ALMOST PRESIDENTIAL
Online Project
Almost Presidential presents new work by six artists who examine the American political landscape from an unfamiliar angle. Featuring sculpture, drawing, photography, installation, and video by Pio Abad, Deborah Aschheim, Matthew Brannon, and Cintia Segovia, and exhibition curators Marisa J. Futernick and Rebecca Sittler, Almost Presidential highlights artists whose previous bodies of work have challenged the visual and rhetorical representations of former presidents and their legacies. In the run-up to the 2020 U.S. Federal election, the exhibition looks at vice presidents and failed presidential candidates, investigating names forgotten to history, or reduced to one-liners or supporting roles outside the spotlight.
Though our national histories are often written with the victors in mind, failed candidates have a substantial impact on intangible ideas surrounding "electability" and how we visualize presidential power. They also have the potential to expand the political imagination of the electorate while shaping the platforms and strategies of future candidates and political movements.
Presenting a timely exploration of political rhetoric, failure, and gendered dynamics within political systems in the U.S. and beyond, including Mexico and the Philippines, these six artists combine fiction and historical fact into an active survey of political material, text, and image.
Elements of the online project include a Zoom panel discussion and a special project film to be released at the end of October, along with highlighting selected artists each month in Fall newsletters.
ALMOST PRESIDENTIAL—THE FILM
Post-Election Viewing on Nov. 4Following on the 2020 U.S. Presidential election on Nov. 3, a film connected to Orange Coast College's Frank M. Doyle Arts Pavilion's newest online project, "ALMOST PRESIDENTIAL," looks at vice presidents and failed presidential candidates, investigating names forgotten to history or reduced to one-liners and supporting roles outside the spotlight. "ALMOST PRESIDENTIAL – THE FILM" is a 50-minute feature documentary, centered around a Zoom artist panel discussion from Oct. 1st, that is one element of the online project that debuted on Sept. 19 and runs until Dec. 16, 2020. Watch the film.
