Matthew Lusk on Belonging, Art as Resistance and the American Dream

Yeah.

I also think that there's this beautiful thing about your project and your practice and your, your deal that is, that must feel extra heavy at the moment.

Right.

And so just to back up and talk to people so that they know what we're saying, like your bigger project is about the American dream and, and maybe how it's falling apart.

And so the weight of that, I imagine is giant for you at the moment.

Yeah, and I look back to other failures or falters of society and resistance movements and kind of, see what happened there.

And I was just looking at Daumier's Charivari, his printing in the newspaper, and I guess, King Louis, and he was just constantly needling him and, and Louis decided that he didn't like it and started living fines and, and making new laws about ridiculing the King and what was allowed and what wasn't allowed.

And Domi would always come back with something just a little bit smarter.

And he started, uh, you know, when he wasn't allowed to draw the King per se, he was drawing a pair.

And then when, when that was outlawed, uh, he was found guilty and, um, part of the punishment was paying a fine and also printing the finding of the court on the front page of your newspaper.

So he did that, but he set the type in the shape of a pear.

And so there's always, it gives me a sort of, it makes me think that the resistance is always more elastic because the the oppression is so inelastic it's so omnidirectional and it comes from a single power source and and all the resistance to that comes from just so many varied sources and directions that it's uh the power of it is is just immeasurable so You know, those are sort of looking back and finding, you know, even like this country, we had the, you know, in the revolution, we were able to succeed in some part because we invented a new form of warfare.

And, you know, I don't really want to inaugurate violence or introduce violence into my work, but there's something about guerrilla warfare that is important.

is always going to be revolutionary.

And, you know, when it occurs to me, I'm talking about your country, the English, the Redcoats, they just, they, they, they were completely flummoxed by it that we could hide in the woods and shoot from all these directions and not line up in a line and fight like gentlemen.

So to transpose that into cultural production is, is, is really kind of an exciting way to keep keep the the imagination engaged with possible outcomes um instead of just thinking that also i mean i think that i've probably set myself up to be in this position years and years ago because i became completely uninterested in making uh one type of work over and over again or sticking to one type of execution and it may not be it's probably proven If I just by the results, it's proven to be, you know, not really commercially attractive to the market or to dealers or whatever.

But as far as being an artist, it's been incredibly rewarding and exciting and So that there's always a different thing to do, that there's always a different tack to take, that there's a, can always approach a subject from behind or sideways.

I don't know, there's a lifetime of work to do on any given topic, if you think this way.