Crabby artists at Hallwalls

Dissent comes in many forms, be it in organized protests, petitions or riots.

Friday night at Hallwalls Art Gallery, it came in the form of paintings, video presentations and even stuffed gloves.

"Leaves of Crab Grass" is an exhibition that examines the nature of dissent and its present condition in post-9/11 America.

John Massier, curator of Hallwalls, found his inspiration for the show from Walt Whitman's "Leaves of Grass" and Philip K. Dick's "Afterthoughts by the Author." He then collaborated with several gallery directors from across the nation to bring the idea to life.

Even though every installment addresses the nature of dissent, the collection covers a variety of approaches.

"There are some that are extreme and blunt, and then there are some at the other end, more subtle and delicate," Massier said. "Corban Gallagher's painting is one emphatic version of dissent, while Cecilia Kane's piece shows certain persistence in her dissent."

Corban Gallagher's "Orwell Industries" is the first striking piece upon entering the gallery. The massive portrayal of George W. Bush, Donald Rumsfeld, and Dick Cheney is painted against a backdrop of America in a bold, communist- poster propaganda style. Along the bottom, the phrases "War is peace," "Ignorance is strength," and "Slavery is freedom" are written in Cyrillic, referring to the doublespeak of George Orwell's novel "1984."

Gallagher's painting is a retaliatory gesture, as he enlisted in the United States Army in 2000 to travel the globe. He then pulled a series of stunts in an attempt to earn a discharge after he discovered that his unit was being sent to Iraq after the 9/11 attacks.

"Hand to Hand" by Cecilia Kane is a series of approximately 200 stuffed cotton gloves hanging on the wall arranged in chronological order. Each glove has a news headline on it. The date of the headline, and a painted depiction of the story are portrayed by cartoon clowns. Headlines include "85 insurgents killed at training camp after tip from residents, 3/24/05," and "G.I. admits killing injured Iraqi teen, 12/11/04."

"When the war started, it reminded me of Vietnam," Kane said. "I'm feeling that this whole war is some kind of circus."

The haunting impact of the hand calendar is an assessment of the downward spiral of human compassion in Iraq. The innocence of the cartoon clowns serves as irony.

"I'm against the war, but I didn't want to come right out and say it," Kane said. "I didn't make up any of the stories, all I had to do was pick one story from the paper each day and then I could put more of my thoughts into the cartoons."

One of the more cunning pieces is a series by Rainer Ganahl that includes several collections of postcards sent through the United States mail system from Ganahl to the gallery. The graphics on the front are ultra-patriotic in nature, while the stamps on each contain the words "Al Qaeda" and "Afghanistan."

Some of the messages include "You are either with us or against us" and "Freedom fries," while one of the series shows the phrase "Freedom, democracy" slowly transforming into "Freedom, neptocracy" over the course of several cards.

"Mourning After" by Jan Hankins is easily the most overtly disdainful piece of the collection. It shows a gleeful American profiteer holding a gold club and standing atop a burning Hummer with human carnage littering the ground nearby. Using painful satire and vivid colors, Hankins clearly conveys his contempt for American hypocrisy.

The one-room space of Hallwalls serves as an ideal setting for the exhibition, which only includes seven pieces.

"I like the fact that these works aren't jammed together. It's hard to make them relate to each other, but they're all about the same subject matter. You can just walk in and accept them as new takes on the subject," Kane said.

Hallwalls is located at 700 Main Street in downtown Buffalo. "Leaves of Crab Grass" will be on display through Oct. 28.