Spectral Compositions in a Time of Revolt

In March 2017, Firstsite, a contemporary art gallery in Colchester, UK, hosted #WorldsUpsideDown, an exhibition curated by Stevphen Shukaitis that explored art’s treatment of moments of destabilization, crisis, and renewal. Included were photographs by Cairo-based artist Mosa’ab Elshamy of the 2011-2013 revolt in Egypt; Justseeds’s Celebrate People’s History poster series; and David Mabb’s Long Live the New! Morris & Co, Hand Printed Wallpapers and K. Malevich’s, Suprematism. These works were chosen because each communicates or represents moments of upheaval and provokes questions for audiences about how such moments resonate with each other and about what we can learn from aesthetic representation of such moments. Connecting with the themes of this issue, the exhibit explored how cycles of struggle expand aesthetic possibilities and media communications, from the Russian revolution’s embrace of the avant-garde to more recent utilization of social media. A public seminar with Richard Gilman-Opalsky and Stevphen Shukaitis was organized to explore themes in the exhibition and in their respective writings. What follows is an excerpt from that seminar.