tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12290780268953065582024-03-14T10:43:35.654+00:00MalaisedMiserable Ramblings about Art and the Contemporary MalaiseMalaisedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17244765654166612162noreply@blogger.comBlogger39125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1229078026895306558.post-12947878453828011252020-02-28T16:34:00.005+00:002020-02-28T16:34:29.727+00:00Doing Art Politically (A Summary)In 2008, in a talk at the Royal Academy of Arts (London), Thomas Hirschhorn outlined a thesis for "Doing Art Politically". In it, he distinguishes between making political art (in terms of subject matter, or having a political effect) and doing art politically. For Hirschhorn where you stand, what your position is and how this relates to others is central to making art and for Hirschhorn
this <i>is</i> making art politically - it <i>is</i> the
political. This position is compatible with Ranciere's "aesthetic regime" of art, where "aesthetic art" has a politics of its own (politics of aesthetics) and although it might look similar to everyday objects (indeed, it might be appropriated objects from everyday life) the fact that it is art separates it from everyday life (and materials). Aesthetic art does not need to adopt political themes, because it is already political. It is political because it questions and alters what can be seen and said (and who can see or say what). So, while art and non-art overlap, they retain their essential differences. At the same time, because aesthetic art is innately political, it is impossible to separate the political from the aesthetic.<br />
<br />
Hirschhorn divides his thesis into ten points, which I will now summarise in turn.<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><br /></i></div>
<h4>
<i>Doing art politically means giving form</i></h4>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This is very confusing. He is clear that this is distinct
from <i>making</i> a form, but what “giving form” actually means is unclear, and yet
he declares that the question of form is the most important question for an
artist. If it is intelligible at all, perhaps it is really simple: Hirschhorn
is talking about making art, and by making he includes art practices that do
not “make” anything… hence “giving form”. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><br /></i></div>
<h4>
<i>Doing art politically means creating something</i></h4>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Art is always an action, never a reaction. Making art (politically?)
means taking a position, beyond mere criticism… staking a claim. Therefore, to create
something is to take a risk. This does not mean that art is uncritical – it can
be critical, but must not become neutralised by being critical. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h4>
<i>Doing art politically means deciding in favour of
something</i></h4>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Hirschhorn believes that an artist has to make
decisions. Not choices like 'A' or 'B', 'Left' or 'Right' but
"decisions". Hirschhorn has decided that his work should
'touch' the four following areas at the same time:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-left: 54.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->1.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Love<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 54.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->2.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Esthetics<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 54.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->3.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Philosophy<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-left: 54.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->4.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Politics<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Note the similarity to Badiou’s four truth procedures… and
that Hirschhorn often speaks of creating an “event” (small e though). He claims that while Love and Philosophy are positive, Aesthetics and Politics <i>could</i> be negative. He talks about "touching the negative" (subject
matter) and how, therefore it is important for an artist to remain positive:
there's no point an artist complaining when they can "make a
creation" (why contribute negativity?). It is unlikely
that any one work of art will touch all four with the same intensity, but all
four fields should be touched. Hirschhorn hints at making a universal art when
he claims that he aims to “create a new truth beyond negativity, beyond current
issues, beyond commentaries, beyond opinions, and beyond evaluations”. These aims set his art apart from politics, which is concerned with real action
in the here and now, rather than eternal statements or truths. And yet…</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<h4>
<i>Doing art politically means using art as a tool</i></h4>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For Hirschhorn Art is a tool used to confront reality, encounter
the world we live in: a tool (or a weapon). Hirschhorn declares that he
wants to address and confront universal concerns. Although he feels he can only
make art with what surrounds him in his own history and milieu, he aims to
reach out beyond these by avoiding the particular and trying to touch the
universal. In this way, he declares that art can be used as a tool to confront
reality and encounter the world. Potentially, art can touch somebody, or
something can be touched through art. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h4>
<i>Doing art politically means building a platform with the
work</i></h4>
<div class="MsoNormal">
He considers his art to be a platform that provides a site
for dialogue or confrontation with the other. How do you reach the other? By
using a door, a window or a hole. This gives us a clue as to how we might read
his work. Hirschhorn aims to create holes in reality with the potential
for a “breakthrough”. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h4>
<i>Doing art
politically means loving the material with which one works</i></h4>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Hirschhorn emphasises the importance of materials: he says
that the artist makes the decision to use their materials and therefore must
love their materials (without becoming kitsch, sentimental or obsessive). The
decision about the materials is Political. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h4>
<i>Doing art politically means inventing oneself guidelines
for oneself</i></h4>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Hirschhorn employs enigmatic guidelines. Examples
include:<br />
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br />
<!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-left: 54.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Less is less, more is more<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 54.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Quality no, energy yes<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 54.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Panic <i>is</i> the solution<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 54.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Better is always less good<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 54.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->To be responsible for everything that touches his
artwork<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 54.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->To be the first who has to pay for his artwork<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-left: 54.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Never won, but never completely lost</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-left: 54.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<h4>
<i>Doing art politically means working for the other</i></h4>
<div class="MsoNormal">
He claims that he makes work for "the other" (not
for the majority). For Hirschhorn "the other" could be someone
you don't know, someone you're afraid of or the other self that you have and he
claims not to make art for himself but "for Art first" and then for
"his art".<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h4>
<i>Doing art politically does not mean working for or
against the market</i></h4>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Art can only exist beyond the laws of the market by
maintaining its autonomy. Artists need support and assistance, but they must
never become dependent on them. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h4>
<i>Doing art politically means being a warrior.</i></h4>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
He gives no explanation here – but note that connection between the
warrior and militant (another nod to Badiou?) <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
Malaisedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17244765654166612162noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1229078026895306558.post-43227668726092282362020-02-11T14:43:00.000+00:002020-02-11T14:43:06.881+00:00Why Leaving the EU is not Inherently Racist<i>It is almost four years now since Britain voted to leave the European Union. The UK remains divided and so called "remoaners" continue to dispute the result on a number of levels - some more legitimate than others. Since the result in 2016, Remain voters immediately accused Leave voters of being racists: they continue this accusation today - is it true?</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
The main argument against the accusation goes like this: 17.4 million people voted to leave the EU; how can Remain voters possibly know all of their motives? A subsidiary argument questions whether that many Britons (representing 52% of the country) are really racist. It is inconceivable that Remainers could know the motives of half the country (and no substantial research has been carried out), so they then concede that "not all Leave voters are racist, but all racists voted Leave". Let us analyse this oft repeated slogan. If "all the racists" voted Leave, then all Remain voters are necessarily not racist.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dwXlyGFkoqFD0NvYHNq-dtG7hkiXGI2QnduN6Vi4NOsnAVENNAoOKqF2-4vXmkIkBOcpw-0cPVxG_Rf0TuN-w' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
<br />
<h3>
Freedom of Movement</h3>
<div>
The main reason given for implying that Remain voters could not be racist, is that they voted for freedom of movement and that Vote Leave centred on ending freedom of movement - thereby limiting immigration to the UK. This seems a logical and plausible argument, but does the EU really have freedom of movement? Here are five reasons why EU freedom of movement is not all it seems. </div>
<div>
<h4>
1. Turning the Mediterranean into a "Cemetery for Refugees"</h4>
<h4>
<span style="font-weight: 400;">When Remain voters declare that they are not racist because they support freedom of movement, it is worth remembering that freedom of movement only applies to citizens from EU member states. What about the rights of non-EU citizens? Donald Trump's wall is rightly condemned as racist, but the EU already has its "wall" in the form of a sea. While migrants and refugees drowned in the Mediterranean sea, the EU (as an institution) did nothing. This led Turkey's president to accuse the EU of turning the Mediterranean into a "<a href="https://nypost.com/2015/09/03/father-of-drowned-syrian-boys-says-overloaded-boat-flipped/">cemetery for refugees</a>". </span></h4>
<h4>
2. EU Failure to Share Refugees (once they are on EU soil). </h4>
<h4>
<div>
</div>
</h4>
<h4>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">During the migrant crisis, the EU left
individual member States to act (alone). This led to the farcical situation
where Greece (one of the EU's poorer countries and currently in severe
financial difficulties) was left to process huge numbers of refugees - with no
help from its EU family. Germany was one of the few countries to come out of
the situation with any credit. Angela Merkel acted independently of the EU and
against popular opinion to welcome in more than</span><b style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/12/14/angela-merkel-right-integration-figures-show-400000-refugees/"><span style="color: blue; font-weight: normal;">1 million refugees</span></a>.</b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;"> This
led to a situation where Budapest’s Keleti railway station became
overwhelmed with refugees bound for Germany - creating a scene reminiscent
of Jews being forcibly put onto trains bound
for concentration camps. Was this a case of freedom of movement (the
refugees can go where they like), or a case where the refugees had to go to
Germany, because nobody else wanted them? The evidence points to the latter,
as Hungary was also allowed </span><b style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2015/sep/15/refugee-crisis-hungary-launches-border-crackdown-live-updates"><span style="color: blue; font-weight: normal;">to reject all asylum requests at its
border</span></a> </b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">and</span><b style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">in the Czech Republic the police
wrote numbers on refugees hands. Far
right governments in Poland, Austria and France all took
measures to "protect" their boarders and limit migrants' ability to
enter their counties: the EU failed to stop all this. </span></h4>
<h4>
3. The EU-Turkey Migrant Deal. </h4>
<div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BnCTkGqxZMk/XkKTw-xJ95I/AAAAAAAAO6Q/0fY5urKx_t4Z8l_WQ4h3J0HBloa6ynBkwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/download.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="197" data-original-width="240" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BnCTkGqxZMk/XkKTw-xJ95I/AAAAAAAAO6Q/0fY5urKx_t4Z8l_WQ4h3J0HBloa6ynBkwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/download.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The body of Alan Kurdi, September 2015 (Turkey)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">The EU did nothing about the deaths in the Mediterranean... until the
body of a toddler washed up on a beach in Turkey in September 2015. Alan Kurdi
has been bound for Lesbos, but he never made it. What was the EU's response? In
March 2016, the EU paid Turkey €3 billion and in March 2018 the EU agreed
to give Turkey an additional </span><a href="https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/IP_18_1723" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="color: blue;">€3 billion</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">. In return, Turkey had to curb
migrants crossing the Aegean sea to Greece; assess their refugees status; and
return them to their country of origin if deemed to be not </span><a href="https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/EUR2556642017ENGLISH.PDF" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="color: blue;">"in need of international protection"</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">.
Additionally, the deal guaranteed that </span><a href="https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/EUR2556642017ENGLISH.PDF" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="color: blue;">"every person arriving irregularly [...] to the Greek
islands – including asylum-seekers – would be returned to Turkey"</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> for
processing. Where is the freedom of movement for refugees here? They have no
choice; the EU does not want them and obliges them to return to Turkey. Putting
asylum seekers back on boats resembles Australia's immigration policy that is
so widely condemned as heartless. While the deal supposedly included an EU
commitment to accept an equivalent number of refugees to those returned to
Turkey, Amnesty International commented that deal damaged the EU's </span><a href="https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/EUR2556642017ENGLISH.PDF" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="color: blue;">"commitment to upholding the basic principles of
refugee protection and the lives of the tens of thousands it has trapped on
Greek islands"</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">. Furthermore, Turkey rejected 2/3 non-Syrian
asylum applications and deported them to their countries of origin: often zones
of conflict (the common being Afghanistan). Amnesty International also note
that the deal is being touted as a blueprint for further deals with other
countries on the other side of the Med (</span><a href="http://libya%2C%20sudan%2C%20niger%20and%20many%20others/" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">Libya, Sudan, Niger and many others</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">). The deal prevents
refugees from making asylum applications in EU countries and pays other
countries to deal with the problem. In effect, the deal keeps all the brown
migrants outside the EU, and it is therefore fair to question whether a vote to
remain inside the EU is intrinsically non-racist. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 107%;">The first three examples
focus on how the EU restricts migration from outside its borders. This alone
casts doubts about the credibility of claims that a vote to remain within the
EU is inherently non-racist. How, you might ask, is preventing the freedom of
movement of non-European black and brown people who are often Muslims
progressive? This is to assume that the EU allows freedom of movement for its
mainly white, Christian, European citizens, but this is not necessarily the
case, as the next examples make clear. </span></div>
</div>
<h4>
4. Bulgaria and Romania</h4>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Many people are surprised to hear that Bulgaria and Romania joined the
EU in 2007. This is because the EU put restrictions on their freedom of
movement that were </span><a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-25565302" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="color: blue;">not lifted until 2014</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">, leading many people to falsely believe
that these countries joined the EU then (rather than in 2007). The policy was
driven by the fear of mass immigration from poorer countries into richer ones.
The very principle of EU freedom of movement comes with restrictions. This
policy discriminated against 29 million people based on their country of
origin, regardless of their individuals' wealth. Discriminating against people
based on where they come from seems like racism. The argument here is that EU
freedom of movement was not universal between 2007-2014, and yet "EU
Freedom of Movement" is lauded as a reason why Remain voters are not
racist</span>.<br />
<h4>
5. The Collective Deportation of Roma people</h4>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><a href="https://europeangreens.eu/content/freedom-movement-and-roma-expulsions"><span style="color: blue;">The collective deportation of Roma people</span></a> (mainly
from France and Italy) makes a mockery of EU claims to Freedom of Movement -
even for its own citizens. As with the treatment of Romanian and Bulgarian EU
citizens, this example undermines the EU principle of the right to equal
treatment. Not only is the EU happy to discriminate based on your country of
origin (in the case of Bulgaria and Romania), but it is also happy to
discriminate on the grounds of ethnicity (in the case of the Roma). It is
diffident to argue that this is not racist - let alone progressive. <span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<h3>
Why are Remain voters necessarily not racist?</h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">The Remainer slogan that "not all Leave voters are racist, but all
racists voted Leave" is often accompanied by the assertion that if you
voted Leave, you are tainted by the company that you keep. This converts the
concession that "not all Leave voters are racist" back into "all
Leave <i>are</i> racist"... this time because of their
association with racists (who all voted Leave). If we accept the logic of this
position, then all Remain voters are tainted by the association with the five
points above, which demonstrate that the EU is not so progressive when it comes
to freedom of movement (or indeed racism) as Remain voters would like to
think. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">When a remained puts an EU flag filter on their social media profile
picture - to virtue signal that they are on the right side, the non-racist side
- they are effectively saying that they are okay with the EU policies described
above: restriction of freedom of movement if you come from a poor country;
deportation of Roma; inaction when migrants drown in the Med; leaving
individual States to act alone and bear the brunt of asylum applications; and a
deal to prevent non-European refugees from even making asylum applications in
the EU. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">The logical,
evidenced-based, argument that EU freedom of movement is not as progressive as Remainers
like to think has been given (at length) to make a simple point: that it is
plausible that some Remain voters might be racist, and therefore it is untrue
to assert that "all the racists voted Leave". But all this ignores
the fact that we cannot know how many racists there are in Britain, who they
are and how they voted. The argument - that "not all Leave voters are
racist, but all racists voted Leave" fails on the same level that
"everybody who voted Leave is racist": lack of evidence.
Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence: let us next examine what
evidence is given to support claims that Leave voters are racist. </span><br />
<h3>
Vote Leave was Racist</h3>
<img alt="Image result for that poster of a queue of immigrants" src="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/3f510b25581c993fae11fe42817a9c6d3780f376/0_305_5049_3029/master/5049.jpg?width=700&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=d6fdf0c88b3cc8884f9d2faae6aa5ad2" /><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Unable to substantiate the claim that "all the racists voted
Leave" (how could they? How is it possible to know how many racists are in
Britain, who they are and who they voted for?), Remainers change tack and
provide evidence, instead, that Vote Leave was racist. One of the most
deplorable images that comes to mind is Nigel Farage's anti-immigration poster
(pictured above). The implication is that if we remain in the EU, at a later
date Turkey will join and subsequently the UK will be powerless to stop
millions of Turks coming to live in Britain. The first point to note is that
Nigel Farage was not part of Vote Leave. This is a semantic point, because
Farage and UKIP were certainly on the same side as Vote Leave and Farage was
able to appeal to fears about immigration and link these to the referendum.
