®™ark
& The Yes Men Striving
for the Best (2005)
7" x 5" image centered on 11" X 14" paper
Limited Edition of 150
Archival Light-jet Digital Print
Signed & Numbered
Dubbed the
"MacArthur Foundation for aesthetic anarchy” by the Village
Voice, ®™ark (pronounced 'art mark') is a mysterious group
of anonymous artists who facilitate the creative sabotage of corporate
products like
No one really knows who ®™ark is. As a registered
corporation, ®™ark protects its members’ from legal recourse
through the limited-liability feature of incorporation. Like any
conglomerate, "the company" is responsible for actions, not
the individuals behind them. This liability shield has emboldened
®™ark to produce some of the most critical, sophisticated,
and hilarious
pranks
wrought by artists over the past 15 years.
In typical tongue-in-cheek corporate fashion, ®™ark "out-sourced"
the Phantom Ball print to The
Yes Men - one of ®™ark's most successful
endeavors to date. Led by the duo of Mike Bonanno and Andy Bichlbaum,
the Yes Men have successfully impersonated representatives of the
WTO
and Dow
Chemical at major economic conferences and media outlets
around the world. Their brazen, jaw-dropping "performances" are
documented in the
For the Phantom Ball, ®™ ark instructed The Yes Men to
come up with an image that encapsulates what ®™ ark idiosyncratically
calls "agriculture abuse," by which they mean the way that corporations,
in their personhood-assisted relentless pursuit of profit, end up
out-sourcing starvation to the Third World.
The Yes Men came up with "Striving for the Best" -- which is actually
a slide from a PowerPoint presentation
that appeared in The Yes Men film. The presentation was originally
delivered to an unsuspecting group of economic students at
SUNY
Plattsburgh. Posing as WTO representative, Mike and
Andy explained to the horrified students that McDonald's and the
WTO intend to end world hunger by providing Third World nations
with "special filters" so that the poor can "recycle" their food...
theoretically extending the lifespan of a hamburger up to ten times
by incorporating "post-consumer waste" into the product. In other
words, the WTO thinks the poor should eat their own shit.
No one really knows who ®™ark is. As a registered
corporation, ®™ark protects its members’ from legal recourse
through the limited-liability feature of incorporation. Like any
conglomerate, "the company" is responsible for actions, not
the individuals behind them. This liability shield has emboldened
®™ark to produce some of the most critical, sophisticated,
and hilarious
In typical tongue-in-cheek corporate fashion, ®™ark "out-sourced"
the Phantom Ball print to