Lowercase P: Artists and Politics

In this election-year editorial series for the Walker Art Center, I invited artists across disciplines to share their thinking on "lowercase p politics"—not the horserace of electoral politics, but the personal convictions about community, power, and participation that undergird their art and lives.

Interview subjects and topics include:

• Laurie Anderson on never-ending war

• Andrea Bowers on the history of reproductive choice

• Paul Chan on his book of Saddam Hussein's democracy speeches

• Jem Cohen on his Occupy Wall Street Newsreels

• Mitch Epstein and Paul Shambroom on American (electrical and political) power

• Fritz Haeg on his Edible Estates, a series of suburban front-yard gardens

• Cynthia Hopkins (with Republican meteorologist Paul Douglas) on climate change

• Erik van Lieshout on his video Homeland Security

• Trevor Paglen on The Last Pictures, photos of humanity he launched into space

• JoAnn Verburg on newspapers as portals into politics in her photography

• Eyal Weizman on architecture as political intervention

Press for Lowercase P: Artists and Politics

"Too many modern and contemporary art museums retreat into an apolitical bunker. ... I love this: In an effort to mark the political season, Walker Art Center web guru Paul Schmelzer has launched “Lowercase P: Artists & Politics” on the Walker’s website."

—Tyler Green, Modern Art Notes, Sept. 6, 2012

"Strike A Pose: How Contemporary Artists Play At Politics," Filip Noterdaeme, Huffington Post, January 23, 2014

View Lowercase P in context on the Walker Art Center homepage.