Furthermore, Vote Leave did play on similar fears, as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jan/08/vote-leave-racism-brexit-uncivil-war-channel-4"><span style="color: blue;">reported in <i>The Guardian</i></span></a>, and
has been accused of racism, as reported in <i><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/may/21/vote-leave-prejudice-turkey-eu-security-threat"><span style="color: blue;">The Observer</span></a></i>. Even if Vote Leave was racist,
the argument that voting Leave becomes racist by association falls down, for
the reasons given above. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">The sleight of hand that shifted the argument from leaver voters being
racist to Vote Leave being racist quickly slides into examples of Vote Leave
lying, misleading, Cambridge Analytica, and so on: all perfectly good reasons
to discredit Vote Leave, but not evidence that Vote Leave was racist, and
certainly not evidence that all racists voted Leave. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">All this belies the point
that it is obviously possible for Remain voters to be racist (there were more
than 16 million of them, statistically it is probably that some were racist)
Racists are perfectly capable of voting for their economic interests over their
preferences to limit immigration. In some cases, they will even benefit from
cheap EU labour - this does not mean that they cease to be racist. Consequently,
not all racists voted Leave (if some voted Remain).</span><br />
<h4>
It is Possible to Vote Leave for Reasons Unrelated to Immigration and Racism</h4>
<div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">It seems almost surreal to have to make this point, but the case for
Brexit has mainly been made by those on the right - from Farage to Boris, Gove,
Cummings and so on. Those who argue that "all the racists voted
Leave" often refuse to accept that there is any credible, non-racist,
argument in favour of Brexit. There is a left-wing case for Brexit (known as
Lexit) that was barely reported during the campaign - and when it was reported
it was usually to discredit it. The point in summarising this position is not
to convince anybody that it is right - the point is to assert that it is <i>possible</i> to
have voted Leave for reasons other than racism. It goes something like this:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: 36.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list 36.0pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">1.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">The EU is an
undemocratic technocracy. </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: 36.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list 36.0pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">2.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">The EU imposes
privatisation and market liberalisation</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">. It is possible to have State-owned
industries, but we could not reinstate British Rail <i>as an integrated,
monopoly public service, under EU law.</i> <a href="https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/brexit/2017/07/lexit-eu-neoliberal-project-so-lets-do-something-different-when-we-leave-it"><span style="color: blue;">Article 107 TFEU allows for state aid only if it is
compatible with the internal market and does not distort competition</span></a>. The
EU TTIP deal with the USA demonstrates how the EU could force the UK to open up
the NHS to "competition" (effectively privatising the NHS). TTIP (now
lying low) would have been a corporate raid sanctioned by an unelected
government. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: 36.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list 36.0pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">3.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">The EU imposes
austerity on its members</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> - the treatment of Greece is given as a key
example and also evidence that the EU is hostile to left-wing governments. The
EU also imposed austerity on Ireland, Cyprus and Portugal. The banks come
before citizens when push comes to shove. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: 36.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list 36.0pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">4.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">The single currency
has had devastating effects on EU citizens.</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> It prevented Greece from
devaluing, resulted in Cypriots having to surrender their savings and it raised
the cost of living for many. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: 36.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list 36.0pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">5.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Youth unemployment is
high</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> (43% in Greece, 39% in Spain and 35% in Italy) as a result of the
Euro and EU austerity measures. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: 36.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list 36.0pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">6.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">The UK currently
exceeds EU Workers' rights</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">: The vast majority of our rights belong to the
labour movement, not the EU.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: 36.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list 36.0pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">7.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">The market is placed
above the worker</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">: the EU has served metropolitan business elites better than it has
served the working classes. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: 36.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list 36.0pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">8.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">The EU is, primarily,
a neoliberal, free market, trade block: leaving it would allow us to pursue a
more socialist agenda (if we voted for that). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 107%;">While this list is selective, it does provide eight
reasons to vote for Brexit - none of which are racist (or stupid, ignorant,
bigoted etc). This, coupled with the indictment of EU policies on freedom of
movement and asylum application processes demonstrates why voting to leave the
EU is not inherently racist. </span><o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
Malaisedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17244765654166612162noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1229078026895306558.post-48882807153935112702019-11-11T14:39:00.001+00:002019-11-11T14:40:22.400+00:00Why people are unemployed? <div dir="ltr">
Some see the unemployed as lazy, entitled, scroungers who take without putting into the system. This post looks at why people are unemployed, positing some reasons (other that those above) why people might be unemployed.</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img height="265" src="https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/production-static-stedelijk/images/adlib/2005.1.042614207.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="400" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: start;">
Francis Alÿs. <i>Turista</i> (1994)</div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div dir="ltr">
1. Some unemployed people are temporarily between jobs.</div>
<div dir="ltr">
People might be made redundant, finish fixed term contracts or face unemployment when their employer ceases trading. According to the <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peoplenotinwork/unemployment">Office for National Statistics</a>, the UK unemployment rate is 3.8% (May-July 2019 - the most recent figures at the time of writing). Those who like to scapegoat and demonise the unemployed might be surprised that this figure is so low. Even if 100% of these people found employment tomorrow (and were obliged to take it), the unemployment rate still would not be 0%, as other people would be made redundant /finish fixed term contracts and other employers would creese trading. It is therefore unrealistic to have an unemployment rate of 0%... unless you don't count the short term unemployed. Let us suppose that only 1.2 of the 3.8% currently unemployed fall into this category. That still leaves 2.6% of the population unemployed: why aren't they working? </div>
<div dir="ltr">
2. Some unemployed people are working, but are not being paid. </div>
<div dir="ltr">
JK Rowling wrote Harry Potter while signing on. Clearly, this was time week spent. Even if you don't like the books or the films, the <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-london-37501694/harry-potter-s-magical-effect-worth-4bn-to-london">London School of Economics</a> estimates that the Harry Potter brand is worth £4bn to London's economy. Rowing herself recently dropped off the Forbes billionaire list, with Forbes citing <a href="https://www.standard.co.uk/insider/alist/j-k-rowling-net-worth-harry-potter-author-billionaire-a4234706.html">Britain's higher tax rate and Rowling's $150 million charitable donations as the reason</a>. Clearly, Rowling has paid back more than she took out. </div>
<div dir="ltr">
But there aren't that many JK Rowling, are there? Maybe not, but if only one in 1,000 authors on the dole become billionaires, they pocket an average of £1 million pounds each. That's not a bad investment, is it? Even if we funded 10,000 authors for the same return, that would be economically viable. This argument focuses exclusively on economic return, but unemployed authors contribute in so many other ways. Some will write good books. Others will go on to work in other fields where knowledge of what is like to graft away as a writer will be useful:<br />
perhaps as teachers or journalists. They also enrich society by their being able to think and live differently to those for whom full time work occupies so much of their time and effort. </div>
<div dir="ltr">
Not convinced that there is an army of unemployed writers working to better our society? Fair enough. Their numbers might be fewer that I'd like to imagine. But what about artists? University lecturers in fine art are expected to first gain professional experience before they can teach it. This might be feasible for architects and designers, but most artists (especially at the beginning of their careers) will run at a loss. "The artist's apprenticeship" is a term applied to these early years working to build a reputation with no income other than unemployment benefit. JK Rowling might have become a billionaire in her own lifetime, but her contribution to culture age the UK economy will live on, and is immeasurable. Look at how Monet, Van Gogh, Picasso and others still contribute towards the French economy today. Impressionists emblazon banknotes; tourists flock to see Monet's garden; or where Van Gogh painted "that cafe" abdicate his bedroom; still more tourists pay to visit the Picasso museum in Paris. Now that both Picasso and Van Gogh were immigrants that have become synonymous with France's image as a country of artists. </div>
<div dir="ltr">
Some of those 3.8% unemployed will be writers, artists, poets, inventors, scientists, or even future entrepreneurs. It's impossible to tell how many. Let us suppose that they account for another 1.2%. So now we have a remainder of 1.4% of the populating not working, for reasons yet to be ascertained. </div>
<div dir="ltr">
3. Some people cannot find work, or hold down a job, because they lack the most basic skills and/or motivation. </div>
<div dir="ltr">
It is well-known that many low-skilled jobs (as well as some not so low-skilled jobs) have been replaced by machines and, more recently, robots. Many of the people who would have worked in repetitive and often mundane agricultural and manufacturing jobs can no longer find jobs. Some of them can retrain, of course, but some cannot: they simply lack the communication skills to work in the service industry, or the IT skills to work in many other sectors. </div>
<div dir="ltr">
Others, who were more highly skilled workers, have seen their industries diminish. Where they had valued skills, they are now no longer needed. This feeling of being undervalued, coupled with their former pride in their work and a loss of identity (they identified <i>as</i> coal miners, or ship wrights etc) can prove to have devastating consequences, such as depression. It can be difficult to motivate yourself to apply for a job in a call centre, or McDonald's when you previously had a purpose building warships, for example. Although many people seem to have little sympathy and feel that such unemployed people should stop feeling sorry for themselves and take any job on offer, the psychological effects cannot be so simply dismissed - especially with older workers who find it harder to retain and feel that they may never work again. </div>
<div dir="ltr">
We are still feeling the effects of de-industrialisation. Some of those who lost their jobs, their professions, in the 1980s really did never work again. This must have had some effect on their children, who will have internalised their parents' bitterness and this will have doubled down in the cases when they too found it hard to find work. </div>
<div dir="ltr">
Could this category account for the remaining 1.4%? After all, it's not a huge percentage. </div>
<div dir="ltr">
There are others, it's true, who are unemployed for less relatable reasons. There are criminals, benefit cheats, the lazy, the entitled and the scroungers. But having read the case above, what percentage of the 3.8% do you really think they account for? </div>
Malaisedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17244765654166612162noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1229078026895306558.post-35886928506308188512019-11-05T13:32:00.000+00:002019-11-05T13:34:52.776+00:00Lacan's Gaze: A Summary<br>
<div class="Standard">To contribute to this post, or challenge malaised's summary, please leave a comment. </div><div class="Standard"><br></div><div class="Standard">
How can an object gaze back at a subject? Clearly it cannot,
since it has no eyes. Therefore, I propose two hypotheses that might help understand
Lacan's theory. Firstly, since Lacan was a psychoanalyst, we might consider
that the perceived Gaze emanating from the object is in fact coming from with:
from our unconscious. Secondly, we might do well to recognise that Lacan's
doctoral thesis was about paranoia – once more the Gaze (if it exists at all)
might be in our own head.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="Standard">
Lacan reworked Freud's concept of the mirror phase, where a
child first recognises itself in its reflected self or in another child.
According to Freud's theory, this is an important developmental stage where the
child begins to understand the boundary between itself and the outside world.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="Standard">
According to Lacan, the mirror stage is followed by a
transition from the 'Real' to the 'Imaginary'. These terms can be likened to
Freud's Id and Ego respectively. During the imaginary/Ego stage the infant
still believes that it is attached to its mother. It is only when it surpasses
this stage and enters the 'symbolic order' (Freud's super Ego) that it
represses the imaginary stage and recognises difference.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="Standard">
It therefore seems a reasonable assumption that his Gaze
theory can be understood in terms of his concept of the mirror stage – that is,
the mistaken identity of oneself in an object (reflection or another baby, but
also perhaps many other objects). This is also reminiscent of Freud's concept
of the uncanny – especially the instances involving automatons or dummies.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="Standard">
Lacan and Freud have been criticised by feminists for their
patriarchal view regarding gender – especially in their definition of the
female through its lack of a phallus. Julia Kristeva has used the Lacanian
triad of real/imaginary/symbolic orders to propose a new reading of the psyche
that is maternal in nature.<o:p></o:p></div>
<h2>
The Gaze in Film and Art<o:p></o:p></h2>
<div class="Standard">
As early as 1975 Laura Mulvey discussed how representations
of men and women in film could be analysed using Freudian psychoanalysis. She
identified roles in films and the associated pleasures experienced by male viewers.
She argued that these pleasures related to the construction of the male psyche,
but she also went much further by identifying how this reveals and reinforces
patriarchal bias in film... and also in psychoanalytic theory. According to
Mulvey, the male viewer identifies with the male protagonist in much the same
way that the child identifies itself in the mirror stage. The male viewer takes
pleasure in the objectification of the female protagonist (both by the male
actor and the male viewer) and feels a sense of power as he overcomes the
threat that the female represents: the threat of the lack of a penis, or
symbolic castration.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="Standard">
Margaret Olin applies Mulvey's work to art. Olin's
contribution is to propose that the male Gaze can be subverted if the sadistic
power of the Gaze or the manipulation of imagery is exposed. She proposed that
single point perspective heightens the power of the Gaze whereas multiple viewpoints
(fragmented perspective) has the opposite effect.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="Standard">
Although all the theorists discussed so far were writing in
the 20<sup>th</sup> Century, the Gaze that they described presumably existed
long before it was identified as such. Not only should we be able to find
examples in art history, but, in fact, we can find counter examples. Manet
provided a challenge to the male Gaze in paintings such as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Olympia</i> (1863) and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Bar at the
Folies-Bergere</i> (1882). In both paintings the Gaze is very much focussed on
the woman, who is gazing straight back at us. Both paintings also allude to
prostitution.<o:p></o:p></div>
<br>Malaisedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17244765654166612162noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1229078026895306558.post-32532251138387585752019-10-28T12:21:00.000+00:002019-10-28T12:24:09.577+00:00Umberto Eco on Interpretation and Over-interpretation: A Summary<br />
<h3>
To add to this article, or to challenge Malaised's account of the text, please leave a comment below. </h3>
<h2>
Overview<o:p></o:p></h2>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In 1990, Umberto Eco gave a series of three lectures on<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>“Interpretation and Overinterpretation”
as part of the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Tanner Lectures in Human
Values</i> at Clare Hall, University of Cambridge. <!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-begin'></span><span
style='mso-spacerun:yes'> </span>ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION
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and overinterpretation: world, history,
texts","container-title":"The Tanner lectures on human
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<span style='mso-element:field-separator'></span><![endif]--><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">(Eco, 1990)</span><!--[if supportFields]><span style='mso-element:
field-end'></span><![endif]--> The lectures were later reproduced as the first
three chapters in an edited book entitled <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Interpretation
and Overinterpretation </i>(1992) edited by Stefan Collini. In these lectures,
Eco outlines his concerns about over-interpretive bias in contemporary theory. In
his introduction, Collini characterises these concerns as “the way some of the
leading strands of contemporary critical thought… appear to him to license the
reader to produce a limitless, uncheckable flow of ‘readings’”. Eco asks if
there are limits to what a text can be made to mean, and whether the author’s
intentions should play a part in defining these limits. The limits, he
concludes, are not located in either the author’s intention or the reader’s
interpretation… but in the text itself. Eco’s lectures are followed by three
response chapters by hermeneutic pragmatist Richard Rorty, deconstructionist Jonathan
Culler and novelist-critic Christine Brooke-Rose. Eco concludes the book by
responding to these challenges. <o:p></o:p></div>
<h2>
Interpretation and History<o:p></o:p></h2>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In the first lecture, “Interpretation and history”, Eco
seeks to reveal, or even undermine, postmodernism’s relativist foundations. His
goal is to find the middle ground between totally relativist and totally
dogmatic approaches to interpretation. In his words, between a “radical reader
oriented theory of interpretation” where Rorty has noted:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoQuote">
“the critic asks neither the author nor the text about their
intention but simply beats the text into a shape that will serve his purpose. He
makes the text refer to whatever is relevant to that purpose. He does this by
imposing a vocabulary – a grid in Foucault’s terminology – on the text which
may have nothing to do with any vocabulary used in the text or by its author,
and seeing what happens” <!--[if supportFields]><span style='mso-element:field-begin'></span><span
style='mso-spacerun:yes'> </span>ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION
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of pragmatism: Essays 1972-1980","publisher":"Harvester
Wheatsheaf","publisher-place":"Hemel
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Hempsted","ISBN":"0-7108-0408-3","language":"English
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<span style='mso-element:field-separator'></span><![endif]--><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">(1991, p. 151)</span><!--[if supportFields]><span style='mso-element:
field-end'></span><![endif]--><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
and on the other hand, “finding the original intention of
the author”, which may be impossible to discern or irrelevant for the
interpretation of the text. <!--[if supportFields]><span style='mso-element:
field-begin'></span><span style='mso-spacerun:yes'> </span>ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM
CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"I6y3zB0d","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(1992,
p. 25)","plainCitation":"(1992, p.
25)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":2152,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/3443802/items/NZ85V524"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/3443802/items/NZ85V524"],"itemData":{"id":2152,"type":"book","title":"Interpretation
and overinterpretation","collection-title":"Tanner Lectures
in Human Values","publisher":"Cambridge University
Press","publisher-place":"Cambridge","number-of-pages":"151","edition":"Paperback","source":"Library
Catalog (Capita
Prism)","event-place":"Cambridge","abstract":"Umberto
Eco, international bestselling novelist and leading literary theorist, here
brings together these two roles in a provocative discussion of the vexed
question of literary interpretation. The limits of interpretation - what a text
can actually be said to mean - are of double interest to a semiotician whose
own novels' intriguing complexity has provoked his readers into intense
speculation as to their meaning. Eco's illuminating and frequently hilarious
discussion ranges from Dante to The Name of the Rose, Foucault's Pendulum to
Chomsky and Derrida, and bears all the hallmarks of his inimitable personal
style. Three of the world's leading figures in philosophy, literary theory and
criticism take up the challenge of entering into debate with Eco on the
question of interpretation. Richard Rorty, Jonathan Culler and Christine
Brooke-Rose each offer a distinctive perspective on this contentious topic,
contributing to a unique exchange of ideas between some of the foremost and
most exciting theorists in the
field.","ISBN":"978-0-521-42554-4","language":"English","author":[{"family":"Eco","given":"Umberto"},{"family":"Brooke-Rose","given":"Christine"},{"family":"Culler","given":"Jonathan"},{"family":"Collini","given":"Stefan"},{"family":"Rorty","given":"Richard"}],"editor":[{"family":"Collini","given":"Stefan"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["1992"]]}},"locator":"25","suppress-author":true}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"}
<span style='mso-element:field-separator'></span><![endif]--><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">(1992, p. 25)</span><!--[if supportFields]><span style='mso-element:
field-end'></span><![endif]--> Eco locates postmodern theories of
interpretation within a history of ancient hermeticism and gnosticism. Both his
ancient and postmodern examples consider the study of signs and symbols to be unproductive,
as they are unable to reveal truths, but only displace them elsewhere. <!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-begin'></span><span
style='mso-spacerun:yes'> </span>ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION
{"citationID":"wxKb6yJY","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(1992,
p. 35)","plainCitation":"(1992, p.
35)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":2152,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/3443802/items/NZ85V524"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/3443802/items/NZ85V524"],"itemData":{"id":2152,"type":"book","title":"Interpretation
and overinterpretation","collection-title":"Tanner Lectures
in Human Values","publisher":"Cambridge University
Press","publisher-place":"Cambridge","number-of-pages":"151","edition":"Paperback","source":"Library
Catalog (Capita
Prism)","event-place":"Cambridge","abstract":"Umberto
Eco, international bestselling novelist and leading literary theorist, here
brings together these two roles in a provocative discussion of the vexed
question of literary interpretation. The limits of interpretation - what a text
can actually be said to mean - are of double interest to a semiotician whose
own novels' intriguing complexity has provoked his readers into intense
speculation as to their meaning. Eco's illuminating and frequently hilarious
discussion ranges from Dante to The Name of the Rose, Foucault's Pendulum to
Chomsky and Derrida, and bears all the hallmarks of his inimitable personal
style. Three of the world's leading figures in philosophy, literary theory and
criticism take up the challenge of entering into debate with Eco on the
question of interpretation. Richard Rorty, Jonathan Culler and Christine
Brooke-Rose each offer a distinctive perspective on this contentious topic,
contributing to a unique exchange of ideas between some of the foremost and
most exciting theorists in the
field.","ISBN":"978-0-521-42554-4","language":"English","author":[{"family":"Eco","given":"Umberto"},{"family":"Brooke-Rose","given":"Christine"},{"family":"Culler","given":"Jonathan"},{"family":"Collini","given":"Stefan"},{"family":"Rorty","given":"Richard"}],"editor":[{"family":"Collini","given":"Stefan"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["1992"]]}},"locator":"35","suppress-author":true}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"}
<span style='mso-element:field-separator'></span><![endif]--><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">(1992, p. 35)</span><!--[if supportFields]><span style='mso-element:
field-end'></span><![endif]--> Eco could be describing Derridian Deconstruction
when he notes that:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoQuote">
“The reader must suspect that every line […] conceals another
secret meaning; words, instead of saying, hide the untold; the glory of the
reader is to discover that texts can say everything, except what the author
wanted them to mean”. <!--[if supportFields]><span style='mso-element:field-begin'></span><span
style='mso-spacerun:yes'> </span>ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION
{"citationID":"RgwwUCjl","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(1992,
p. 39)","plainCitation":"(1992, p.
