THE MIRROR OF CRISIS IS THE ALIBI OF PRODUCTION
Part of the City of Vancouver's Platforms: We are Here, Live 2022 Public Art Program
Artist Statement:
“The Mirror of Crisis is the Alibi of Production” is based around a modified quote from French sociologist’s 1981 book “Simulacra and Simulation”. Using the Watergate break-ins as an example, Baudrillard examines how structures of power rely on crises of legitimacy to justify their ongoing existence. In the case of Watergate, the break-in, resulting scandal and resignation all serve to reinforce the realness of the implicated power structures through confrontation with their antithesis.
For this work, the quote is altered to reflect the relation between the ongoing crises of the COVID-19 pandemic and the preexisting inequities of society. In other words, the crises found within the pandemic are reflections of the broader crises produced by capitalism and other systems that make up the production of society.
Billboard at Arbutus St and West 12th Avenue, displayed from August-October 2022
Photos courtesy of Jovian Cheng