Dakin, Susanna — An Artist in the White House?
Imagine if you will an artist instead of a politician in the White House. This possibility existed in 1984 in reality, not in the George Orwell novel. Susanna Dakin, a sometimes resident of Santa Monica, California and sometimes of Mendocino County, California, a sculptor by training conceived of her national campaign for the presidency as a one-year durational art performance piece. Although Sue Dakin as she is now known, was defeated having been effectively overshadowed by the second term campaign of Ronald Reagan, Dakin has continued to practice what she calls “system sculpture” in her political, spiritual and art life.
This unusual episode in American Presidential Campaign History is revealed in Dakin’s book An Artist for President: The Nation is the Artwork and We are the Artists, published in 2011.
Maria Gilardin, host and producer of TUC Radio, and a friend of Sue Dakin and me, joined us in the studios of Radio Curious on November 25, 2011 in conversation with Sue Dakin about about her life and book. Maria Gilardin’s website is www.tucradio.org.
The book Sue Dakin recommends is, “The Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History,” by S.C. Gwynne.
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