HEADLINES ARE FRONTLINES Mobile Art Installation Announced
The Headlines Are Frontlines tour is a mobile exhibition of a groundbreaking multimedia project.
By: A.A. Cristi Oct. 20, 2020
"HEADLINES ARE FRONTLINES," a new film and music installation, will display news headlines from 1,460 days of the Trump presidency on the sides of moving trucks in cities across the U.S. from October 26 to 28, 2020, ahead of the presidential election.
The "HEADLINES ARE FRONTLINES" tour is a mobile exhibition of a groundbreaking multimedia project, Disintegration, created by artist and filmmaker Smriti Keshari (the bomb on Netflix) in collaboration with music producer Marius de Vries (La La Land), "HEADLINES ARE FRONTLINES" will tour 14 U.S. cities, including seven battleground counties.
Trucks, equipped with 12-foot screens, will deploy the film installation to the streets of Washington DC, Nashville, New York, Miami, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia (on October 26) and Atlanta, Madison, Phoenix, Charlotte, Detroit, Scranton, Milwaukee, and Flint (on Oct 28).
"HEADLINES ARE FRONTLINES" is a chronology of four years of news headlines involving Trump's presidency, set to a new score by acclaimed British composer Matthew Herbert (Brexit Big Band, One Pig).
The stark and confronting work briefly and continually flashes each headline in chronological order. The cumulative 1,460 headlines from January 1st, 2017 to the present day make up the two-hour film. Herbert's original score is based on a one-minute performance of the Star-Spangled Banner, stretched and distorted over the length of the film.
In a medium reminiscent of Jenny Holzer, JR, Bansky and other guerrilla artists, "HEADLINES ARE FRONTLINES" bears witness to the daily deluge of headlines Americans have read for four years. The work delivers the somber sobriety of reality, with a display of quiet black-and-white text that is enveloped by unique sound design.
"The speed of the news cycle has created a form of censorship through noise." said Keshari. "When you see these headlines in succession, one after another, it reminds us of the haunting and addictive impact of the newsroom on America's nervous system."
Keshari's hope is that ultimately the work will "serve as a meditation on a rapidly changing newsroom, one sewn with chaos and confusion by Donald Trump, the media's challenge in covering him; and the public's struggle to keep up."
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WEBSITE: headlinesarefrontlines.art INSTAGRAM @ @headlinesarefrontlines
ABOUT "HEADLINES ARE FRONTLINES" and Disintegration
Starting the day after the 2016 election, Smriti Keshari collected one headline per day from The New York Times that related to Trump's presidency. At first, the headlines were like bullet points that helped her recall what happened the day before. This routine became a ritual, and soon, a multimedia art - a two-hour film and music art installation comprising 1,460 headlines, titled Disintegration.
Concentric art circles draw Keshari and music producer Marius de Vries to Matthew Herbert, who has spent the last 25 years questioning all aspects of the sound world. Together they imagined combining the headlines and music to become Disintegration. Herbert's original composition for Disintegration is based on a distorted, slowed-down version of The Star-Spangled Banner.
Disintegration brings news headlines, originally consumed on small screens, to massive ones that overpower our consciousness - not unlike the very headlines they display. Its impact is three-fold: it reminds us of the narratives we have read; it offers insight into the parasitic grasp that media have on our collective attention; and, it haunts our psyche with forgotten headlines that once made front-page news.
"The headlines published are then consumed by us," said Keshari. "I began to analyze the artful design of each headline, how it attracts and holds our attention until the next headline on the following day. Like a Dickens serial published in a newspaper, we crave the upcoming installment with both rapt anticipation and fear for what is to come."
Disintegration is a one-of-a-kind of art piece that will live on in many different incarnations, with this one - its first - as a mobile art installation called "HEADLINES ARE FRONTLINES" to share with the public in the critical days before the 2020 US election.
Disintegration prompts an introspection of the American soul. Keshari hopes that audiences will ask themselves: how did we get here? And where do we go next?
"HEADLINES ARE FRONTLINES" will tour 14 cities from October 26 to October 28, 2020.
October 26
New York, NY
Washington DC
Los Angeles, CA
Miami
Philadelphia
Nashville
October 28
Atlanta
Madison
Phoenix
Charlotte
Detroit
Scranton/Wilkes-Barre
Milwaukee
Flint
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