I first encountered the work of artist Coco Fusco as student in 2000 at the Massachusetts College of Art and the following year at the MIT Race in Digital Space conference. I was impressed with her presentations and ideas but found it difficult to attach to the work itself. This is no longer. A colleague exhibiting work at the Shanghai Biennale 2004 had returned to Saigon with the exhibition catalogue. Coco Fusco was exhibiting her work, a/k/a Mrs. George Gilbert.

One of the most prominent American artists working in contemporary visual culture, Coco Fusco explores issues of race, gender, and cultural colonization through film, performance, and text. "a/k/a Mrs. George Gilbert" is the story of an FBI agent who confesses his involvement in the nation-wide search for Angela Davis, the black philosopher who was fired from UCLA in 1969 at the order of then governor Ronald Reagan. In 1970 she was placed on the FBI's "Ten Most Wanted List" after which she went underground. During the two months that Davis was a fugitive, hundreds of other women were incorrectly identified by law enforcement officials and many were arrested as Miss Davis. Her case culminated in one of the most famous trials in recent history. She was acquitted of all charges in 1972. 

Bring us to 2006. Newsgrist reports that Fusco has an upcoming exhibition of her new work, Operation Atropos, at the MC Gallery in Los Angles. A description of the work:

Operation Atropos explores a particular shift in the role of women in the era of global warfare. The 59-minute video follow the artist and six women enrolled in a training workshop led by Team Delta, a group of retired US military interrogators, and designed for people in the private sector who want to learn from them various techniques for extracting information. In a one-day immersion in a simulated reality the women are introduced to interrogation from the point of view of the prisoner: the group is ambushed, captured and subjected to harsh treatment from ex-military personnel playing guards and hostile interrogators. The video shows how interrogators combine theatrical tricks with physical and mental stress to extract information from their prisoner. The digital photos document Fusco’s street performance in Sao Paolo in the fall of 2005. Inspired by her own experiences as a prisoner with Team Delta, she assumed the role of a military policewoman and staged a scene in front of the US consulate together with 50 drama students acting as her prisoners. 

I feel that Fusco's work is becoming more tangible. The complexity in her conceptual and theoretical underpinnings are no less than before, only more accessible. To read Fusco and hear Fusco speak are two different things. Her presentations are smooth and she is able to feel the pulse of her audience. Her writing, for me, tends to be offish and a bit distant. I've yet to see her work live or in exhibition. Interestingly enough, inversely I find the writing of Trinh T. Minh-ha inspiring despite its the challenging language yet some of her films distant and uninviting. I've have several of Minh-ha's books in my small library in Saigon, perhaps the only place to find her major published works in print in Vietnam. I take what I can and for me, for now, its enough. These two artists, theorists, critics and writers provide a fresh and challenging outlook on a number of contemporary and historical problems from post-colonial to womens issues, from the nature of film, narration and identity to the performative body.

If you are in Los Angeles, I highly recommend a visit to see this work. -RST 

Information
CSRPC. 2006 Oscar Micheaux Lecture Series
VideoDataBank. Coco Fusco
Universes-in-Universe. Coco Fusco. Shanghai Biennale 2004
MIT. Race in Digitial Space Conference
Newsgrist. Coco Fusco: Operation Atropos
Website. Trinh T. Minh-ha