Beginning Saturday, January 20, the first anniversary of the Trump administration, the Institute of the Arts and Sciences and the Digital Art/New Media MFA program will present a live stream of TRUTH BE TOLD in the foyer of the Digital Arts Research Center (DARC) at UC Santa Cruz. TRUTH BE TOLD, an art project by collaborators Ligorano/Reese, features a 2,000 pound ice sculpture of the word TRUTH that will melt away over the course of days. Watch the melting TRUTH from beginning at 3 p.m. on January 20 until it disappears.
As conceptual artist team Ligorano/Reese explains, "TRUTH BE TOLD symbolizes the emergence of an alternate fact world – where belief supplants truth. The work will last for days, one week, possibly longer, an almost imperceptible disintegration that belies the force and speed at which the current administration is attempting to undermine the basic concepts of our nation's history and governance."
TRUTH BE TOLD is the sixth sculpture of Melted Away, the temporary monuments series begun in 2006 to mark the problems which beset the United States in opening decades in the 21st century. The artists see art as an ideal medium to depict the transformation of social values and semantic meaning that define these times. According to the artists, ice is an ideal medium to depict the transformation of social values and semantic meaning that define these times through the monument series; "first, DEMOCRACY is broken, then, the ECONOMY ruined; the MIDDLE CLASS disappears, THE FUTURE is tenuous, THE AMERICAN DREAM vanishes, and TRUTH remains an open question." As art critic Robert Atkins writes, “The ice sculpture’s straightforward display conceals a rare capacity to elicit complex reactions and intense emotions demonstrating sculpture’s power to engage our bodily awareness.”
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