The politics of cool: Emily Vey Duke and Cooper Battersby ask why the curatorial practice of Astria Suparak, late of The Warehouse Gallery in Syracuse, was deemed so controversial in that city.(Views)

Publication: C: International Contemporary Art

Publication Date: 22-DEC-07

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COPYRIGHT 2007 C The Visual Arts Foundation

ASTRIA SUPARAK is a young curator originally from Los Angeles, who started curating during her undergrad years at The Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, when she was in her late teens. She was a contemporary of Miranda July's, and collaborated with July on the Joanie 4 Jackie film and video chain-letter project. In April, 2006, she was hired as director of The Warehouse, a gallery affiliated with Syracuse University under the auspices of something called the Coalition of Museums and Art Centers. In September of this year, she was unjustly fired from her position there. It's a long, rather baroque story, and if you are curious you can find more information at Syracuse Loses Again (syracusewarehouse.blogspot.com).

This firing has been much on my mind while I try to write about this astonishingly bold, smart curator. Suddenly, the stakes are different and I've had to make some decisions about how I can best use this platform to both support and critically discuss Suparak's practice. But again and again I return to the central question I've always had about her sensibility, and that has to do with the way she deploys the aesthetics of cool. In my mind, this has worked both to reinforce and to undermine her work.

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Suparak's curatorial ideology (and I use that word without negative connotation--without guiding ideologies we are vague and dull) is built around a politics of inclusion and empowerment. Miranda July put it this way when...

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