Demagogues
Site-specific photographic print
Variable dimensions
2018 - ongoing
Demagogues is an ongoing series of site-specific photographic prints, intended as a provocation to the audience to question the authenticity of what is visible in the public realm. Each iteration of the project—whether produced as a billboard, a framed print, a lightbox, or a magazine spread—is a photograph of the very site it’s displayed in, and features the following sentence in the local language: If a man tells me something I believe to be an untruth, am I forbidden to do more than congratulate him on the brilliance of his lying? Taken at face value, the image seems to document the presence of this text at the site at some point in time. But what’s displayed in the image is actually fake, as the text has been inserted into the photograph through digital manipulation.
The sentence featured in Demagogues originates from an essay written in 1958 by renowned British theatre critic Kenneth Tynan, and was part of a debate with another critic about whether theatre (and the arts, more broadly) ought to respond to current political events or merely concern itself with larger philosophical questions. Tynan was of the belief that the arts should pursue a social purpose, and engage with the political realities of the moment. Taken out of its original context and presented within a fraudulent image, the sentence may be interpreted today as an incitement to be vigilant against political demagoguery, and to imagine effective responses to the rise of illiberal and populist regimes across the globe.
Relevant links:
Demagogues: 4 - text by Allison Collins in C Magazine on the occasion of Demagogues: 4
Double Binds - text by Dina Georgis written for Blackwood Gallery on the occasion of Demagogues: 5
Walkthrough video of Burning Glass, Reading Stone: Radical Hope at Blackwood Gallery, featuring Demagogues: 5
Demagogues: 3, AKA artist-run, Saskatoon, 2020. Photo by Derek Sandbeck.
Demagogues: 5, presented in Burning Glass, Reading Stone, Blackwood Gallery, 2020. Photos by Toni Hafkenscheid.
Demagogues: 7, Taoyuan International Art Award, Taiwan, 2025. Photo by TMoFA & ANPIS FOTO.
Demagogues: 1, Kunst im Fluc, Vienna, 2018. Photos by Alexandra Berlinger.
Demagogues: 6, presented in Two Truths and a Lie, Oakville Galleries, 2021. Photo by Jordyn Stewart.
Demagogues: 2, Müze Evliyagil, Ankara, 2018. Photo by Can Akgümüş.