Information in the Flesh: Art for Human Rights

September 13–October 1, 2017

Works by Fernando Botero, Adrian Piper, and others demonstrate how power is articulated and reinforced through the dehumanized body.

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Fernando Botero: Abu Ghraib 20, 2005; watercolor and graphite on paper; 15 3/4 x 11 3/4 in.; BAMPFA, gift of the artist.

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Selected
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Past
Films
Past
Events

Selected Exhibition Objects

Drawing

Abu Ghraib 20

Fernando Botero

2005
watercolor and graphite on paper
15 3/4 x 11 3/4 in.
University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive; Gift of the artist
2009.12.14
Photograph

Mutilated Body on Landscape

Ana Mendieta

August 1973
color photograph
10 x 8 in.
University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive; Purchase made possible by the Acquisitions Committee Fund
2000.16
Print

Y no hai remedio (And there is no remedy), from the series Los desastres de la guerra (The Disasters of War)

Francisco Goya

1819-1823
etching, reinforced with aquatint
Plate: 5 5/8 x 6 1/2 in.
University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive; Gift of Mrs. Louise Mendelsohn
1970.103.15

Information in the Flesh: Art for Human Rights

September 13–October 1, 2017

After the abuses at Abu Ghraib were exposed in 2004, the photographs and their endless iterations in media and visual culture became emblematic of the post-9/11 era and the failing global war on terrorism. Media outlets absorbed the term “information extraction” almost seamlessly from the investigative reports and public statements generated by the White House to justify the brutalities committed against Iraqi civilians at the prison.

Information extraction, or IE, emerged in the language of artificial intelligence and coding in the late 1970s. Spearheaded by US military development and research programs, IE enabled scanning the Internet, people, and sites for possible threats. In recent years, computational linguistics has been fully folded into the way our culture understands the functions and behaviors of the human body, which in turn normalizes euphemisms like “information extraction.” The term disembodies both perpetrator...

The body as a mere repository of information has a long genealogy in art history and visual culture, including the anatomical dissections of Da Vinci and Rembrandt, public displays of slain rulers’ bodies, and the widely circulated video of Saddam Hussein’s dental examination. This exhibition draws works from BAMPFA’s permanent collection that demonstrate how power is articulated and reinforced through the dehumanized body. From the sexualized and impoverished black bodies of Adrian Piper’s work to the fleshy figures of Iraqi detainees in Fernando Botero’s Abu Ghraib drawings, the works invoke an emphatic re-embodiment of the violence that pervades history.

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Information in the Flesh: Art for Human Rights is organized by Val Moon, curatorial assistant.

Information in the Flesh: Art for Human Rights

September 13–October 1, 2017

Selected Exhibition Objects

Drawing

Abu Ghraib 20

Fernando Botero

Photograph

Mutilated Body on Landscape

Ana Mendieta

Print

Y no hai remedio (And there is no remedy), from the series Los desastres de la guerra (The Disasters of War)

Francisco Goya