I Get Results! Frank Moore for President 2008
January 20–March 6, 2021
Organized with Keith Wilson
“Ah, yes! I did spend two years running for president as a
write-in candidate! It is one of my most effective performances! It inspired a lot of people, forced changes in Laws in several states, attracted a lot of mainstream European press coverage, and gave me a platform on which to address issues. SEE, I AM NOT JUST A HUNK!”
Frank Moore (1946–2013) was an artist, poet, painter, shaman, and teacher based in Berkeley, California. In 2008, and alongside running mate Susan Block, a sex educator and author, he mounted a campaign for president of the United States of America. A political novice who used a wheelchair and communicated primarily through a head-pointer, Moore intrinsically challenged norms of appearance, ability, and communication simply by way of showing up.
While Moore was primarily known—and somewhat infamous—for his performances exploring erotic and emotional connection, he stumped for a Berkeley-friendly platform not unlike that of Senator Bernie Sanders. Along with universal basic income, health care, and education, Moore was behind election day as a paid holiday, an end to the buying and selling of debt, and a feast of further reasonable positions. After considerable effort from Moore’s longtime collaborators, he and Block were official write-in candidates in 25 states, each with its own byzantine bureaucracy.
I Get Results! presents archival video footage, including public appearances and platform pronouncements, alongside official campaign documentation, press, and merchandise, all set within a patriotic installation modeled after the Moore/Block info-table assembled for events around the Bay. The exhibition opens on Inauguration Day, 2021, and remains on view for six weeks.
Click here to reserve an appointment to view I Get Results! at Cushion Works.
Cushion Works is wheelchair accessible; the building’s restrooms, however, are not.
Please mark your calendars for a public conversation with Linda Mac and Mikee LaBash, Moore’s closest collaborators, on Monday, February 1, at 5pm PST. Link forthcoming.
Keith Wilson is a filmmaker and artist based in San Francisco whose work has been exhibited at Sundance, the Berlinale, South by Southwest Film Festival, the U.S. National Gallery of Art, documenta14, and the Museum of Modern Art. He teaches in the Film & Media Department at UC Berkeley and has an MFA in film production from the University of Texas-Austin. Wilson is presently working on a documentary film about Frank Moore.
Special thanks to Linda Mac, Mikee LaBash, Alexi Malenky, Erika Shaver-Nelson, and Corey Nicholl.
Image: Campaign Bumper Sticker, 2008. Available on Cafe Press.
Cushion Works
3320 18th Street
San Francisco, CA
Cushion Works acknowledges that it occupies traditional land of the Ohlone peoples. Cushion Works is wheelchair accessible; the building’s restrooms facilities, however, are not. Forever free unless otherwise noted. Subscribe to our newsletter. For cushion-related needs: https://www.cushionworks.net/
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Cushion Works is operated by Jordan Stein.