Loren Madsen

Hold These Truths

• Ephemera #32: Pocket Reference, 2017
  Offset print
  2 x 3.5 inches
  Courtesy of the artist

Loren Madsen‘s ongoing series ephemera features collections of information and ideas printed on small pieces of paper that muse on a wide range of topics, from art’s role in the economy to statistics on mass killings around the world.

Rendered in a business card format, Ephemera 32: Pocket Reference, lists the early signs of fascism as featured on a poster from the United States Holocaust Museum, highlighting the disturbing parallels between 1920’s Europe and present-day United States. Economically produced and available as PDFs on the artist’s website, ephemera—mailed to art world colleagues and friends, as well as politicians and mass media outlets—echoes the use of the postal service as a subversive circumvention of more official systems of art distribution.