up against the wall!

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the Apartheid Wall in Qalqilya

Meaning the grotesque Apartheid Wall being built by the Israelis in the occupied West Bank. Of course the IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) have a euphemism: In English, it’s “the obstacle”.
This Sunday, November 9, there will be demonstrations around the world against the injustice of the wall and the occupation of Palestine, but only if you go.
This particular date was selected in June by the PENGON/Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign in order to coincide with the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Some of us remember an additional significance for this date. November 9 is also the 65th anniversary of Kristallnacht .
[One other editorial note: Is it not appropriate to point out again and again that “the history” so often invoked to support Zionism, and especially its current abominations, is absolutely not the history of Palestine or Palestinians? And this petition comes from a German-American who wants nothing so much as to see people flourish in each other’s society.]
In Manhattan supporters will be walking through the streets with mock-ups of the real wall (in some areas, concrete and 25 feet high, with incredibly-evocative gun turrets) being built in Palestine to separate peoples, families and communities.
In the U.S., there will be similar demonstrations in Berleley, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Pasedena and Santa Monica, California; in Iowa City, Iowa; Boston, Massachusetts; Maryville, Missouri; and Seattle, Washington. They will be joined abroad by activists in Australia, Bangladesh, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Holland, Italy, Norway, Scotland, Spain and England, and this list is still in formation.
The most moving of all the actions should be the mobilizations expected all across the West Bank. Sunday’s people hope to have news of these events by the time things start in Midtown Manhattan.
For more information, visit the Stop the Wall site.
If you’re an American, talk to your government. Israel couldn’t do any of this without us. Although a “first-world” nation, with one of the world’s highest per capita incomes and boasting the fourth largest military force in the world, it receives over one-third of the total US aid to foreign countries.

In New York people will meet Sunday at 1 pm around the Button and Needle Sculpture in the garment district, at the corner of 7th Avenue and 40th Street.

[image from PENGON]

excellent Team work

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Michael Meads, Anarchist Cum Shot, 2002

The most exciting gallery show in town – at least until the next one – is at Team right now, “my people were fair and had cum in their hair (but now they’re content to spray stars from your boughs)”. But it wasn’t the name of the show that pulled me into the space last Tuesday.
Instead, the cause of my unplanned detour as I rushed to the White Box benefit that evening was the fact that I had spotted a familiar Jeff Burton image on the back wall of the gallery’s second room. Yup. From the sidewalk, almost half a floor above the space. It was something of a red flag.
Barry and I went back together yesterday, and we’ll definitely return, probably more than once.
For me it might have been enough that this group show, curated by Bob Nickas, is provocative, and that it presents work by a number of young artists whose work we have already coveted or actually jumped on, but the installation is mad really awesome by the inclusion of some of their kindred of the last four decades, painter, sculptors, photographers and film or video makers, some now established, some nearly forgotten and some even ignored.
What holds it all together is its honesty and its delight in sexual pleasure. Also, the eye loves it all. There’s not a dud in the entire show, a roster of 39 different artists.
Even the (serendipitous?) blending of sound from the two monitors playing near to each other contibuted to the energy of the (Six!) exhibition spaces.
One cavil, but it’s more of a surprise, given this particular Team assemblage: Where’s Joe Ovelman?
The show’s statement by Jose Freire is a gem.
I’m not even sure much of the work is even available for sale, but I’m happy to think of the entire business as a great public service. Thanks, guys.
Oh yes, we’re also delighted to find an important gallery installation whose title cannot appear in the NYTimes.
The show is up through November 15 at 526 West 26th Street.

[image from Team Gallery]