39)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":2152,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/3443802/items/NZ85V524"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/3443802/items/NZ85V524"],"itemData":{"id":2152,"type":"book","title":"Interpretation
and overinterpretation","collection-title":"Tanner Lectures
in Human Values","publisher":"Cambridge University
Press","publisher-place":"Cambridge","number-of-pages":"151","edition":"Paperback","source":"Library
Catalog (Capita
Prism)","event-place":"Cambridge","abstract":"Umberto
Eco, international bestselling novelist and leading literary theorist, here
brings together these two roles in a provocative discussion of the vexed
question of literary interpretation. The limits of interpretation - what a text
can actually be said to mean - are of double interest to a semiotician whose
own novels' intriguing complexity has provoked his readers into intense
speculation as to their meaning. Eco's illuminating and frequently hilarious
discussion ranges from Dante to The Name of the Rose, Foucault's Pendulum to
Chomsky and Derrida, and bears all the hallmarks of his inimitable personal
style. Three of the world's leading figures in philosophy, literary theory and
criticism take up the challenge of entering into debate with Eco on the
question of interpretation. Richard Rorty, Jonathan Culler and Christine
Brooke-Rose each offer a distinctive perspective on this contentious topic, contributing
to a unique exchange of ideas between some of the foremost and most exciting
theorists in the
field.","ISBN":"978-0-521-42554-4","language":"English","author":[{"family":"Eco","given":"Umberto"},{"family":"Brooke-Rose","given":"Christine"},{"family":"Culler","given":"Jonathan"},{"family":"Collini","given":"Stefan"},{"family":"Rorty","given":"Richard"}],"editor":[{"family":"Collini","given":"Stefan"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["1992"]]}},"locator":"39","suppress-author":true}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"}
<span style='mso-element:field-separator'></span><![endif]--><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">(1992, p. 39)</span><!--[if supportFields]><span style='mso-element:
field-end'></span><![endif]--><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Acknowledging that in voicing his concerns he has put forth caricatures
of the worst kinds of radical reader oriented theory of interpretation, Eco
nonetheless asserts that caricatures can be good portraits. <!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-begin'></span><span
style='mso-spacerun:yes'> </span>ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION
{"citationID":"X4dsWob4","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(1992,
p. 40)","plainCitation":"(1992, p.
40)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":2152,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/3443802/items/NZ85V524"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/3443802/items/NZ85V524"],"itemData":{"id":2152,"type":"book","title":"Interpretation
and overinterpretation","collection-title":"Tanner Lectures
in Human Values","publisher":"Cambridge University
Press","publisher-place":"Cambridge","number-of-pages":"151","edition":"Paperback","source":"Library
Catalog (Capita
Prism)","event-place":"Cambridge","abstract":"Umberto
Eco, international bestselling novelist and leading literary theorist, here
brings together these two roles in a provocative discussion of the vexed
question of literary interpretation. The limits of interpretation - what a text
can actually be said to mean - are of double interest to a semiotician whose
own novels' intriguing complexity has provoked his readers into intense
speculation as to their meaning. Eco's illuminating and frequently hilarious
discussion ranges from Dante to The Name of the Rose, Foucault's Pendulum to
Chomsky and Derrida, and bears all the hallmarks of his inimitable personal
style. Three of the world's leading figures in philosophy, literary theory and
criticism take up the challenge of entering into debate with Eco on the
question of interpretation. Richard Rorty, Jonathan Culler and Christine
Brooke-Rose each offer a distinctive perspective on this contentious topic,
contributing to a unique exchange of ideas between some of the foremost and
most exciting theorists in the
field.","ISBN":"978-0-521-42554-4","language":"English","author":[{"family":"Eco","given":"Umberto"},{"family":"Brooke-Rose","given":"Christine"},{"family":"Culler","given":"Jonathan"},{"family":"Collini","given":"Stefan"},{"family":"Rorty","given":"Richard"}],"editor":[{"family":"Collini","given":"Stefan"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["1992"]]}},"locator":"40","suppress-author":true}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"}
<span style='mso-element:field-separator'></span><![endif]--><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">(1992, p. 40)</span><!--[if supportFields]><span style='mso-element:
field-end'></span><![endif]--> The possibility to reject absurd interpretations
or agree on reasonable ones disappears when endless possible meanings become
acceptable: this, for Eco characterises “overinterpretation”. The reason for the
apparent return (or persistence) of anti-rationalist relativism, however, is
not addressed. Nonetheless, he sets up the next two lectures by claiming that somewhere
there are criteria for the limits of interpretation and that he intends to find
and delineate them. <o:p></o:p></div>
<h2>
Overinterpreting Texts<o:p></o:p></h2>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In lecture two, “Overinterpreting texts”, Eco argues that overinterpretation
can occur even when there are multiple valid interpretations of the text. For Eco,
it is not the reader who produces meanings in the text, but the text which
produces the “model reader”. This is what he calls the “intention of the text”.
The model reader must take their cues from the text, meaning that not all interpretations
are valid and that some will be rejected as preposterous. Eco claims that a
text can “foresee a model reader entitled to try infinite conjectures” but that
this reader is “only an actor who makes conjectures about the kind of model
reader postulated by the text”. <!--[if supportFields]><span style='mso-element:
field-begin'></span><span style='mso-spacerun:yes'> </span>ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM
CSL_CITATION
{"citationID":"ONgi6m1b","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(1992,
p. 64)","plainCitation":"(1992, p. 64)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":2152,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/3443802/items/NZ85V524"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/3443802/items/NZ85V524"],"itemData":{"id":2152,"type":"book","title":"Interpretation
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Press","publisher-place":"Cambridge","number-of-pages":"151","edition":"Paperback","source":"Library
Catalog (Capita
Prism)","event-place":"Cambridge","abstract":"Umberto
Eco, international bestselling novelist and leading literary theorist, here
brings together these two roles in a provocative discussion of the vexed
question of literary interpretation. The limits of interpretation - what a text
can actually be said to mean - are of double interest to a semiotician whose
own novels' intriguing complexity has provoked his readers into intense
speculation as to their meaning. Eco's illuminating and frequently hilarious
discussion ranges from Dante to The Name of the Rose, Foucault's Pendulum to
Chomsky and Derrida, and bears all the hallmarks of his inimitable personal
style. Three of the world's leading figures in philosophy, literary theory and
criticism take up the challenge of entering into debate with Eco on the
question of interpretation. Richard Rorty, Jonathan Culler and Christine
Brooke-Rose each offer a distinctive perspective on this contentious topic,
contributing to a unique exchange of ideas between some of the foremost and
most exciting theorists in the
field.","ISBN":"978-0-521-42554-4","language":"English","author":[{"family":"Eco","given":"Umberto"},{"family":"Brooke-Rose","given":"Christine"},{"family":"Culler","given":"Jonathan"},{"family":"Collini","given":"Stefan"},{"family":"Rorty","given":"Richard"}],"editor":[{"family":"Collini","given":"Stefan"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["1992"]]}},"locator":"64","suppress-author":true}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"}
<span style='mso-element:field-separator'></span><![endif]--><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">(1992, p. 64)</span><!--[if supportFields]><span style='mso-element:
field-end'></span><![endif]--> Eco proposes “the intention of the text” as a
solution to the excesses of interpretation based on an overestimation of the
possibilities of similarity and analogy (with an implicit nod in the direction
of Foucault). <o:p></o:p></div>
<h2>
Between Author and Text<o:p></o:p></h2>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In the third lecture, “Between author and text”, Eco makes the
case for a “liminal author”. The author is “liminal” insofar as he exists on
the threshold between the intention of the author and the linguistic intention displayed
in the text. The author is shaped by his “cultural and linguistic background”; <!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-begin'></span><span
style='mso-spacerun:yes'> </span>ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION
{"citationID":"ZAmyAAFV","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(1992,
p. 69)","plainCitation":"(1992, p.
69)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":2152,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/3443802/items/NZ85V524"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/3443802/items/NZ85V524"],"itemData":{"id":2152,"type":"book","title":"Interpretation
and overinterpretation","collection-title":"Tanner Lectures
in Human Values","publisher":"Cambridge University
Press","publisher-place":"Cambridge","number-of-pages":"151","edition":"Paperback","source":"Library
Catalog (Capita Prism)","event-place":"Cambridge","abstract":"Umberto
Eco, international bestselling novelist and leading literary theorist, here
brings together these two roles in a provocative discussion of the vexed
question of literary interpretation. The limits of interpretation - what a text
can actually be said to mean - are of double interest to a semiotician whose
own novels' intriguing complexity has provoked his readers into intense
speculation as to their meaning. Eco's illuminating and frequently hilarious
discussion ranges from Dante to The Name of the Rose, Foucault's Pendulum to
Chomsky and Derrida, and bears all the hallmarks of his inimitable personal
style. Three of the world's leading figures in philosophy, literary theory and
criticism take up the challenge of entering into debate with Eco on the
question of interpretation. Richard Rorty, Jonathan Culler and Christine
Brooke-Rose each offer a distinctive perspective on this contentious topic,
contributing to a unique exchange of ideas between some of the foremost and
most exciting theorists in the
field.","ISBN":"978-0-521-42554-4","language":"English","author":[{"family":"Eco","given":"Umberto"},{"family":"Brooke-Rose","given":"Christine"},{"family":"Culler","given":"Jonathan"},{"family":"Collini","given":"Stefan"},{"family":"Rorty","given":"Richard"}],"editor":[{"family":"Collini","given":"Stefan"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["1992"]]}},"locator":"69","suppress-author":true}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"}
<span style='mso-element:field-separator'></span><![endif]--><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">(1992, p. 69)</span><!--[if supportFields]><span style='mso-element:
field-end'></span><![endif]--> the reader, he tells us, must therefore respect
these boundaries. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
All three response chapters take up positions contra Eco. Unsurprisingly,
Rorty makes a passionate case for interpretation, disputing Eco’s distinction
between “using” a text (for irony or parody, for example) and “interpreting” a
text. <!--[if supportFields]><span style='mso-element:field-begin'></span><span
style='mso-spacerun:yes'> </span>ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION
{"citationID":"t1EWobUZ","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(1992,
p. 93)","plainCitation":"(1992, p.
93)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":2152,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/3443802/items/NZ85V524"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/3443802/items/NZ85V524"],"itemData":{"id":2152,"type":"book","title":"Interpretation
and overinterpretation","collection-title":"Tanner Lectures
in Human Values","publisher":"Cambridge University
Press","publisher-place":"Cambridge","number-of-pages":"151","edition":"Paperback","source":"Library
Catalog (Capita Prism)","event-place":"Cambridge","abstract":"Umberto
Eco, international bestselling novelist and leading literary theorist, here
brings together these two roles in a provocative discussion of the vexed
question of literary interpretation. The limits of interpretation - what a text
can actually be said to mean - are of double interest to a semiotician whose
own novels' intriguing complexity has provoked his readers into intense
speculation as to their meaning. Eco's illuminating and frequently hilarious
discussion ranges from Dante to The Name of the Rose, Foucault's Pendulum to
Chomsky and Derrida, and bears all the hallmarks of his inimitable personal
style. Three of the world's leading figures in philosophy, literary theory and
criticism take up the challenge of entering into debate with Eco on the
question of interpretation. Richard Rorty, Jonathan Culler and Christine
Brooke-Rose each offer a distinctive perspective on this contentious topic,
contributing to a unique exchange of ideas between some of the foremost and
most exciting theorists in the
field.","ISBN":"978-0-521-42554-4","language":"English","author":[{"family":"Eco","given":"Umberto"},{"family":"Brooke-Rose","given":"Christine"},{"family":"Culler","given":"Jonathan"},{"family":"Collini","given":"Stefan"},{"family":"Rorty","given":"Richard"}],"editor":[{"family":"Collini","given":"Stefan"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["1992"]]}},"locator":"93","suppress-author":true}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"}
<span style='mso-element:field-separator'></span><![endif]--><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">(1992, p. 93)</span><!--[if supportFields]><span style='mso-element:
field-end'></span><![endif]--> Culler takes on both Eco and Rorty. He suggests
that the most extreme over-interpretive moments can be the most significant, as
it is in such moments that greater literary and social understandings lie. <!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-begin'></span><span
style='mso-spacerun:yes'> </span>ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION
{"citationID":"JgbKFrsT","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(1992,
p. 110)","plainCitation":"(1992, p.
110)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":2152,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/3443802/items/NZ85V524"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/3443802/items/NZ85V524"],"itemData":{"id":2152,"type":"book","title":"Interpretation
and overinterpretation","collection-title":"Tanner Lectures
in Human Values","publisher":"Cambridge University
Press","publisher-place":"Cambridge","number-of-pages":"151","edition":"Paperback","source":"Library
Catalog (Capita
Prism)","event-place":"Cambridge","abstract":"Umberto
Eco, international bestselling novelist and leading literary theorist, here
brings together these two roles in a provocative discussion of the vexed
question of literary interpretation. The limits of interpretation - what a text
can actually be said to mean - are of double interest to a semiotician whose
own novels' intriguing complexity has provoked his readers into intense
speculation as to their meaning. Eco's illuminating and frequently hilarious
discussion ranges from Dante to The Name of the Rose, Foucault's Pendulum to
Chomsky and Derrida, and bears all the hallmarks of his inimitable personal
style. Three of the world's leading figures in philosophy, literary theory and
criticism take up the challenge of entering into debate with Eco on the question
of interpretation. Richard Rorty, Jonathan Culler and Christine Brooke-Rose
each offer a distinctive perspective on this contentious topic, contributing to
a unique exchange of ideas between some of the foremost and most exciting
theorists in the field.","ISBN":"978-0-521-42554-4","language":"English","author":[{"family":"Eco","given":"Umberto"},{"family":"Brooke-Rose","given":"Christine"},{"family":"Culler","given":"Jonathan"},{"family":"Collini","given":"Stefan"},{"family":"Rorty","given":"Richard"}],"editor":[{"family":"Collini","given":"Stefan"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["1992"]]}},"locator":"110","suppress-author":true}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"}
<span style='mso-element:field-separator'></span><![endif]--><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">(1992, p. 110)</span><!--[if supportFields]><span style='mso-element:
field-end'></span><![endif]--> <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Rorty’s challenge forms the main part of Eco’s response. Eco
ends by asserting that “Hiroshima was bombed and that Dachau and Buchenwald
existed” <!--[if supportFields]><span style='mso-element:field-begin'></span><span
style='mso-spacerun:yes'> </span>ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION
{"citationID":"K26JB2o0","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Eco
et al., 1992, p. 150)","plainCitation":"(Eco et al., 1992,
p.
