Benjamin Slinger 
I, The Shill

I, The ShillI do not want to be a radical. I want to be a shill for oligarchs and billionaires.

The shill appears as the satisfied customer. The friendly voice already seated in theaudience. The figure who demonstrates comfort before the rest of the room has decidedhow to feel. Through this performance of enthusiasm, uncertainty dissolves. Tastestabilises. Participation becomes easier. The shill has many disguises.

The Shillaber is the planted enthusiast. A professional amateur whose job is to makebelief contagious. By appearing independent, the shillaber softens the butter of suspicionand invites the crowd to follow.

The Judas goat performs a similar labour. In slaughterhouses the goat leads cattle towardthe kill floor. The animal survives by guiding others forward. The Judas goat is not theviolence itself but its facilitator. It demonstrates the path.

The court jester historically occupied the only position permitted to mock the sovereign. The jester's criticism survives because it is theatrical, disarmed by humour. Powertolerates dissent when dissent remains entertaining.The soldier performs obedience as virtue. The body becomes a symbol through uniformand repetition. Patriotism operates not only through force but through the choreographyof collective agreement.

The moderate provides the language of balance. The moderate insists on civility, stability,and reasonableness. In doing so the moderate narrows the field of possible positions. Extremes are rejected, but so too is structural refusal.

The dealer arranges the encounter between object and desire. Their labour is not simplycommercial but atmospheric. They produce the conditions under which value becomesvisible and acceptable.

Finally there is the artist.

The artist is permitted to be critical, provided criticism remains legible within thestructures that contain it. The artist metabolises conflict into taste. War, ideology andspectacle become material. The result is protest that remains palatable, dissent thatcirculates comfortably among collectors, institutions and patrons. The artist sells thestate-sanctioned war by critiquing the state tastefully, performed through canon. Thedissent is genuine. The structure remains intact.
Each of these figures performs a similar task. They guide perception. They stage belief.They produce the small gestures that allow systems of power to appear natural,inevitable, even desirable. The semiotic charge of this labour is rarely declared. Itaccumulates in objects, in gestures, in rooms arranged just so.
This exhibition considers the metabolism of taste.If culture digests violence, what remains after digestion. What cultural chunks remainvisible in our vomit.
The shill does not hide their role.

The shill is already in the room.