Video Kills Ignorance

Is globalization a good thing? Mangoes in midwinter Kansas City — or in Kansas City at all — are pleasant, but should they really be only a dollar? Do clothing companies aid developing nations by paying sweatshop laborers 15 cents an hour so hipsters can wear skinny jeans? Has the opening of worldwide markets made capitalism’s exploitation of the poor (see: orphans, Victorian England) invisible and, therefore, unobjectionable? Leading questions, sure, but an unexamined economic system is one that’s not worth protecting. The H&R Block Artspace (16 East 43rd Street) probes the good and the bad of globalization with its show On Screen: Global Intimacy. Ten artists — primarily video artists — from Asia, Africa, the Caribbean and the United States examine the reach of global economics and its effects on people. The program opens with a reception from 6 to 8 p.m. and runs through March 31. Call 816-561-5563 for more information.— Danny Volin

Feb. 5-March 31, 2011