150)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":2152,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/3443802/items/NZ85V524"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/3443802/items/NZ85V524"],"itemData":{"id":2152,"type":"book","title":"Interpretation
and overinterpretation","collection-title":"Tanner Lectures
in Human Values","publisher":"Cambridge University
Press","publisher-place":"Cambridge","number-of-pages":"151","edition":"Paperback","source":"Library
Catalog (Capita Prism)","event-place":"Cambridge","abstract":"Umberto
Eco, international bestselling novelist and leading literary theorist, here
brings together these two roles in a provocative discussion of the vexed
question of literary interpretation. The limits of interpretation - what a text
can actually be said to mean - are of double interest to a semiotician whose
own novels' intriguing complexity has provoked his readers into intense
speculation as to their meaning. Eco's illuminating and frequently hilarious
discussion ranges from Dante to The Name of the Rose, Foucault's Pendulum to
Chomsky and Derrida, and bears all the hallmarks of his inimitable personal
style. Three of the world's leading figures in philosophy, literary theory and
criticism take up the challenge of entering into debate with Eco on the
question of interpretation. Richard Rorty, Jonathan Culler and Christine
Brooke-Rose each offer a distinctive perspective on this contentious topic,
contributing to a unique exchange of ideas between some of the foremost and
most exciting theorists in the
field.","ISBN":"978-0-521-42554-4","language":"English","author":[{"family":"Eco","given":"Umberto"},{"family":"Brooke-Rose","given":"Christine"},{"family":"Culler","given":"Jonathan"},{"family":"Collini","given":"Stefan"},{"family":"Rorty","given":"Richard"}],"editor":[{"family":"Collini","given":"Stefan"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["1992"]]}},"locator":"150"}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"}
<span style='mso-element:field-separator'></span><![endif]--><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">(Eco et al., 1992, p. 150)</span><!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-end'></span><![endif]-->– thus implicitly linking
over-interpretation to post-truth. He concludes that the author’s intention
may, indeed, set limits to the work’s interpretation. <o:p></o:p></div>
<h2>
References<o:p></o:p></h2>
<div class="MsoBibliography">
<!--[if supportFields]><span style='mso-element:field-begin'></span><span
style='mso-spacerun:yes'> </span>ADDIN ZOTERO_BIBL
{"uncited":[],"omitted":[],"custom":[]}
CSL_BIBLIOGRAPHY <span style='mso-element:field-separator'></span><![endif]--><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Eco, U. (1990). Interpretation and overinterpretation: World, history,
texts. <i>The Tanner Lectures on Human Values</i>. Presented at the The Tanner
lectures on human values, Clare Hall, Cambridge.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBibliography">
<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Eco, U., Brooke-Rose, C., Culler, J.,
Collini, S., & Rorty, R. (1992). <i>Interpretation and overinterpretation</i>
(Paperback; S. Collini, Ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBibliography">
<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Rorty, R. (1991). <i>Consequences of
pragmatism: Essays 1972-1980</i>. Hemel Hempsted: Harvester Wheatsheaf.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<br />Malaisedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17244765654166612162noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1229078026895306558.post-41511960620254784512019-09-15T19:52:00.001+01:002019-11-05T13:42:28.601+00:00Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (or the narcissism of Caractacus Potts) <p dir="ltr"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-94UcvVSvA4k/XcF8QoQpToI/AAAAAAAAOWw/NW8O_2j3ifoJk0r_PdTElpLjHrJj1iNygCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/1572961463595144-0.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<img border="0" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-94UcvVSvA4k/XcF8QoQpToI/AAAAAAAAOWw/NW8O_2j3ifoJk0r_PdTElpLjHrJj1iNygCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/1572961463595144-0.png" width="400">
</a>
</div><br></p><p dir="ltr">Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is a film about a father of two young children whose mother has died. The father, Caractacus Pott, (Dick Van Dyke), is an apparently independently wealthy inventor who doesn't believe in playing by the rules - although he is not rich, he wouldn't consider working for anybody else, and owns property and some land in an unspecified idyllic village, for example). </p>
<p dir="ltr">The Potts children (Jeremy and Jemimah) don't go to school - that would run contra to Pott's fiercely independent streek. He prefers for them to learn through play. He does not homeschool them; rather, they run about unsupervised... left to their own devices. <br>
One day they encounter Truly Scrumptious (the female character who will eventually become their surrogate mother) . Scrumptious is appalled that Potts lets his children runaround unsupervised, and she is fearful for their safety when she nearly runs them over. The father however has no such concerns. He believes that a little danger is no bad thing in a child's upbringing and that they will learn to care for themselves rather than being suffocated by a mollycoddling nanny State. <br>
Scrumptious and Potts become friends and take the children to the beach. From this point on on Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is a dreamlike fantasy. Scrumptious learns that, far from being the uncaring father that she assumed him to be, Potts is a deeply devoted parent. He has endless patience, time and love for his children. They learn through imaginative play with him. For example, they fantasize about seeing a pirate ship just off the coast. The idyllic world of learning through play quickly becomes darker, when they travel to the land of Vulgaria where a mad ruler, Baron Bomburst, has banned children, so that he alone can have all the toys. <br>
Bomburst employees a sinister Child Catcher who runs around imprisoning children in a cage on the back of his cart.<br>
The film concludes when the Potts family join forces with a toymaker (Benny Hill) to free all the children imprisoned by the Baron and fly home in their magical flying car. <br>
It is noteworthy that the evil child-snatching baron story is Potts' invention. The Child Catcher personifies Potts' fear of losing his children, just as he has lost his wife. The Child Catcher is the darker side of Potts' personality. Far from rescuing his children from the boredom of a life at school, he is like a narcissist who wants to keep his children close, to serve his own ends. Their infantile fascination with his many failed or commercially unviable inventions makes him feel important and provides him with an audience 24/7. As is common with people suffering from narcissistic personality disorder, his children really serve to make him feel more important and to alleviate his fear of being left alone. At the same time, paradoxically, he is far from over-protective. Once the children are out of sight, they are out of mind and only of interest to their father once he has need for their attention. <br>
Therefore, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang can be read as a warning about the potentially self-serving motives behind home schooling. </p>
Malaisedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17244765654166612162noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1229078026895306558.post-18028556489189078222019-08-01T18:44:00.000+01:002020-01-09T21:08:25.340+00:00Steam Punk & Colonial Nostalgia<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="Image result for asylum steampunk festival lincoln 2019" height="265" src="https://www.visitlincoln.com/media/made/d565b4b0683f30bc/steampunk-4-web_480_320_c1_c_c_0_0_1.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="400" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Asylum Steampunk Festival (Lincoln 2019)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
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<h3>
If you walk around the streets of Lincoln during the annual <a href="https://www.asylumsteampunk.co.uk/">Asylum Steampunk Festival</a> (the
largest and longest running steampunk festival in the world), you will hear
that the steampunks – easily identifiable by their dress – speak in many
different languages. While the appeal of steampunk has certainly broadened its
horizons, one cannot help but feel that it is most warmly received by white
Europeans, nostalgic for empire. </h3>
Clad in pith helmets, these intrepid explorers
lament that America has overtaken the European powers to become the dominant
global superpower. Steampunks long for a return to the good old days of European supremacy that were only ever possible because of colonisation. Steampunk as a fantasy
where Europeans continue to dominate the world using (new) pre-digital technologies. Outsourcing
labour leaves Europeans with a nostalgia for the days when they could actually
make and repair things. Nostalgia is evident in the dressing up (not just
literature) – people want to have a go at living this alternative reality. </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="Image result for Arliss Loveless" height="400" src="https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/villains/images/8/81/Dr._Arliss_Loveless.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20170907030042" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="333" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dr Arliss Loveless</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
Critics will rightly point to the reception that steampunk
has in the United States. Films such as Eli Roth’s <a href="https://www.universalpictures.com/movies/the-house-with-a-clock-in-its-walls"><i>The
House With a Clock in its Walls</i></a> (2018) and Barry Sonnenfeld’s <a href="https://www.warnerbros.com/movies/wild-wild-west/"><i>Wild Wild West</i></a>
(1999) are testament to steampunk’s popular appeal in America. Arliss Loveless,
the baddie in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Wild Wild West</i>, is a
racist played by a British actor. The British baddie is, of course, a Hollywood tradition who (potentially) represents the way that contemporary Americans continue to view the old
world as a threat. On the surface racism in <i>Wild Wild West</i> (both the British and confederate varieties) is a bad
thing to be combated. However, this belies the colonial
nostalgia of <i>Wild Wild West</i> and,
indeed westerns more generally. Will Smith’s character James West might be
black, but the metanarrative here is that, together with the white folk, he
will wipe out the indigenous peoples to establish a white European colony. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It
should not be surprising that the Antebellum South is receptive to steampunk
ideas. This analogue era was prosperous because of slavery; this was halted by
progressive new ideas and technologies. The Antebellum South was an
agricultural society, somewhat resistant to the industrial north. As such, it
represents a pre-industrial, and therefore pre-steam power, mentality. This
seams not to matter in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Wild Wild West</i>,
where white colonial nostalgia takes precedence over nostalgia for steam power.
This illustrates my first point: steampunk’s nostalgia for the analogue is a
proxy for its nostalgia for white European supremacy. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In the United States,
this means European ways and traditions supplanting indigenous and non-European
customs – the zenith of which is reached in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
House with a Clock in its Walls</i>, which depicts a mainly white New England
society underpinned by ancient European superstition, magic and folklore. All
of the main characters are white, and the architecture speaks not to America (the
Art Deco Empire State Building, Diners and so on) but to Britain. In Europe,
the difference is that America itself becomes a proxy for that which supplanted
European supremacy, adventure and colonial expansion. After all, steampunk is
trapped in the Victorian age – the peak of European colonial domination. <o:p></o:p></div>
<br /></div>
Malaisedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17244765654166612162noreply@blogger.com0Lincoln, UK53.230688 -0.5405789999999797153.154627 -0.70194049999997965 53.306749 -0.37921749999997972tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1229078026895306558.post-80794533860476778772019-08-01T15:48:00.000+01:002019-08-01T15:57:01.729+01:00Ideology<h2>
Ideology</h2>
<div dir="ltr">
In Hegelian and Marxist philosophy, ideology has a pejorative sense that denotes "false consciousness". For Hegel, we are all influenced by forces that we cannot understand (ideology): we are "instruments of history". This sounds like Marxist historical materialist, but Marx criticised Hegel for what he perceived to be a fatalistic worldview: why try to change the world if we are being controlled by forces that we cannot recognise or understand? (<i>The German Ideology</i>, published posthumously in 1932). Marx's conception of ideology differed to Hegel's in that he believed in human agency to overturn ideology and in that he believed that all idea systems are products of economic structures. </div>
<div dir="ltr">
<br /></div>
<div dir="ltr">
Today, some thinkers (Richard Rorty) have suggested we're are in a post-ideological age. Žižek argues that the conception of a such a post ideological world is evidence that the dominant ideologies have finally "come into their own."</div>
<div dir="ltr">
<br /></div>
<div dir="ltr">
In medieval times, serfs were told that kings and noblemen had been put there by God and, likewise, they had a place (at the bottom) in the cosmic order. Everybody was told to accept their fate, as it was part of God's plan and that suffering in this world world be rewarded in the next. </div>
<div dir="ltr">
<br /></div>
<div dir="ltr">
Today, Liberal capitalist democracy might be seen as post ideological, only because it convinces us that it is the only viable, natural order. Therefore, liberal capitalist democratic ideology influences us psychologically so that we think it is natural: this is a "false consciousness" about the world, how it works, and their place in it, according to Marx.</div>
<div dir="ltr">
<br />
Žižek takes Marx's conception of ideology and combines it with Lacan's psychoanalytic theory. For Lacan, we do not intact with the world as such, but with linguistic representations of the world. </div>
<div dir="ltr">
<br /></div>
<div dir="ltr">
In this view, "different ideologies are different representations of our social and imaginary 'reality'"... not the world itself. For example, medieval ideology worked because it represented the social imaginary reality of the time.</div>
<div dir="ltr">
<br /></div>
<div dir="ltr">
If people think coffee is taken black (English, black coffee; Italian, caffè nero) they do not think of it as lacking milk. But if they think of it as "coffee without milk" (e.g. Spanish, café solo or coffee on its own) they do. This demonstrates how language plays a part in ideology. Žižek uses the following joke to explain further:</div>
<div dir="ltr">
<br /></div>
<div dir="ltr">
<i>"A man comes into a restaurant. He sits down at the table and he says, 'Waiter, bring me a cup of coffee without cream.' Five minutes later, the waiter comes back and says, 'I'm sorry, sir, we have no cream. Can it be without milk?'"</i></div>
<div dir="ltr">
<br /></div>
Malaisedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17244765654166612162noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1229078026895306558.post-43761885722569522112018-08-06T16:42:00.000+01:002019-12-06T16:44:02.453+00:00New Contemporaries 2018<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2018, </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
Liverpool School of Art & Design, Liverpool John Moores University</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
14 July 2018 - 9 September 2018</div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AjLP2CDFQzM/XeqEms50BEI/AAAAAAAAOmA/z9gpoSRiLmsKcD6Y1LkIhlTmwVmcvHeFACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/IMAG1216.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="905" data-original-width="1600" height="181" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AjLP2CDFQzM/XeqEms50BEI/AAAAAAAAOmA/z9gpoSRiLmsKcD6Y1LkIhlTmwVmcvHeFACLcBGAsYHQ/s320/IMAG1216.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Malaisedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17244765654166612162noreply@blogger.com02 Duckinfield St, Liverpool L3 5RD, UK53.404553 -2.97044299999993227.8825185 -44.279036999999931 78.9265875 38.338151000000067tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1229078026895306558.post-57791512699133280762018-04-13T18:11:00.000+01:002018-04-13T18:11:56.414+01:00Radiohead and Waiting<div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW1912510" style="direction: ltr;">
<div class="Paragraph SCXW1912510" style="background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span class="TextRun SCXW1912510" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Calibri\ Light, "Calibri Light_MSFontService", sans-serif; font-size: 28pt; line-height: 45px;"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW1912510" style="background-color: inherit;"></span></span><span class="EOP SCXW1912510" data-ccp-props="{"134233279":true,"201341983":0,"335559739":0,"335559740":240}" style="font-family: Calibri\ Light, "Calibri Light_MSFontService", sans-serif; font-size: 28pt; line-height: 45px;"></span></div>
</div>
<div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW1912510" style="direction: ltr; z-index: 0;">
<div class="Paragraph SCXW1912510" style="background-color: transparent; color: #404040; font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 75px; margin-right: 75px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span class="TextRun SCXW1912510" lang="EN-GB" style="color: #404040; font-family: Calibri, "Calibri_MSFontService", sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; line-height: 27px;"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW1912510" style="background-color: inherit;">Just lying in a bar with my drip feed on</span></span><span class="LineBreakBlob BlobObject DragDrop SCXW1912510" style="font-family: Calibri, "Calibri_MSFontService", sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 27px;"><span class="SCXW1912510"> </span></span><span class="TextRun SCXW1912510" lang="EN-GB" style="color: #404040; font-family: Calibri, "Calibri_MSFontService", sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; line-height: 27px;"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW1912510" style="background-color: inherit;">Talking to my girlfriend, waiting for something to happen</span></span><span class="LineBreakBlob BlobObject DragDrop SCXW1912510" style="font-family: Calibri, "Calibri_MSFontService", sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 27px;"><span class="SCXW1912510"> </span></span><span class="TextRun SCXW1912510" lang="EN-GB" style="color: #404040; font-family: Calibri, "Calibri_MSFontService", sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; line-height: 27px;"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW1912510" style="background-color: inherit;">And I wish it was the sixties, I wish I could be happy</span></span><span class="LineBreakBlob BlobObject DragDrop SCXW1912510" style="font-family: Calibri, "Calibri_MSFontService", sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 27px;"><span class="SCXW1912510"> </span></span><span class="TextRun SCXW1912510" lang="EN-GB" style="color: #404040; font-family: Calibri, "Calibri_MSFontService", sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; line-height: 27px;"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW1912510" style="background-color: inherit;">I wish, I wish, I wish that something would happen</span></span><span class="EOP SCXW1912510" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559685":1134,"335559737":1134,"335559738":200,"335559739":160,"335559740":360}" style="font-family: Calibri, "Calibri_MSFontService", sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 27px;"> </span></div>
</div>
<div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW1912510" style="direction: ltr;">
<div class="Paragraph SCXW1912510" style="background-color: transparent; color: #404040; font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 75px; margin-right: 75px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span class="TextRun EmptyTextRun SCXW1912510" lang="EN-GB" style="color: #404040; font-family: Calibri, "Calibri_MSFontService", sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; line-height: 27px;"></span><span class="FieldRange SCXW1912510"><span class="TextRun SCXW1912510" lang="EN-GB" style="color: #404040; font-family: Calibri, "Calibri_MSFontService", sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; line-height: 27px;"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW1912510" style="background-color: inherit;">(the bends, 1995)</span></span></span><span class="TextRun EmptyTextRun SCXW1912510" style="color: #404040; font-family: Calibri, "Calibri_MSFontService", sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; line-height: 27px;"></span><span class="EOP SCXW1912510" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559685":1134,"335559737":1134,"335559738":200,"335559739":160,"335559740":360}" style="font-family: Calibri, "Calibri_MSFontService", sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 27px;"> </span></div>
</div>
<div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW1912510" style="direction: ltr;">
<div class="Paragraph SCXW1912510" style="background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span class="TextRun SCXW1912510" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Calibri, "Calibri_MSFontService", sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19px;"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW1912510" style="background-color: inherit;">I
cannot think of any lyric that better sums up my experience of growing
up in the 1990s than the one above, from Radiohead’s the Bends. I had a
niggling feeling that nothing was happening. My parents had seen men
land on the moon, but the Apollo programme has ended before I was even
born. My parents had also see the invention of Concorde, whereas I only
saw supersonic passenger flight decommissioned, as it was too expensive.
