World Dictators Unite!
will be a group show about dictatorship and leadership as a phenomena and as a challenge to individuals.
How much power do you claim for yourself, how much do you give up to live in a social group?
How apathy of the masses creates a power vacuum that is filled by leaders who are invited to become dictators
by further disengagement. We consider whether leaders in arts, politics, fashion etc. are only able to dictate agendas
by the lack of independent agency of others and whether this lack is chosen or imposed.
How institutions inevitably function to expand their own power, and individuals either exploit this by sharing the objective
or become marginalised due to their oppositional stance, perhaps to construct new power bases in a dialectical process.
We intend a group show, inviting artsist we enjoy and respect to address the themes with us.
The involvement of other artists is crucial in this process as each is a leader of their work but only together
are the myriad perspectives, shared knowledge and tensions able to comprehensively analyse dictatorship.
Leaderhip Dating
is an HFA project for "World Dictators Unite!"
Leaders can only exist where they have followers and so we began an investigation into the personal qualities of notable
world leaders who dictate tastes, trends, fashions, cultural memes and ideologies.It became apparent that whatever their field was,
they converged within a personal realm of dictatorship, which allowed them the single mindedness to pursue their objectives.
This quality also displayed a common need among them, a need for a new level of human interaction.
With this in mind we have created what superficially appears as Leadership Dating, a forum where the elite can meet
and enjoy shared qualities.While all have basic human companionship in wives, husbands, lovers, courtesans, we offer them a service
that fulfills their post human requirements. How well we can understand these dynamics remains a personal matter dependent on
contemplation of our own power and its social deployment. The viewers may well interrogate themselves:
Why am I not on this list?
Why have I allowed these people
to be on this list?