common good in the U.S. Pavilion at the 13th International Venice Architecture Biennale. In the fall of 2012 Dilworth was the Recess Activities artist in residence at Pioneer Works in Red Hook, Brooklyn. In the spring of 2013 Dilworth installed a permanent exterior painting for the Garden at The James Hotel in Lower Manhattan. See more of Molly’s work at www.mollydilworth.com
Sreshta Rit Premnath has had solo exhibitions at KANSAS, New York; Gallery SKE, Bangalore; The Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis; Tony Wight Gallery, Chicago; Galerie Nordenhake, Berlin; Wave Hill, New York; Art Statements, Art Basel; as well as numerous group exhibitions at venues including YBCA, San Francisco; Galerie Balice Hertling, Paris; 1A Space, Hong Kong; Thomas Erben Gallery and Friedman Benda Gallery, New York. He is the founder and co-editor of the publication Shifter and co-organizes the ongoing Project for an Archive of the Future Anterior. Premnath completed his BFA at The Cleveland Institute of Art, his MFA at Bard College, and has attended the Whitney Independent Study Program, Skowhegan and Smack Mellon. He has received grants from Art Matters and the Civitella Ranieri Foundation, and was awarded the Arthur Levitt Fellowship from Williams College. Based in Brooklyn, Premnath is Assistant Professor at Parsons, New York.