You might argue that I have lived through a communications revolution,
witnessing the birth of the internet and mobile phone technology, but
this seems a somehow inferior experience to me. My parents could catch a
flight out of Heathrow and land</span></span><span class="TextRun SCXW1912510" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Calibri, "Calibri_MSFontService", sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19px;"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW1912510" style="background-color: inherit;"> in New York</span></span><span class="TextRun SCXW1912510" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Calibri, "Calibri_MSFontService", sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19px;"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW1912510" style="background-color: inherit;">
before they had even taken off, while I can access Facebook on my
phone. Indeed, these technologies, although they were born in the 1990s,
didn’t really come into their own until the new millennium. </span></span><span class="EOP SCXW1912510" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" style="font-family: Calibri, "Calibri_MSFontService", sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19px;"> </span></div>
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<div class="Paragraph SCXW1912510" style="background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span class="TextRun SCXW1912510" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Calibri, "Calibri_MSFontService", sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19px;"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW1912510" style="background-color: inherit;">I
am not really interested in a debate about whether advancements in
travel or communications is more exciting. This is only a metaphor for a
lingering feeling of disquiet – that nothing was happening in the
1990s. It was not long after the ‘90s ended that things did start to
happen though. </span></span><span class="TextRun SCXW1912510" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Calibri, "Calibri_MSFontService", sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19px;"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW1912510" style="background-color: inherit;">It
started when a man living in a cave orchestrated the largest ever
coordinated attack against the USA on its own soil. Using World War Two
Kamikaze-style tactics he destroyed icons of American imperial
capitalism, military might, but failed to reach his last target in
Washington. That a man in a cave in Afghanistan (or a house in Pakistan)
could do this seemed unbelievable. What’s more unbelievable is that the
most powerful country in the world, with the largest military budget
was unable to catch him (or execute and dump him in the sea) for a
decade. It was as it we had entered a Bond film. </span></span><span class="EOP SCXW1912510" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" style="font-family: Calibri, "Calibri_MSFontService", sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19px;"> </span></div>
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<div class="Paragraph SCXW1912510" style="background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span class="TextRun SCXW1912510" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Calibri, "Calibri_MSFontService", sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19px;"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW1912510" style="background-color: inherit;">The
Bond film continued when a computer programmer with white hair founded a
global organisation to gather and release the world’</span></span><span class="TextRun SCXW1912510" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Calibri, "Calibri_MSFontService", sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19px;"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW1912510" style="background-color: inherit;">s secrets. He </span></span><span class="TextRun SCXW1912510" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Calibri, "Calibri_MSFontService", sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19px;"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW1912510" style="background-color: inherit;">even def</span></span><span class="TextRun SCXW1912510" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Calibri, "Calibri_MSFontService", sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19px;"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW1912510" style="background-color: inherit;">ied</span></span><span class="TextRun SCXW1912510" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Calibri, "Calibri_MSFontService", sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19px;"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW1912510" style="background-color: inherit;"> the world’s most powerful country</span></span><span class="TextRun SCXW1912510" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Calibri, "Calibri_MSFontService", sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19px;"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW1912510" style="background-color: inherit;"> at a time when it was run by a cowboy out to avenge the attacks by the man in the cave (house in Pakistan). </span></span><span class="TextRun SCXW1912510" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Calibri, "Calibri_MSFontService", sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19px;"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW1912510" style="background-color: inherit;">Kim Jong Un is the most recent Bond baddie threatening to turn the world order upside down. </span></span><span class="EOP SCXW1912510" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" style="font-family: Calibri, "Calibri_MSFontService", sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19px;"> </span></div>
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<div class="Paragraph SCXW1912510" style="background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span class="TextRun SCXW1912510" lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Calibri, "Calibri_MSFontService", sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19px;"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW1912510" style="background-color: inherit;">Scotland’s
near secession from the United Kingdom, Brexit, the election of Donald
J. Trump, Catalonia’s vote for independence... things have started to
happen and maybe there’s a bit too much happening, as if making up for
the lack of activity in the 1990s. </span></span><span class="EOP SCXW1912510" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" style="font-family: Calibri, "Calibri_MSFontService", sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19px;"> </span></div>
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Malaisedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17244765654166612162noreply@blogger.com0Malaysia4.210484 101.97576600000002-11.794711 81.321469000000022 20.215679 122.63006300000002tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1229078026895306558.post-83143037186736759012018-01-07T20:05:00.000+00:002018-01-07T20:05:41.475+00:00Skyfall and Brexit BritainI watched Skyfall on TV this Christmas (December 2017). I first watched it at the cinema, when it came out in 2012. I was abroad and watched it on my own. I got the last seat in a packed cinema in Amsterdam, suggesting that James Bond still has appeal outside the anglophone world. I was struck by the film's sexism, nostalgia and jingoism then, as I was in 2017, and much more so than in other, recent, James Bond movies. I confess that at times I found the patriotism exhilarating, but in a dirty secret pleasure kind of way. There are constant references to how things were better in the past, or how "the old ways are the best ways". The key motif is the return of the Aston Martin DB5 - symbol of British engineering and design icon, but one might also recall how Bond is issued with a gun and a radio - no fancy new gadgets necessary. Skyfall appears to be a call to return to traditional British values and, writing in 2018, the film seems like an uncanny poster-boy for Brexit. I will elaborate with a few examples. <br />
<br />
<div class="page-header__title">
When the new Chairman of the Intelligence and Security Committee, Gareth Mallory (Ralph Fiennes), sticks his nose into MI6 business his understanding of life "in the field" is brought into question. It is then revealed that he has seen active service in Northern Ireland. Since the Bond films are always set in the present, and given Mallory's age, we might guess that this active service was in the 1970s or 1980s. It is unlikely that M (Judi Dench), who is of a similar age to Mallory would have seen such front-line action. The implication is that she, as a female, could not have the same understanding and experience as either Mallory, or Bond. Indeed, this is confirmed as the film comes to its climax. Bond (Daniel Craig) takes M to Skyfall, not to hide from villain and ex-agent Raoul Silva (Javier Bardem), but to fight him on their own terms. There, she does see active service, and she is killed, because she is a stupid girl. Note that, against all odds, Bond and his elderly game keeper (male) both survive. What was Dench thinking when she accepted this role? The look in Bond's eye when he acknowledges Mallory as the new M is one of relief - now we can go back to normal and do things properly. The female M was tolerated for a while, but in her final film she is shown to be weak. When there is an existential threat (MI6 is blown up), the atavistic need for a public school-educated male to fill the role is apparent. The retreat to Skyfall is a reminder that Bond's blood is aristocratic
and that he has ties to the landscape: no foreigner would know where it
is, or understand about its priest holes and secret tunnels. </div>
<div class="page-header__title">
<br /></div>
<div class="page-header__title">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-G8dwAL3Zjlo/WlJ9LY3_sWI/AAAAAAAAJIo/h7bPMRxJMlU59tuWlYT70oAPVA4GxU02wCLcBGAs/s1600/00068b85-800.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="800" height="180" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-G8dwAL3Zjlo/WlJ9LY3_sWI/AAAAAAAAJIo/h7bPMRxJMlU59tuWlYT70oAPVA4GxU02wCLcBGAs/s320/00068b85-800.jpg" width="320" /></a>Near the beginning of the film, a female agent, Eve, watches Bond fight a
villain on the top of a train. She has a partial shot and is ordered to
take it by M: she does, but shoots Bond. Dench's M does not lack the metal to make such calls, she just gets it wrong, as she did when sacrificing Silva. The consequences catch her up in this film. When Bond and the female agent later meet in London,
Bond ribs her for the miss: "you gave it your best shot". He quips that
field work is not for everybody. At the end of the film Bond asks if she
is not returning to the field. Eve replies that she is
not. She has realised that fieldwork is not for everybody. She then
introduces herself as Eve Moneypenny, before taking up the role of
secretary (or PA) to M. That's right, she had a go at being the hero,
but mucked it up because she is a stupid girl. Realising that she could
not cut it, she took up a desk job. Not as an analyst or similar, but as
a secretary: she now knows her place. Previously, when in Macau, Moneypenny assumed a submissive role when she shaves Bond. She knows her place. </div>
<div class="page-header__title">
<br /></div>
<div class="page-header__title">
Mallory is one example of a renewal of the old system. Bond is another. He fails his medical when returning to active service (after having been shot by Moneypenny), but he is reinstated nonetheless. Why? Because M instinctively knows that he is the best. The fact that others might score more highly in tests is irrelevant - Bond must get the job. Dench's M must make way for new male "talent", all that remains of her is her porcelain bulldog with a union flag on its back. Moneypenny must get back behind a desk. From now on, jobs in MI6, we can presume, will be reserved for the old
school tie. Public school boys have always comprised the British secret
service, as represented in Bond and in real life. The implication is that the only people truly allowed to do the tops jobs are old, public school educated, men. This is made abundantly clear when Bond first encounters the new Q: "you have to be joking... you still have spots". Q fulfills his role with distinction, however. Apparently being a young male need not hold you back after all, but you will still have to put up with prejudiced remarks and no one will take you seriously.Is this the Brexit Britain that we can look forward to? </div>
Malaisedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17244765654166612162noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1229078026895306558.post-90797281616489078662017-07-05T21:58:00.000+01:002017-07-05T21:58:10.246+01:00Grants not Loans, but Remember to Fund Arts and Humanities Degrees too!Jeremy Corbyn has gained such ground that even those of a more conservative position are seriously debating the abolition of university tuition fees and reinstating grants. With the abolition of fees comes great emancipatory potential for those from underprivileged backgrounds, but there also comes a great threat to the arts.<br />
<br />
The arts at university, despite under funding, are currently somewhat protected. They are protected because people still want to study them and are willing to pay £9,000 a year to do so. A move away from this model to one fully publicly funded has re-opened a debate around how many students we should fund and even how many universities we should have. A sub-set of this debate relates to which subjects we should fund. Those who only see the world in economic terms appear to feel that we have too many students in Higher Education, too many universities and that we do not need so many students of the arts and humanities. Dominic Holland embodied this position today on Channel 5's <i>The Wright Stuff</i>. He claimed that many degrees do not need to be three years long and that humanities degrees could be completed in only one year. This is like a parent telling their child that they will not pay for a year's driving lessons, because you can learn to drive in a month: if you cannot learn in a month, you are not good enough an should not drive! While it is clearly possible to demonstrate every manoeuvre and explain every situation covered by the test in this time frame, it takes time for this information to sink in. I could show Mr Holland how to play a guitar riff in thirty seconds, but would he be able to learn it in one minute? How long does it take to learn to play or compose music? How long does it take to learn to draw? You certainly could learn arts at university in one year - <i>but not to the same level</i>. The same is true of the humanities. Arts and humanities degrees are not about learning a set amount of information in the quickest possible time. Students learn new ways of thinking and seeing the world, but it takes time for these ideas to sink in and become fully formed. <br />
<br />
Public funding of Higher Education is socially responsible because it removes financial barriers to education and our graduates benefit the whole of society in uncountable ways. If I get run over by a bus, I want the very best doctor to treat me - not the best who could afford to take on the debt or the best who came from a social background where going to university was an option. If I am falsely accused of a crime I want the State to provide me with the very best possible defence lawyer. I want our brightest and best scientists and engineers working on ways to improve our lives. But I also want critical thinkers who can interpret and challenge the so-called fake news and post-Truth climate we live in. I want creative thinkers who can imagine new ways of living in and running the world. I also want new generations to contribute towards new modes of cultural production. There is a cost to sending people to university, but the benefits are far greater. France has a huge tourist industry based on its historic place as a haven for artists. People visit Monet's garden in Giverny and Aix-en-Provence to see where Van Gogh lived and the Mont Sainte-Victoire that Cezanne painted for about fifteen years. Paris is perhaps even famous as the place where great artists such as Dali, Picasso and the Impressionists once lived. All these reasons for France's art economy have nothing to do with the artists' economic success in their lifetime: France did not invest in and foster these artists for a short term payback. All of my examples had their success (or at least their break through) between the turn of the last century up until around the Second World War, but France continues to reap its reward. However, continuing to view this debate in purely economic terms is misguided. We should fund education so that everybody who gains the entry criteria can study if they want to without the fear of being saddled with £50,000 of debt; a debt that will affect the graduate's ability to buy a home, as Student Loan repayments are considered as outgoings on mortgage applications.<br />
<br />
Returning to the target of this article, Dominic Holland stated that he had two degrees and a Masters degree - all of which were "a complete waste of time". This is evident in the lack of sophistication of his argument. Holland simply cannot see that his successful career in comedy and television might be, at least in part, due to his formative years at university. Rather than write off arts and humanities Higher Education for future generations, Holland would do better to ask himself why, when he had access to a great library, a network of peers and expert academics in his chosen field, he considers his time to be a waste. Perhaps it is he who wasted his time, or perhaps he needed a lot longer than three years for the information and experience to sink in, develop and become useful to him. Malaisedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17244765654166612162noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1229078026895306558.post-56910677959948842772017-06-23T11:44:00.000+01:002017-06-23T11:44:32.459+01:00Reflections on a Visit to a Stately Home: We are all in this Together (but Not in the Way You Thought)I recently visited a stately home, Doddington Hall near Lincoln. Entrance to the gardens and the hall will set you back £10.50. I was lucky enough to have a tour of both.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-tf_sGsacr5w/WUzvVnkxWZI/AAAAAAAAIWQ/uhhIyG-Ksmw35yNmHFb1QHYhCYpVM0gWQCLcBGAs/s1600/Doddington_Hall_-_geograph.org.uk_-_820943.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="427" data-original-width="640" height="213" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-tf_sGsacr5w/WUzvVnkxWZI/AAAAAAAAIWQ/uhhIyG-Ksmw35yNmHFb1QHYhCYpVM0gWQCLcBGAs/s320/Doddington_Hall_-_geograph.org.uk_-_820943.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Doddington Hall</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
The house was built in the Elizabethan period and has stayed in the same family ever since, although their surnames have changed through marriage. Having never been sold, the house has never been emptied and the guide explained that the house is littered with treasures. One chair was worth £40,000 - the complete set of four is worth much more. The family did not know this until a delegation of antiques experts from Christie's, Sotherby's, Buckingham Palace and the Swedish royal family arrived to investigate what might be lying around. The delegation found four sets of the chairs I refer to, scattered about the mansion. The family did not know how many they had. The same room had chandeliers made our of Venetian Murano glass (surely the most garish and overrated manufacturers of glass in the world). The guide explained that there were some important and expensive paintings, some by Sir Joshua Reynolds.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-e2M7QuU9OqY/WUzv38SpKtI/AAAAAAAAIWY/3Ti_CGGiTZYY0nNAH0PWEFmnHFMqjtnHQCLcBGAs/s1600/STRIVE-00120150619-10642-glh8k8.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="512" data-original-width="512" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-e2M7QuU9OqY/WUzv38SpKtI/AAAAAAAAIWY/3Ti_CGGiTZYY0nNAH0PWEFmnHFMqjtnHQCLcBGAs/s320/STRIVE-00120150619-10642-glh8k8.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Example of a Sickening Murano Chandelier</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
It's nice to know that if this family ever falls on hard times the worst they will have to do is sell a chair or two, a garish chandelier, fell a few trees or... if the worst comes to the worst... a Reynolds. Of course, it doesn't need to come to that if you are rich. While we were there we saw two people restoring the families collection of tapestries. Apparently they have already spent over 80,000 hours working on this. I asked who was paying for the restoration work: a charitable grant. I wonder what my chances are of gaining a charitable grant to upholster a sofa or restore some paintings? I won't hold my breath. On the gardens tour we were told that, since this is not a National
Trust property, they have fewer restrictions. One garden was reclaimed
from agricultural use - that must have been expensive. Not to worry, it
was funded by a National Lottery Heritage Grant. Presumably I am entitled to the same fund to redesign my garden, so long as I open it up to the public for £5 a ticket. I won't hold my breath. <br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-HRNEoU7r2yI/WUzwTsx-uoI/AAAAAAAAIWc/fjQdPmbyU-c7AUNU21cz58rs8CyZ9Jq8wCLcBGAs/s1600/llr_dodh_1_large.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="801" data-original-width="944" height="271" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-HRNEoU7r2yI/WUzwTsx-uoI/AAAAAAAAIWc/fjQdPmbyU-c7AUNU21cz58rs8CyZ9Jq8wCLcBGAs/s320/llr_dodh_1_large.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Our Painting, by Sir Joshua Reynolds</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Later on the tour we saw a portrait of "the man who saved Doddington Hall". We were told that this great man made the "brave decision" to repair the roof when it was leaking in the 1950s. At this time, just after the war, we were losing stately homes like this at a rate of knots. The landed gentry were struggling to keep up with the cost of running such massive buildings - especially since they rarely had jobs. But what is so "brave" about saving your home? It would have been expensive to repair such a big roof, for sure, but you can either afford the repairs, or you lose your house. He couldn't sell the chairs. Remember, the family were ignorant to their value and even their quantity. Did he bravely did into his own pocket? Not exactly. He bequeathed a Reynolds to the nation in return for the funds. That must have been tough - losing a valuable painting... and one that is of a family member too. Not to worry though, the painting remains in Doddington Hall of course. The guide explained that the painting is the reason that we are able to visit the house - because we paid for the roof (and we own the painting). Fair deal, but why then do we still have to pay £10.50 to see it? <br />
<br />
In one way or another we have paid for the upkeep of this house, its grounds and its contents, which are still (with the exception of the Reynolds) privately owned. Our taxes, charitable donations, lottery tickets and entrance fees all prop up this millionaire family. My final observations on the tour of the house were two photographs, presumably of Anthony Jarvis (the previous owner of Doddington Hall, who has now passed it to his daughter). In one he was meeting Margaret Thatcher. In the other David Cameron is pouring champagne for him. Under the photographer there is a caption that reads "More Bollinger? Excellent policy Prime Minister". Seeing Mr Cameron again reminded me of his dictum that "we are all in this together". So I see. Indeed we <i>are</i> all in this together, but not in the way that we thought. We, the 99%, have banded together to support the 1%. We are all on the same team. <br />
<br />
<br />Malaisedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17244765654166612162noreply@blogger.com0Doddington LN6 4RU, UK53.2200838 -0.6535899000000426927.698049299999997 -41.962183900000042 78.7421183 40.655004099999957tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1229078026895306558.post-24728686552156565402013-12-01T14:59:00.000+00:002018-01-10T15:07:47.085+00:00Bon hiver: A journey through a Winter Landscape<div class="entry-title">
<h3>
Towner Art Gallery, Eastbourne</h3>
<h3>
1 December 2012 - 3 February 2013</h3>
</div>
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-PV2NYwr0lhg/WlYr1ad-dkI/AAAAAAAAJJw/Xty-Q8hqI-wj21l2WXMuWz4v23ROVICJgCK4BGAYYCw/s1600/2266-Olafur-Eliasson-The-forked-Forest-Path-1998.-Installation-at-Towner-Art-Gallery-2005-225x300.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-PV2NYwr0lhg/WlYr1ad-dkI/AAAAAAAAJJw/Xty-Q8hqI-wj21l2WXMuWz4v23ROVICJgCK4BGAYYCw/s400/2266-Olafur-Eliasson-The-forked-Forest-Path-1998.-Installation-at-Towner-Art-Gallery-2005-225x300.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Olafur Eliasson <i>The Forked Forest Path</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The proposed theme of this exhibition was, we are told, “a journey
through the winter landscape” and superficially this is evident but I
cannot help but feel that <i>time</i> is the real subject. <i>Bon Hiver</i>,
we are told, is a French greeting meaning “good winter” and it used on
the day of the first snowfall. This, in itself, reminds me of the
cyclical nature of time in nature, but I also found <i>time</i> recurring throughout the exhibition.<br />
Olafur Eliasson’s excellent, and well know, <i>The Forked Forest Path </i>is
made entirely from large sticks (or small branches) which are
precariously propping each other up to form a forest in the gallery
space through which visitors can walk. It looks as though it may fall
over at any moment – and with the volume of visitors it was impossible
not to occasionally brush up against some of the spindly twigs. The
piece is as ephemeral as it is timeless: timeless in that the material
from which it is made cannot be dated (and probably does not age very
much either).<br />
The forest path does indeed fork and to the left you are led into a
room with a work by Joachim Koester that further evokes the notion of
time through his use of antiquated machinery – a slide projector. The
slides project images of a timeless landscape covered in snow, devoid of
humans or any human intervention. We learn through text projected over
the images that this is an expedition to the North Pole. Anecdotes give
us glimpses not only of what the adventurers are up to at the time the
slide was taken (resting, drinking coffee etc.) but also where we are
and who we are with: “the Greenlanders refused to go any further”. I
imagine that Greenland is ancient land, but then I recall the temporal
nature of the North Pole itself – how it is made of ice, not rock and
earth, and how it moves with the currents so that no two expeditions
reach the same physical point: a flag mounted at the North Pole will
simply drift away on its glacier. Is Greenland “ancient land”? It
doesn’t really matter whether it is or not. The point is, the images
recall ancient land – a land before humans – and yet at the same time
make us think of their precious temporality as icecaps drift or melt.<br />
Walking back through the forked forest path you arrive at a room on
the right hand side. The most striking piece of work in the room is,
perhaps, Mariele Neudecker’s <i>The Sea of Ice</i>. Neudecker has made
a 3D replica of Friedrich’s painting of the same name and immersed it
in a fish tank. The opaque walls of the tank (or perhaps the murky
liquid that fills it) evoke mist: a mist that recalls Friedrich’s <i>Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog</i>. While instantly reminiscent of Friedrich’s <i>The Sea of Ice</i> (also called <i>The Wreck of Hope</i>)
the opaqueness makes it somewhat difficult to get a good view. You walk
around the tank peering in to get the best angle and as you do so you
begin to appreciate the curious light that Neudecker has achieved and
the optical illusions that you get with tanks of water – where as you
turn a corner the image disappears for a second, only to reappear anew
from a distinctly different angle. This reminded me of viewing a moving
hologram. In this way you “enter” Friedrich’s painting, but you are able
to walk around it too. Neudecker has created not only a 3D version, but
also a sensory experience, in the same way that Eliasson created a
sensory experience by creating a forest out of branches in the gallery
space through which you walk. In a similar way, Koester created a
sensory experience through his “full wall” projections and the noise of
the clicking slides. The projector itself becomes part of the work and
recalls expedition briefings (which might use such imagery, or such
equipment). In this sense, in a way, you enter the work.<br />
On the wall opposite <i>The Sea of Ice</i> hang two photographs by
Kelly Richardson. In these works Richardson has taken Polaroid
snapshots, scanned them and enlarged them to the point that the image
breaks down. This creates something dreamlike out of something
disposable something ephemeral, something fleeting? Is time also a
factor in this work? By scanning the analogue prints Richardson
digitises them, creating a sort of time travel: she takes a now
antiquated medium and drags it into the 21<sup>st</sup> Century. In
doing so she also pixelates the image which now mimics CCTV or grainy
film stills but also looks like cyanotypes (perhaps a reference to
photography’s relationship with nature or to its roots?).<br />
To the left there is another piece by Richardson, a shaky handheld
film of the moon. The image is distorted, we find out from the wall
text, by “vapours”. The rustling, crackling sound makes us aware of
ourselves and humans are made “visible” in yet another unpopulated
“landscape” in much the same manner as Koester’s slide projector. The
wall text goes on to explain that the sound is of popcorn cracking on a
campfire (also the source of heat and the “vapours” that distort the
image as they pass by the lens).<br />
There is one more (back)room to this exhibition but this time we
encounter older artworks: paintings by artists such as Eric Ravilious
(whose picture is included in the gallery publicity for this
exhibition). This room failed to achieve the sensory experience felt
before it and left the whole exhibition somewhat flat. If you didn’t
know better you could be mistaken for thinking you had finished the
exhibition and entered the permanent collection (ironically it is
Eliasson’s <i>The Forked Forest Path </i>is owned by the Towner).
