CASSANDRA: Circa Arts, A Monument, A Ruin
"In 2021, artist Kandis Williams – founder and editor-at-large of Cassandra Press, an artist-run publishing and educational platform producing lo-fi printed matter, classrooms, projects, artist books, and exhibitions – was invited to participate in Pompeii Commitment. Archaeological Matters, the first contemporary art programme commissioned by the Archaeological Park of Pompeii in Italy. Williams proposed to begin new research on the theme of Pompeian programmata – the political propaganda graffiti –, particularly to investigate possible parallels with the politics of representation and strategies of social resistance at stake within contemporary democracies, in particular in the United States.
As part of her research, Williams met with Pompeii’s former Director and archaeologist Prof. Antonio Varone, responsible for the indexation and study of all of the Pompeian painted inscriptions, to address questions around Pompeii’s localised history as a provincial town and Roman colony, and how its electoral propaganda through the use of graffiti may possibly speak to more universal questions relating to the political agency, voice and representation of socially oppressed categories in today’s Western societies.
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CASSANDRA a 501 (c) (3) artist run publishing and educational platform
producing lo-fi printed matter, classrooms, projects, artist books, and exhibitions.
Our intention is to spread ideas, distribute new language, propagate dialogue centering ethics, aesthetics, femme driven activism, and Black scholarship because ...
y'all ain't listening.
CASSANDRA PRESS is founded by artist Kandis Williams.
We operate out of Los Angeles, California.
you can reach out at [email protected]
Cassandra Press
paperback
59 pages
8.5x11
