Sweeping one and the other away

<p dir="ltr"><i>Sweeping one and the other away</i> is an LED display art work streaming propositions for the export and import of valued democratic qualities.<br><br>Using statistics published in the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Democracy Index (2018), I find a middle ground for democracy. High functioning “full” democracies export units of their high quality features to “flawed” democracies, “hybrid regimes” and “authoritarian regimes”. Features include: electoral process and pluralism, civil liberties, the functioning of government, political participation, and political culture. A middle ground is established where the quality of democracy is similar for all countries. This work is inspired by Deleuze and Guattari’s idea of the middle as a site where “things pick up speed.” For them, the direction of this movement in the middle is not unidirectional, but perpendicular or transversal. It’s a movement that “sweeps one and the other away, a stream without beginning or end that undermines its banks and picks up speed in the middle.” The middle avoids both the utopian and the dystopian positions, yet remains decidedly unrealistic.</p><p><br></p><p dir="ltr">This work was exhibited in the group exhibition <i>OK Democracy, We Need to Talk</i> at Campbelltown Arts Centre (18 May – 31 July 2019). Exhibiting artists: Richard Bell, Louisa Bufardeci, Kuba Dorabialski, Deborah Kelly, Eugenia Lim, Make or Break, Eugenia Raskopoulos, Sarah Rodigari, Abdullah MI Syed and Lara Thoms.</p>