Curiously, time is still evident, but not in a good way. You feel a
clash of eras as you drift from a contemporary art exhibition into
something older.<br />
Kelly Richardson’s photographs were part of her <i>Supernatural Series</i>. <i>Supernatural</i> etymologically means above or beyond nature. The clash of times in <i>Bon Hiver</i>
is augmented as you literally go above nature (above this exhibition)
to Kelly Richardson’s solo show upstairs (2 February – 14 April 2013 <a href="http://www.townereastbourne.org.uk/exhibition/kelly-richardson/">http://www.townereastbourne.org.uk/exhibition/kelly-richardson/</a>).
Richardson’s HD films are digitally projected and incorporate
animation. Sci-Fi trees made out of light appear and disappear on a
lunar-esque landscape arousing the notion of the hologram felt when
viewing Neudecker’s <i>Sea of Ice</i>. Richardson’s landscapes are
hyper-real, videogame-like and yet recall timeless mythology in their
subject matter (the stag and the forest for example). Through her work
we imagine a world run out of nature, a world increasingly digitised and
reliant on new technologies. We do not encounter the dystopia that the
press release tells us to expect, but rather an uneasy and ambiguous
balance between the familiar landscape and the unknown future.<br />
Richardson’s films point to an uncertain future but in doing so also
look back to the Romantic sublime of Friedrich. The uncertainty of
what’s beyond the frontier, the limit of man’s endurance for extreme
nature, was for the Romantic adventurer, the source of excitement and
terror that the technological future holds for us today. With no new
lands left to discover, cyberspace is our final frontier. Rather than
replacing nature, it is technology’s future relationship <i>with</i> nature that is explored in Richardson’s films and with this in mind <i>Bon Hiver</i>
also elicits questions about how we can understand a future where the
once seemingly timeless and unchanging “nature” (represented by the
landscape) is called into question. Will “technology” be its saviour or
help facilitate its demise?Malaisedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17244765654166612162noreply@blogger.com0Devonshire Park, College Rd, Eastbourne BN21 4JJ, UK50.762629999999987 0.2828970000000481425.240595499999987 -41.025696999999951 76.284664499999991 41.591491000000048tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1229078026895306558.post-63298644597359745102013-02-23T15:17:00.000+00:002019-11-05T13:40:45.649+00:00Carl Andre: Mass and Matter//Rosa Barba: Subject to Constant Change<h3>
Turner Contemporary, Margate<br />1 February - 6 May 2013</h3>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rosa Barba, <i>Subject to Constant Change</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Fans of Minimalism will want to take a trip to the Turner Contemporary in Margate. The gallery currently has two exhibitions: <i>Mass and Matter</i> by Carl Andre and <i>Subject to Constant Change</i> by Rosa Barba (both 1 February 2013 – 6 May 2013).<br />
What can I say about Carl Andre that hasn’t already been said? More
importantly, what can Turner Contemporary (TC) say about Carl Andre that
hasn’t already been said? TC focus as much on his poems as his
sculpture – which is refreshing. They also point out that he barely made
any sculpture while working on the railways, turning instead to hand
written and, latterly, typewritten poems. Andre is quoted as saying that
he does not aim to express him self through words when doing so, but
instead he rearranges the words of poems into columns and rows in much
the same fashion as <i>Jack</i> does in <i>The Shining</i>.<br />
In focusing on this period in Andre’s career we draw parallels
between his industrial labour (and that of his father, the ship yard
where he grew up and so forth) and his sculptural works. It is my
understanding that the point of minimalism is, through reducing the
artwork to its bare bones, to make the viewer aware of their own bodies
and their physical relationship with material (with mass and matter as
it were). The problem with this show is that there are simply too many
sculptures crammed into one relatively small room. Works are not allowed
to breath, you cannot “experience” one material without another
lingering in the periphery.<br />
Andre famously remarked that as Tuner severed colour from depiction,
so he wanted to sever material from form. And yet, responding to a
question (in a video about the exhibition on the TC website) about his
choice of materials Andre confesses that economics is the main fact as
“there’s usually a budget involved”. What was a tediously forced link
with Turner (because the gallery bears his name, because of a tenuous
link between the artist and Margate…sigh) turns out to expose a major
inconsistency in Andre’s oeuvre. Are the materials important or does he
just go with what is available? Is the space around the artworks
important, or does he just cram in as much work as possible?<br />
Rosa Barba is not a minimalist but she is an excellent example of
Andre’s legacy in contemporary art. At first glance we can instantly
identify her show as having all the ingredients of a first rate
contemporary art exhibition. It is well laid out with plenty of space
between works, just as Andre’s should have been. In fact, it is puzzling
that so much space was given over to Barba at the expense of the
better-known Andre. The exhibition can broadly be described as
sculptural video installation. Sculptures are made out of celluloid
film, sometimes moving, run by small motors. There is a nostalgic cool
about old film projectors and I am often surprised by how this
continually captures the imagination of my students. In their case, it
is a cheap medium to play with: old, broken, projectors and used or out
of date film can easily be found at car boot fayres or from <i>Freecycle</i>.
Barba does seem to be operating in the same way “playing” with the
medium but she goes beyond this simply in terms of display. Everything
is exquisitely made – the fittings, the “vitrines” that house some
sculptures. Her three largest pieces – a floor to ceiling laser cut text
with a movie projector casting a beautiful shadow onto the wall behind
it and, in the other room, text on several moving celluloid moving films
and a large projected film – are all installed in a manner that would
make Donald Judd proud. The back projected film falls on a large screen
set in the centre of the room which reeks of minimalist cool.<br />
But what about the content of the film? We are told that it was
filmed in Manchester and Kent because…it will be exhibited in Manchester
and Kent (sigh…). The propensity for linking everything to TC’s
geographical location, or through this to Turner himself, is becoming
evermore disappointing and unoriginal. It seems that artists are forced
to make connections that seem, well… forced. Carl Andre’s only
connection was through the quotation about Turner but one has to wonder
about his commitment to a show in which he is in included (because of a
sound-bite nod to Turner?) only to be crammed into one room. Perhaps the
allure of his first UK solo exhibition in a public gallery for 10 years
was too much? As with Andre, it’s all about the display to the
detriment of the content for Barba. In the same film about the
exhibition I mentioned above, Barba dodges a question from a kind of
focus group about the show (a way of engaging with the “locals” and to
prove that TC has value through social and economic regeneration) by
admitting that she doesn’t have all the answers. Why? Because there are
no answers. As with Carl Andre, Barba is “not a conceptual artist” and
there are certainly no mysteries (mathematical of otherwise) behind her
work at all. Simply, what you see is what you get.<br />
Barba deconstructs the physical elements of film, but to what end? We
are supposed to consider the end of the industrial age and the
transition to the digital age and Barba’s film refers to Manchester as
being the first industrial metropolis (debatable) and Margate as being
emblematic of the seaside holiday industry that sprung up as a result. I
see Barba’s deconstructed use of celluloid and light as being vacuous.
Intrigue with antiquated machinery allows for curious play, for a while,
but ultimately reveals nothing. A nostalgic reflection on our
transition through the industrial age maybe, but nothing more. Malaisedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17244765654166612162noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1229078026895306558.post-2495597554950599242012-08-29T14:20:00.000+01:002012-08-29T14:24:15.532+01:00Boris Johnson on why salaries are a luxury<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ArxQbbO6a8c/UD4T3yWWwSI/AAAAAAAABNE/tVGqYb-mdAk/s1600/Boris-johnson.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ArxQbbO6a8c/UD4T3yWWwSI/AAAAAAAABNE/tVGqYb-mdAk/s1600/Boris-johnson.JPG" width="192" /></a></div>
<h2>
"Young Londoners will now have to do 13 weeks unpaid work for their £56 a
week dole money". </h2>
<h3>
Guest Blogger Boris Johnson explains the benefits of unpaid work. </h3>
Reactive from the <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/aug/28/boris-johnson-unpaid-work-young-people?newsfeed=true" target="_blank">left wing press</a> has been predicable in response to my new scheme. In fact, this is excellent news for young Londoners as they will now be
able to gain valuable experience that the country could not otherwise afford to give them. Those who claim that this is 'work', and as such should be paid, are just bleeding heart liberals who don't understand economics. People focus too much on money these days. What's important is that, today, I can
unveil a plan to create 200,000 jobs over the next four years. <br />
<br />
Labour's introduction of the minimum wage has been disastrous for this country - I mean, what business can afford to pay £6.08 per hour in the current climate? That's £228 a week, £912 per month or potentially a massive £10,000 per year for a full time temp! We're just not competitive any more. <br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
(Chris) Grayling took a swipe at the Labour party and those campaigning against
"workfare". "The usual suspects will cry 'slave labour''. They always
do. But they are the people who believe that young claimants have the
right to sit at home playing computer games. I simply disagree." </blockquote>
<br />
I agree with Chris Grayling - we must end this "something for nothing" culture. It's long overdue for good, honest, businesses to be able to employ these people - without having to pay them. The rise in tuition fees and repeal of EMA should ensure there are plenty of young people available for the new 'workfare' scheme. <br />
<br />
Working Class 'pride' now seems laughable. Unless you are generating wealth for the economy, you are a <i>drag</i> on the economy. Thank God we deregulated the City in the 80s - the bankers are the only ones who contribute anything nowadays. <br />
<h4>
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson is the Mayor of London. He was born in New York and educated at the European School in Brussels before attending Eton and Oxford University. His father is employed by the World Bank. </h4>
<br />
<br />Malaisedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17244765654166612162noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1229078026895306558.post-53609680773264819042012-08-21T16:51:00.002+01:002012-08-21T16:51:36.744+01:00On Militant Art: Part 4 - Voina<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="tr_bq">
</div>
<h2>
</h2>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Voina: "Dick in FSB Captivity"</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Gavin Grindon claimed that most <i>Art
Activism</i> merely mimics activism in a "context without consequences". He
also tells us that at while <i>Art Activism</i> is currently very popular,
drawing down funding and support from liberal art institutions, it is
also being criminalised and excluded as 'terrorist' by political
establishments: the legal definition of 'terrorism' being extended to include non-violent civil disobedience: the 'eco-terrorist' for example (<i>Art Monthly</i> 2010 #333 pp 9-12). Art Activism sits in a difficult position: if it merely re-presents social conflict in a gallery setting, or within the gallery system, it can come across as just playing with real, big issues and have no real impact. On the other hand, as Boris Groys points out (Art Power 2008), if art becomes embroiled in politics and creating social change it risks becoming mere activism (and losing the 'art'). The <i>Voina art collective</i> raises the question of how contemporary practice can straddle this boundary of making socio-political art with an impact that can also be judged aesthetically - 'as art'. </div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Voina (which means "War" in Russian) is a Russian art collective, founded in 2006 by husband and wife Oleg Vorotnikov and Natalia Sokol. Other key members include 'Preseident' Leonid Nikolayev and Alexei Plutser-Sarno (AKA Plucer). <b> <span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></b><b><span style="font-weight: normal;">As with previous examples</span></b><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"> of </span></b><b><span style="font-weight: normal;">militant art on this blog, Voina operate in the Dadaist tradition.</span></b><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"> Examples of their performances include:</span></b></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-N1F-Z6dAOyI/UDNbFhDQ1RI/AAAAAAAABJo/KPCisltmP_w/s1600/2.+VOINA_Chicken+Pussy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-N1F-Z6dAOyI/UDNbFhDQ1RI/AAAAAAAABJo/KPCisltmP_w/s320/2.+VOINA_Chicken+Pussy.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">How to snatch a chicken: the tale of how one cunt fed all of Voina</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
a live public orgy at the State Biological Museum to mock the election of Dmitry Medvedev;<b> <span style="font-weight: normal;">a </span></b>180-foot-high projection of a skull-and-crossbones on the
exterior of Russia's parliament; theft of a supermarket chicken by inserting it into a member's vagina; flipping police cars over; setting fire to a prison transport van; and painting an enormous cock on a
drawbridge facing a police building (formerly the KGB Head Quarters) in St. Petersburg. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
One of Voina's supporters, the radical curator Andrei V. Yerofeyev, was fined... </div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
for "inciting religious hatred" in connection with a show of "Forbidden Art" he co-curated Moscow's Sakharov Museum [...] In 2009, Voina had stormed the court when charges were brought against him. Assuming the persona of a band called <i>Cock in the Ass</i>, Voina members performed a raucous punk song titled "All Cops are Bastards" in court as a theatrical gesture of solidarity with Yerofeyev and his co-defendant. (<a href="http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/37437/police-baiting-penis-graffiti-by-radical-voina-collective-wins-14k-russian-innovation-prize/" target="_blank">Art Info</a>)</blockquote>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cock in Ass</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
This, no doubt, reminds us of a more familiar political protest in Russia (due to the current high levels of media coverage): that of the female Punk Band <a href="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/e4fbca60-eab7-11e1-984b-00144feab49a.html#axzz24Ab8vkyr" target="_blank">Pussy Riot</a>
who have been sentenced for two years for performing a protest song
(which may have featured bad language and anti-Putin sentiments) in a
cathedral. Voina, despite their more radical stunts, have so far evaded such harsh sentences. Two members, imprisoned for their role in <i>Palace Revolution</i> (where they up-turned Police cars in St. Petersburg) were released in March after <i><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11982984" target="_blank">Banksy</a> </i>rasied their £90K bail money from an online auction of his work. The BBC described "Palace Revolution" as involving:</div>
<blockquote>
...31 activists; five to do the heavy lifting, while the rest filmed what was happening, acted as lookouts and distracted the police by pretending to be lost tourists.(<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11982984" target="_blank">BBC</a>)</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
While Grindon draws our attention to the use of anti-terrorist laws against the likes of <i>Green Peace</i>, with the likes of Pussy Riot and Voina<i> </i>we
have seen charges of political, racial, religious or ideological hatred
levied at the artists (you know you're in trouble when they pull that one out...
it's like health and safety... no one feels they have the authority to
challenge it). Just making a protest wouldn't get Pussy Riot put
in prison - but if the protest (in a cathedral) were to be interpreted
as being motivated by religious hatred... This is the danger of puritan
attitudes towards Islamophobia - suddenly a comment or action can be
exacerbated and you can be attacked as an extremist
(extremist/terrorist, it doesn't matter which). This is worrying indeed
as we are already in a situation where only a very narrow spectrum of
political ideologies is deemed acceptable - in the US 'Liberal' is a
dirty word on a par with 'communist' nearly (imagine the horror!). In
the UK we have no real left wing parties anymore (you can't really call
Respect a party and Labour/Lib Dems are committed free-marketeers),
while on the right UKIP are considered acceptable (just about). The lack
of democratic representation drives people towards the English Defense
League, British National Party (although they've recently taken a
kicking) or the National Front. </div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Voina are currently on the run. Although they are wanted by <i>Interpol</i>, they managed to co-curate this year's <a href="http://universes-in-universe.org/eng/bien/berlin_biennial/2012" target="_blank">Berlin Biennale</a> with Artur Żmijewski, who organised
political actions for the Biennale supporting causes including freeing Belarus’ political
prisoners, the Occupy Movement, and opposing the recent international arrest warrants issued
for Oleg Vornikov and Natalia Sokol. </div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
So, how do Voina address Grindon's accusation that art activism cannot "make a difference" and/or Groys's position that if it does "make a difference" it risks losing its status as art? </div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Take the example of fire-bombing a Police transport: this is clearly a militant and illegal activity. It is, perhaps, more easily accepted as<strong style="font-weight: normal;"> activism than art. Voina member Alexei Plutser-Sarno explains that </strong>by burning it the group “stirred up discussion” in the entire country [... and that such] actions are an adequate reaction to all those batteries, tortures and
arrests of innocent people, to the situation when thousands of political
prisoners are kept in jails all over the country.” Writing for Art Info (January 2012) <span class="submitted-by t-a-12">Kyle Chayka, Alexander Forbes sum up </span>Voina's position on the definition of art: </div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
the difference between performance art and political
activism is art’s public nature and the importance of laying claim to
your work. “If an activist secretly burns a cop truck at night, it won’t
be art. It will be the revenge of an activist,” Plutser-Sarno wrote.
