On June 18th, The New York Arts Practicum met with artist Jen Liu at her studio in Bushwick. Prior to the visit, Lui asked that the participants read a fragment of The Wonderful Wonder of Wonders (1720), by Jonathan Swift. The text is a satirical proposal on the production of value that could possibly revolve around the generation of shit by individual Englishmen during 18th century and was discussed as a pretext to Liu’s work. The Practicum was exposed to the cursory research and material that Liu utilizes in the making of her pictures and videos, including photos, barbershop choir recordings, and newspaper clippings of Monsanto employees from the past 50 years.
During the Tuesday visit ended with a discussion on the differences and merits of irony and satire. No consensus could be made but the Practicum and Lui engaged in a dialogue around current trends in current artistic production involving the use of irony and satire by artists like John Miller, and a debate on the work of Thomas Kinkade.