“But to burn it openly and proclaim to the entire country: ‘I am an
artist. I burned down your prison, symbol of totalitarianism. This
autodafe is our art action,’ then it becomes a piece of art. We made
people discuss it as an artistic action.”(<a href="http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/755205/voina-explains-why-firebombing-a-police-tank-is-a-piece-of-art" target="_blank">Art Info</a>) [Plutser-Sarno is currently in hiding abroad].</blockquote>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-r0pDYHMVgDs/UDOOzMGHRJI/AAAAAAAABKs/sAhNwGzwn8k/s1600/4.+VOINA_Crazy+Leo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-r0pDYHMVgDs/UDOOzMGHRJI/AAAAAAAABKs/sAhNwGzwn8k/s320/4.+VOINA_Crazy+Leo.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Crazy Leo</td></tr>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
This definition is not incompatible with
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US artist Mel Chin who, speaking about his activist art piece <i> Operation Paydirt</i> (which aimed to find a solution for the high lead contamination in the soil surrounding New Orleans) told Claire Bishop that his work can be judged aesthetically and politically as a landscape without lead pollution would be beautiful. Another action at first seems less militant and more Dadaist. Leonid (crazy Leo) Nikolayev climbs onto a police car with a blue bucket on his head "to protest against the widespread use of blue emergency lights by
officials who cannot be bothered to sit in Moscow traffic jams" (<a href="http://www.blogger.com/to%20protest%20against%20the%20widespread%20use%20of%20blue%20emergency%20lights%20by%20officials%20http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11982984" target="_blank">BBC</a>). He then runs blind down busy streets trying to avoid arrest: a police officer pulls the bucket off his head only to reveal another, smaller, blue bucket. This may seem comical and absurd (and it is) but it also fits into an anarchist tradition in that it challenges authority and by 'doing' helps others to see that we can be more free, live without fear and be braver. </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-vnKJhcJ5jp0/UDOgry1oE8I/AAAAAAAABLI/IAAGnvrE9Vg/s1600/9.+VOINA_Decembrists+Commemoration-Public+Execution+in+the+Supermarket.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-vnKJhcJ5jp0/UDOgry1oE8I/AAAAAAAABLI/IAAGnvrE9Vg/s320/9.+VOINA_Decembrists+Commemoration-Public+Execution+in+the+Supermarket.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Decembrists Commemoration: Public Execution in the Supermarket</td></tr>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;">There</span> are many more examples which I do not have the time to recount here (but videos can be seen on <a href="http://plucer.livejournal.com/266853.html" target="_blank">Plucer's own blog</a>). Here are a few of the more outrageous stunts. Judge for yourselves, but we here at Malaised feel that Voina are one of the most ground-breaking and cutting edge performance art activists in the world right now:<br />
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In <i>Decembrists Commemoration</i> Voina staged the mock lynching of five people in Moscow's largest supermarket. The five victims represented Jews, Central Asian Immigrants, and homosexuals - "a special gift to the Russian corrupted authorities, who incite homophobia, misanthropy and anti-Semitism; as a result the killings of Central Asians guest workers [...] have become an everyday reality in Russia." (<a href="http://plucer.livejournal.com/266853.html" target="_blank">Plucer</a>). Of course, the action was also to remind Russians of the libertarian ideals of the country’s first revolutionists - the five 'Decembrists' hanged in 1826. </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cop in a cassock</td></tr>
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Also in a supermarket a Voina member dressed in a police uniform covered by a Russian Orthodox cassock and large cross, shoplifted alcohol and food "with the impunity enjoyed by priests and cops in today’s Russia". Following on with another large corporation in the food industry Voina stormed McDonald's hurling stray cats behind the counter "As a result the fast-food products were spoilt, hungry cats – fed". </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mordovian Hour</td></tr>
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Two days before the election of Dmitry Medvedev, Voina staged a live public orgy at the State Museum of Biology. '</div>
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While five couples were copulating, the Voina chief media artist Alexei Plutser-Sarno, wearing a tuxedo and a top-hat, was holding a black pre-electoral banner reading "Fuck for the Heir - Medvedev’s little Bear! [...] in Russia everyone fucks each other and the little president looks at it with delight". Voina mocked the farcical and pornographic elections in the country, as Medvedev just inherited the V. Putin's presidential throne". </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Vkl1h51XFxU/UDOroXRvK7I/AAAAAAAABMI/ty9w12-3GnE/s1600/16.+VOINA_Fuck-in-the-Museum_web.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Vkl1h51XFxU/UDOroXRvK7I/AAAAAAAABMI/ty9w12-3GnE/s400/16.+VOINA_Fuck-in-the-Museum_web.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fuck for the Heir - Medvedev’s little Bear!</td></tr>
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Further reading:</h4>
<a href="http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/755205/voina-explains-why-firebombing-a-police-tank-is-a-piece-of-art">http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/755205/voina-explains-why-firebombing-a-police-tank-is-a-piece-of-art</a><br />
<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11982984">http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11982984</a><br />
<a href="http://plucer.livejournal.com/531761.html#cutid1">http://plucer.livejournal.com/531761.html#cutid1</a><br />
<a href="http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/38894/escape-artist-wanted-voina-art-anarchist-outfoxes-russian-police-again-fleeing-on-his-bike/">http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/38894/escape-artist-wanted-voina-art-anarchist-outfoxes-russian-police-again-fleeing-on-his-bike/</a><br />
<a href="http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/37437/police-baiting-penis-graffiti-by-radical-voina-collective-wins-14k-russian-innovation-prize/">http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/37437/police-baiting-penis-graffiti-by-radical-voina-collective-wins-14k-russian-innovation-prize/</a> <br />
<a href="http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/36573/banksy-bankrolls-jailed-russian-art-anarchists/">http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/36573/banksy-bankrolls-jailed-russian-art-anarchists/</a><br />
<a href="http://plucer.livejournal.com/266853.html">http://plucer.livejournal.com/266853.html</a><br />
<a href="http://www.animalnewyork.com/2011/voina-oleg-not-arrested-but-internationally-wanted/">http://www.animalnewyork.com/2011/voina-oleg-not-arrested-but-internationally-wanted/</a>Malaisedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17244765654166612162noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1229078026895306558.post-15949966383490125012012-08-19T16:29:00.001+01:002012-08-19T19:57:47.564+01:00The Aesthetics of Assange<div style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-qYiMoXm_6eA/UDE0L-cya-I/AAAAAAAABD8/rTvug8KZsuc/s1600/Julain+Assange+Julian+Assange+addresses+the+crowd+outside+the+Ecuadorian+Embassy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-qYiMoXm_6eA/UDE0L-cya-I/AAAAAAAABD8/rTvug8KZsuc/s400/Julain+Assange+Julian+Assange+addresses+the+crowd+outside+the+Ecuadorian+Embassy.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Julian Assange addresses the crowd outside the Ecuadorian embassy today</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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Julian Assange appeared in public today, for the first time in 61 days. A
small group of pro-Assange protesters lined the pavement opposite the
Ecuadorian embassy where Assange is claiming asylum and the rest of the
surrounding streets were taken up with a large police presence, press
and tourists. The atmosphere was friendly but excited as the Met Police
helicopter circled overhead (presumably to help catch Assange should he
make a bolt for it). A few diplomatic cars with blacked out windows sped
away and one person in the crowd commented "that's it, he's gone". But
he wasn't gone. He did appear, slightly later than his advertised 2pm
slot, on a balcony - just out of reach from the police (both physically
and legally). <br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-qgVHus4qLm8/UDE0LOeYgqI/AAAAAAAABD4/3AljaPHn7_U/s1600/Freedom+of+Speech+protestor+outside+Ecuadorian+embassy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-qgVHus4qLm8/UDE0LOeYgqI/AAAAAAAABD4/3AljaPHn7_U/s320/Freedom+of+Speech+protestor+outside+Ecuadorian+embassy.jpg" width="320" /></a>But what does this mean in aesthetic terms? Assange knows better than
anyone that since around 9-11 we have entered into a Bond Movie. The
(seemingly) loan baddie Osama takes on America and the West in a daring
terrorist attack, unbelievably hitting the Pentagon and the WTC. Then
some of his henchmen hit the media: a one eyed man with hooks for hands
called Abu, a man who decapitates statues with a razor-tipped top hat
and another man who releases all the world's secrets via the Internet...
you can't make it up. <br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nS0jiwEx0YE/UDE0OVyvOcI/AAAAAAAABEU/ECcq5vOK8pw/s1600/Met+Police+outside+Ecuadorian+embassy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nS0jiwEx0YE/UDE0OVyvOcI/AAAAAAAABEU/ECcq5vOK8pw/s200/Met+Police+outside+Ecuadorian+embassy.jpg" width="200" /></a><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-DfZ78YHi9sg/UDE0JDZrRcI/AAAAAAAABDo/eZ_9CP9Ufms/s1600/Assange+Protest_Ecuadorian+Embassy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-DfZ78YHi9sg/UDE0JDZrRcI/AAAAAAAABDo/eZ_9CP9Ufms/s200/Assange+Protest_Ecuadorian+Embassy.jpg" width="200" /></a><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-IVbg6XwtDNY/UDE0NXvw3kI/AAAAAAAABEM/tJtlQ48zRQE/s1600/Met+Police+outside+Ecuadorian+embassy+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-IVbg6XwtDNY/UDE0NXvw3kI/AAAAAAAABEM/tJtlQ48zRQE/s200/Met+Police+outside+Ecuadorian+embassy+2.jpg" width="200" /></a>The great American intellectual George W. Bush, during his presidency, simplified the <i>War on Terror</i>
that followed for us, by explaining that "you are either with us or
against us" and often adding that the terrorists' motives were simply
that that "hate freedom". With Assange though there is a problem, to
invoke Spinal Tap: there's a bit too much fucking freedom if you ask me.
In fact Assange has crowned himself price of truth and freedom - how
can we fight against that? This reminds me of George W's response to the
Yes Men's prank website www.gwbush.com and the satirical campaign "Yes
Bush Can!" that followed in the run up to the 2000 election. While the
website was only intended to highlight hypocrisies on the real Bush
website George W didn't like it at all. In fact he said that they had
gone too far and that there should be limits on freedom of speech
(imagine Spitting Image being taken to court...) At the same time as the
Assange case we has <i>Pussy Riot</i> beginning their 2 year prison
sentence for... well, playing an anti-Putin Punk protest song in a
cathedral. I guess the church could be pissed about trespass (although
I'm pretty sure they're supposed to forgive trespasses) and maybe not
Punk fans but guess what? The Russian Orthodox Church called for
clemency! So who prosecuted? And for what? It's a joke. You might be
able to convince me that they broke a law but a two year custodial
sentence? We all know this is about Putin sending out a message:
criticise me, and you'll end up in prison. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-PpEoUgg1SZI/UDE0KOQY43I/AAAAAAAABDw/HqyNt0i1qLA/s1600/Diplomatic+Car+leaves+Ecuadorian+Embassy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-PpEoUgg1SZI/UDE0KOQY43I/AAAAAAAABDw/HqyNt0i1qLA/s320/Diplomatic+Car+leaves+Ecuadorian+Embassy.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">One of two diplomatic vehicles (with blacked-out rear windows) leaves the embassy unchallenged</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ciMZ3az7D4Q/UDE0PD9jnCI/AAAAAAAABEg/WQhzSQ1DPrs/s1600/Met+Police+outside+Harrods.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ciMZ3az7D4Q/UDE0PD9jnCI/AAAAAAAABEg/WQhzSQ1DPrs/s320/Met+Police+outside+Harrods.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Meat wagons line up outside Harrods</td></tr>
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This makes it very difficult to call for limits on freedom of speech
without sounding like a right wing fanatic. But I reckon there should be
limits. Surely releasing defence plans (read "weaknesses") is
irresponsible. We are operating in an information age vulnerable to
cyber attack but old school defence has always guarded its secrets -
think of the Cold War or even Bletchley Park. Certain information in the
wrong hands can cost lives. <br />
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Back to aesthetics and we can now see that Assange is evoking cinema (Bond baddies), music (Punk and protest songs in general) and art (specifically protest art and culture jamming in the Yes Men!). He was also evoking Eva Perón through the manner of his address. I also feel the white hair adds an element of Bond baddie and the French-sounding name coupled with the Australian-British(?) identity adds a kind of suave debonair sophistication also found in Bond movies. Furthermore Assange appears to have made the US and UK act as if it is they who are in a Bond movie. Cold War era espionage and trickery are back on the table. Do they really think we are so stupid that we won't see through these sexual assault "accusations"? Anyone with half a brain cell can see it's a set up. Just as anyone with an ounce of moral fibre or sense of justice can see that <i>Pussy Riot</i> have been fitted up: it's political. But I have a solution: Assange should offer to stand trial, in Sweden, in absentia. He could appear via video link. If found guilty he should give himself up and serve the sentence, if not in Sweden then in the UK or Ecuador even. Surely the UK couldn't object to him being moved from the embassy if he were going to prison? (whether in Sweden or elsewhere). <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-qlJAZkLeCJQ/UDE0RDYIutI/AAAAAAAABEw/hl4TjpI2sLw/s1600/Metropolitan+Police+Helicopter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-qlJAZkLeCJQ/UDE0RDYIutI/AAAAAAAABEw/hl4TjpI2sLw/s320/Metropolitan+Police+Helicopter.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Met Police Helicopter presumably waiting to track Assange should he make a run for it!</td></tr>
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So, aesthetically, we can expect the UK or US government to poison Assange by ascertaining only he in the embassy eats a certain food product (Vegemite I expect), or kill him with a poison blow-dart the next time he appears on the balcony. Perhaps Assange will evade the blow-dart and escape to Ecuador on a jet-pack? Assange could be said to have brought issues of freedom of speech and the policing of the Internet into the public conscious and debate and artistically this could be seen as operating in the same mould as the <i>Yes Men </i>and many others (see my posts on Militant Art for examples). </div>
Malaisedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17244765654166612162noreply@blogger.com0Ecuadorian Embassy, 3 Hans Crescent, London, Greater London SW1X 0LS, UK51.499131 -0.161264451.489246 -0.1810054 51.509015999999995 -0.1415234tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1229078026895306558.post-14340647738882820712012-08-13T13:45:00.000+01:002012-08-13T15:58:53.019+01:00Thomas Bresolin: Сучьи войны (Bitch war)<div style="text-align: justify;">
Following on from our post about Chris Burden, Martin Lang makes a connection between Burden and a contemporary artist who inflicts violence on himself, on others and encourages others
to inflict violence on him. For 'Bitch War' Bresolin carried out an
eight-day hunger strike culminating with a performance in which he was
force-fed (see the video below). </div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/Ut7gc0bRvqg?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe> </div>
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Read Martin's full review on a-n online <a href="http://www.a-n.co.uk/interface/reviews/single/2375364" target="_blank">here</a> (or see below) to find out how he links Bresolinand Burden and how he thinks Bresolin's eight-day hunger strike was not out of solidarity for prisoners, but for starving artists.</div>
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Malaisedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17244765654166612162noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1229078026895306558.post-7255273165622696112012-06-25T18:10:00.001+01:002012-06-25T19:03:32.350+01:00On Militant Art: Part 3 - Chris Burden<style>
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<br />
<h2 class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 2;">
<b><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 24pt; letter-spacing: 0pt;">Chris Burden</span></b><b><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 18pt; letter-spacing: 0pt;"></span></b></h2>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times; letter-spacing: 0pt;">Chris Burden is an American artist working in installation
and sculpture but he is best known for his performances. Burden is a useful
example as, although he might be recognised as violent, he is not immediately thought
of as “militant”. By way of example he
allows us to question what Militant Art is.
He is also a useful example of the aesthetic ancestry of Militant Art. </span></span></div>
<h3 class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 2;">
<b><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 18pt; letter-spacing: 0pt;">1970s Performances</span></b></h3>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-cdjQaQHYBXA/T-iWkuvg0AI/AAAAAAAAA_o/ofeJ8F8lEC0/s1600/burden_sh.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="244" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-cdjQaQHYBXA/T-iWkuvg0AI/AAAAAAAAA_o/ofeJ8F8lEC0/s320/burden_sh.gif" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Shoot (1971)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1pm5U0Zs-mc/T-iVzw5BPgI/AAAAAAAAA_Y/mLd8uB30z6s/s1600/burden6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1pm5U0Zs-mc/T-iVzw5BPgI/AAAAAAAAA_Y/mLd8uB30z6s/s320/burden6.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Transfixed (1974)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-crfQVGHR2LU/T-iV2nY3bVI/AAAAAAAAA_g/C1t7Q0fZ_Lw/s1600/burden7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-crfQVGHR2LU/T-iV2nY3bVI/AAAAAAAAA_g/C1t7Q0fZ_Lw/s320/burden7.jpg" width="96" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">747 (1973)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 10pt; letter-spacing: 0pt;">During the early to mid 1970s Chris Burden made a series of
violent and controversial performances that helped to define the genre of
performance art. He is perhaps most
famous for his 1971 performance “Shoot” in which an assistant, from 5 metres,
shot him in the arm with a .22 rifle. In
“Transfixed” (1974) he was nailed to a Beetle car, as if crucified. The car was driven out of the garage, revved
for a couple of minutes and then taken back in.
For “Deadman” (1972) he lay, completely covered by a tarpaulin, on La
Cienega Boulevard in LA with two fifteen minute flares placed nearby to warn
cars (Burden was arrested and charged for this performance but acquitted when
the jury failed to reach a verdict). In
1973 the FBI questioned him after he fired several shots at a Boeing 747 as it took
off from Los Angeles International Airport (he was out of range at the time so
the FBI decided not to press charges). </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<br /></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 10pt; letter-spacing: 0pt;">"747. January 5, 1973. Los Angeles, California. At
about 8am at a beach near the Los Angeles International Airport, I fired
several shots with a pistol at a Boeing 747." Chris Burden (BLOCNOTES
editions, 1995).</span></div>
</blockquote>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 10pt; letter-spacing: 0pt;">Works such as these are violent, but what makes them
militant? How is shooting at an aeroplane not an act of militancy? Burden’s cold-blooded description (above)
leads us to believe that it was a purely formalist action, not politically
motivated. He later spoke of how the work was not about shooting a plane but
about impotence, about the bullet never reaching its target, but this too could
be read politically. Do actions need to
be politically motivated in order to be militant? Or do Burden’s artworks, in fact, bear a
message? </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ZEGWJtBNqAc/T-iVkTlNSYI/AAAAAAAAA-w/AqHQQNjSZW4/s1600/burden1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="232" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ZEGWJtBNqAc/T-iVkTlNSYI/AAAAAAAAA-w/AqHQQNjSZW4/s400/burden1.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 10pt; letter-spacing: 0pt;">White Light/White Heat (1975)</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 10pt; letter-spacing: 0pt;">In “White Light/White Heat” (1975) Burden placed himself on
a triangular platform, at about ten feet above the floor and two feet below the
ceiling, in the corner of the Ronald Feldman Gallery…and there he remained for
22 days. During the entire performance
Burden did not eat, talk or come down.
He did not see anyone, and no one saw him. The performance built on “Bed Piece”, in
which Burden stayed in Bed for 22 days (but did eat and get up to go to the
toilet – when the gallery was closed) and “Five Day Locker Piece” (1971) in
which Burden locked himself in a college locker for 5 days.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 10pt; letter-spacing: 0pt;">Visitors to the “White Light/White Heat” exhibition spoke
about feeling his presence, although none saw him and few heard him. As the
viewer waits and listens their experience of the room and its sounds is
heightened. Who would have known if he had died? </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 10pt; letter-spacing: 0pt;">This work can be seen as a critique on religion, with
Burden playing the role of the invisible God “up above”. One can also draw parallels with Saint Simeon Stylites, the<b> </b>Christian
who lived on a pillar for 37 years.
Mortification of the flesh; fasting; voluntary seclusion; trial by
ordeal, Burden presented the trappings of Sainthood. Although the title of the exhibition came
from a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Velvet Underground</i> song it
also carried religious significance and his previous exhibition was entitled
“The Church of Human Energy”. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 10pt; letter-spacing: 0pt;">Burden has a longer track record
of religious iconography in his work.
For “Jaizu” (1972) he was dressed in white and wore dark sunglasses
while he sat, motionless, in a director’s chair for two days while viewers
contemplated him while seated on cushions.
In 1974’s “Transfixed” he was literally crucified on a VW Beetle. </span><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 10pt; letter-spacing: 0pt;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 10pt; letter-spacing: 0pt;">By presenting a vacuum, in “White
Light/White Heat” Burden was able to elicit thoughts from the audience. Such thoughts may indeed have turned to
religion, or they may have reflected on the IRA members who were on the seventh
week of their hunger strike at the time, and clearly prepared to die for their
cause. If a political motive is needed to be called “militant” then perhaps Burden’s motive is to get people
to think. By evoking religious iconography such as exclusion and fasting perhaps Burden asks us if we too should reconsider our consumerist lifestyles. If this is the case, then Burden does have a political message and the
fact that he is prepared to </span><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 10pt; letter-spacing: 0pt;">break the law
(Dead Man, 747, Cole to Newcastle); risk his personal safety (Shoot, Dead Man);
and that he displays a militaristic, fanatical approach to endurance (White
Light/White Heat, Locker Piece) means that at the very least his methods do indeed echo elements
similar to those of a militant. </span></div>
<h3 class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 2;">
<b><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 18pt; letter-spacing: 0pt;">Tracing Militant Art’s Aesthetic Ancestry</span></b></h3>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-YUJU0t5OuwI/T-iVta3Ky7I/AAAAAAAAA_I/Oh54Khgri5w/s1600/burden4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-YUJU0t5OuwI/T-iVta3Ky7I/AAAAAAAAA_I/Oh54Khgri5w/s320/burden4.jpg" width="223" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 10pt; letter-spacing: 0pt;">During his undergraduate course Burden made two giant,
outdoor, tunnels – essentially like poly-tunnels. His tutors, who were advocates of Minimalist
Art, were an influence on him at the time.
Burden’s tunnels failed on two counts.
Firstly, they were vandalised; this led Burden to live in them during
their exhibition, in order to protect them.
Secondly, wind cause one wall to cave in, which had the knock on effect
of drawing in the opposite wall – by way of vacuum; you couldn’t walk down the
tunnel as the walls collapsed in on you.
However, Burden noticed that if you ran down the tunnel you made an air
pocket: the tunnel opened up in front of you and closed behind. This led Burden to consider interactive art
involving the “viewer” who would henceforth become the “participant”. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 10pt; letter-spacing: 0pt;">Burden’s performances have a direct link to sculpture
through minimalism and, I am claiming, Militant Art has an artistic heritage
leading back to sculpture through performance art. Militant Art groups such as <a href="http://www.malaised.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/on-militant-art-part-1.html" target="_blank">Black Mask </a>and
<a href="http://www.malaised.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/on-militant-art-part-2-king-mob.html" target="_blank">King Mob</a> have cited Dada, Futurism, Surrealism as influences so Militant Art
should therefore be seen as expression drawing on these artistic histories. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<h4>
Further Reading: </h4>
<a href="http://juleswidmayer.wordpress.com/2009/11/19/intro-to-chris-burden/">http://juleswidmayer.wordpress.com/2009/11/19/intro-to-chris-burden/</a><br />
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<a href="http://toobbox.com/playlist/chris-burden">http://toobbox.com/playlist/chris-burden</a></div>
<span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
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<br />
<br /></div>Malaisedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17244765654166612162noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1229078026895306558.post-89966506482852707022012-06-21T11:37:00.002+01:002012-06-21T11:39:36.196+01:00On Militant Art: Part 2 - King Mob<style>
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<h2 class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-large;">King Mob </span></h2>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-AGAbYqFoudQ/T-LwY0hbl3I/AAAAAAAAA-Q/q_SlHwbSxDA/s1600/51CbDihYKlL._SL500_AA300_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-AGAbYqFoudQ/T-LwY0hbl3I/AAAAAAAAA-Q/q_SlHwbSxDA/s1600/51CbDihYKlL._SL500_AA300_.jpg" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
<h3 class="MsoNormal">
King Mob was a radical English art collective, based in
London, in the 1960s and 70s. They
sought to emphasize the cultural anarchy and disorder that they saw as being
ignored in Britain at the time. </h3>
<h3 class="MsoNormal">
</h3>
<h4 class="MsoNormal">
Aims</h4>
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The brothers David and Stuart Wise (who had studied art in
Newcastle) were the most dominant members of the group from the outset. The
Wise brothers developed a combination of hard-edged politics (Russian nihilism
and texts such as Pisarev’s “The Destruction of Aesthetics” fuelled notions of
value, politics and the lack of a social function in art) and the disruptive
potential of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Dada</i> and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Surrealism</i>. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
After they moved to the Notting Hill area of London, the
brothers came into contact with <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Situationist
International </i>– two of whose members (Chris Gray and Don Smith) joined King
Mob. They also met, and worked with,
John Barker who would later serve a prison sentence for his role in the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Angry Brigade</i> bombings. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h4 class="MsoNormal">
Techniques</h4>
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King Mob used a variety of techniques which could be placed into two categories:</div>
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<br /></div>
<ol>
<li>Writing and propaganda. This included: Graffiti, distribution of flyers, posters and their publication <i>The King Mob Echo</i>. </li>
<li>Direct Action. </li>
</ol>
<h4 class="MsoNormal">
Writing and Propaganda</h4>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Their most famous graffiti slogan appeared as a message mocking commutors on a stretch of the
Hammersmith and City line. IT stayed there for several years, surviving until the 1990s (see below). <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> </b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
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<b>Same thing day after
day- tube - work - dinner - work - tube - armchair - TV - sleep - tube - work
-how much more can you take? - one in ten go mad, one in five cracks up</b></div>
</blockquote>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-OFW6YQKCTZg/T-Lpsqt7KNI/AAAAAAAAA94/yx6DxUVJyps/s1600/kingmob.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-OFW6YQKCTZg/T-Lpsqt7KNI/AAAAAAAAA94/yx6DxUVJyps/s1600/kingmob.jpg" /></a></div>
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</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
In
fact, King Mob took their name from a piece of graffiti that appeared on
Newgate prison during the 1780 Gordon riots.
Rioters smeared the walls of the prison with the phrase “His Majesty
King Mob” after having gutted the prison itself. King Mob planned to paint Wordsworth’s house with the slogan
“Coleridge Lives” but never realised this act. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-God5uiSMqgw/T-LwlOIjcBI/AAAAAAAAA-Y/SGoHWpZn55Y/s1600/kingmob350.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-God5uiSMqgw/T-LwlOIjcBI/AAAAAAAAA-Y/SGoHWpZn55Y/s320/kingmob350.jpg" width="228" /></a>King Mob used posters and their publication <i>The</i> <i>King Mob Echo</i> to
disseminate their political beliefs.
These publications sparked controversy by applauding murderers such as
Jack the Ripper, Mary Bell, and John Christie. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
They even went as far as to
celebrate Valerie Solanas' 1968 shooting of Andy Warhol and to include a
hit-list of several celebrities: Yoko Ono, Mick Jagger, Bob Dylan, Richard
Hamilton, Mario Amaya (who was also shot by Solanas), David Hockney, Mary
Quant, Twiggy, Marianne Faithfull, and IT editor Barry Miles. Their publications were satirical and
featured cartoon characters such as Andy Capp and the Bash Street Kids (from
the Beano). </div>
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</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-3UwdNcZ3O4E/T-LpudkNyUI/AAAAAAAAA-A/hZwxrXZLYA0/s1600/king_mob_anti_culture_publication_0.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-3UwdNcZ3O4E/T-LpudkNyUI/AAAAAAAAA-A/hZwxrXZLYA0/s320/king_mob_anti_culture_publication_0.jpg" width="228" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 85%;">Front cover graphic from a
King Mob anti-art diatribe, circa 1968. Anonymous. Courtesy Tate
archive. A dancing skeleton holding a burning torch captioned "anarchy"
and wearing a sash captioned "communism", unfurls a scroll labeled "Mob
Law", upon which is written a message from King Mob encapsulating the
group’s ideas regarding culture - "the commodity which helps sell all
the others".</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<h4 class="MsoNormal">
Direct Action</h4>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Some of King Mob’s other ambitious, and
unrealised, plans included blowing up a waterfall in the Lake District and hanging
peacocks in a London park. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
One infamous stunt that was executed was a critique on the ownership of public and private space that saw the group, dressed as gorillas and
pantomime horses, storm a private west London park and tear down its gating
in order to open the park up as a children’s play ground. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
A strong case can be made that King Mob's use of direct action was influenced by Black Mask. In the 1960s King Mob spent time with Black Mask’s Ben Morea
and co-signed at least one statement by <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Up
Against the Wall Motherfucker!</i> In a
1967 anti-war rally the group was able to storm the Pentagon (which led to a
severe beating). Militant acts such as
these distinguished King Mob and Black Mask from the intellectual French
Situationists and the British Situationist support for Morea led to their
expulsion from Situationist International.
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Like Morea’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Motherfuckers</i>,
King Mob was more extreme than, and suspicious of, most other “radicals”. They were often an unwelcome presence at
events for example: during the famous Hornsey Art College occupation they were thrown out
for mocking the level of debate. At the LSE occupation, student leaders removed their sexually explicit posters. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Inspired by Black Mask's "mill-in at Macy's", twenty five members of King
Mob stormed London's Selfridges, with one member, dressed as Father
Christmas, to distribute all of the store's toys to children. The police were
called and forced the children to return the toys. King Mob claimed they were not as radical as
Father Christmas, as "he breaks into people’s houses". </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
King Mob's legacy includes their influence on Malcolm McLaren, who claimed to have been at the Selfridges event, and apparently adapted
their Situationist models in the promotion of the Sex Pistols. </div>
<h4 class="MsoNormal">
</h4>
<h4 class="MsoNormal">
Further Reading:</h4>
<div class="block block-tate-blocks block-series block-tate-blocks-series even block-without-title" id="block-tate-blocks-series" style="color: black;">
<div class="block-inner clearfix">
<div class="content clearfix">
<div class="field field-name-field-in-series-article field-type-node-reference field-label-hidden">
<div class="field-items">
<div class="field-item even">
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.tate.org.uk/context-comment/articles/mob-who-shouldnt-really-be-here" target="_blank">http://www.tate.org.uk/context-comment/articles/mob-who-shouldnt-really-be-here</a></li>
<li><a href="http://art-for-a-change.com/blog/2008/09/his-majesty-king-mob.html">http://art-for-a-change.com/blog/2008/09/his-majesty-king-mob.html</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/his-majesty-king-mob/" target="_blank">http://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/his-majesty-king-mob/ </a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.revoltagainstplenty.com/index.php/recent/1-recent/140-stu-wise" target="_blank">http://www.revoltagainstplenty.com/index.php/recent/1-recent/140-stu-wise </a></li>
</ul>
<br /></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
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<div class="block-inner clearfix">
<div class="content clearfix">
</div>
</div>
</div>
<h4 class="MsoNormal">
</h4>
<h4 class="MsoNormal">
</h4>Malaisedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17244765654166612162noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1229078026895306558.post-84474276214347260562012-06-20T10:47:00.003+01:002012-06-21T11:37:49.368+01:00On Militant Art: Part 1 - Black Mask<style>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7OmyJXfQhMs/T-GZnz9NSRI/AAAAAAAAA9g/iTKckF6Hn5A/s1600/blackmask-500x500.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7OmyJXfQhMs/T-GZnz9NSRI/AAAAAAAAA9g/iTKckF6Hn5A/s320/blackmask-500x500.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black;">
Black Mask was a radical
anarchist art collective operating in New York City in the 1960s. They
cited the Futurists and Dada as their only artistic influence. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black;">
They gained notoriety for their
self-titled broadsheet as well as their public actions and demonstrations. Their
first act was to call for the closure of the Museum of Modern Art. Thereafter they disrupted and sabotaged
dozens of art lectures, exhibitions and happenings. The art world fought back; a panel of experts
on Futurism, Dada and Surrealism advertised, throughout the underground press,
a ‘trap for Black Mask’ – in the form of a debate about the true revolutionary
meaning of modern art. Black Mask
responded by printing thousands of plausible, well printed, invitations to a
free party with free music, found, drink, at the same time, place and date at
the ‘ambush’. They distributed the
invites to the homeless and “the hardest bastards they could find” in Harlem
and the Lower Eastside shortly before the ‘ambush’ was scheduled. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-AdU36QoCwpM/T-GaFvgomII/AAAAAAAAA9o/bi5iTA2BI50/s1600/111010_larryfink-05_p465.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-AdU36QoCwpM/T-GaFvgomII/AAAAAAAAA9o/bi5iTA2BI50/s320/111010_larryfink-05_p465.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> (More Photographs from Black Mask's Wall St protest are available at http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/photobooth/2011/10/black-mask-wall-street-1967.html). </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black;">
Coming from a street and gang not middleclass art school,
background the founding members were inspired by the science, elegance and
violence of Futurism and stories such as Marinetti beating up Wyndham Lewis in
a toilet before hanging him by his coat collar on some spiked railings. Black Mask saw value in the looting, arson
and tentative gunplay of the US Race Riots.
The French <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Situationists</i> and
Black Mask were the only whites who realised that the only Americans who <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">had</i> to do something were black
Americans. Black Mask quoted newspaper
clippings from the Race Riots that could be from the London August Riots of
2011:</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div class="MsoQuote" style="color: black;">
‘At times, amidst the scenes of riot and destruction that
made parts of the city look like a battlefield, there was an almost carnival
atmosphere’. </div>
<div class="MsoQuote" style="color: black;">
New York Times 16/7/67</div>
<div class="MsoQuote" style="color: black;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoQuote" style="color: black;">
‘Said Governor Hughes after a tour of the riot-blighted
streets… “The thing that repelled me most was the holiday atmosphere… It’s like
laughing at a funeral”. </div>
<div class="MsoQuote" style="color: black;">
Time 21/7/67</div>
</blockquote>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black;">
Another infamous stunt, The ‘mill-in’ at Macy’s involved
organising large numbers of people to enter the store in small groups posing as
regular shoppers or staff. Their aim was
to cause maximum disruption during the store’s peak business hours in the build
up to Christmas. Activists
systematically moved stock around, stole items, broke items, gave items away
and released animals, such as dogs and cats, into the food department. Even a buzzard was seen terrorising staff in
the China section. Decoy activists
identified themselves with flags and banners but made sure to stand alongside
regular shoppers, who were subsequently roughed up and chucked out by security
and floor staff. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black;">
Black Mask was together from 1967
to late 1968 before reforming as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Up
Against the Wall Motherfuckers</i>. As <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Up Against the Wall Motherfuckers</i> (UATWM) they shot the poet
Kenneth Koch (with blanks) and triggered militant demonstrations at police
stations every time someone was arrested for possession of drugs while at the
same time sending addicts and dealers on phantom searches all over town for
deals that didn’t exist. They
infiltrated the most fashionable bars and cafes to spike the most expensive
drinks and dishes with a variety of drugs. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black;">They objected to the Museum of Modern Art putting on a show
called “Dada, Surrealism and their Heritage’ (the heritage of Rauschenberg
causing offence to the Mother Fuckers).
In response UATWMF organised 400 dropouts to storm the exhibition, on
the night of the private view, screaming obscenities, hurling paint, flour and
smoke bombs. UATWM
were loosely associated with the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Situationist
International</i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">King Mob</i>, and the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Diggers</i>. Their chief goal was the
integration of art in to the political program of anarchist revolution. They
petered out after many of their members were arrested and imprisoned for terms
ranging from 10 days to 10 years.
Fleeing NYC UATWM spread across the states attempting to form their own
individual, independent cells (much like Al-Qaeda). </span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black;">Further Reading:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: blue;">
<a href="http://joaquincienfuegos.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/wall-street-is-war-street-1967.html">http://joaquincienfuegos.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/wall-street-is-war-street-1967.html</a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: blue;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/photobooth/2011/10/black-mask-wall-street-1967.html#ixzz1cq9IufXA">http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/photobooth/2011/10/black-mask-wall-street-1967.html#ixzz1cq9IufXA</a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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<span style="color: black;"> </span><span style="color: blue;"></span></div>Malaisedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17244765654166612162noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1229078026895306558.post-40647672440814095952012-03-20T18:19:00.009+00:002012-03-20T19:11:08.128+00:00Top 10 Contemporary Political Artists: Number 1, Francis Alÿs<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-2IIn3CYf3ZM/T2jBFrcnhdI/AAAAAAAAAmc/LO9-5m7qKzM/s1600/Rotulistas-low+res.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="281" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-2IIn3CYf3ZM/T2jBFrcnhdI/AAAAAAAAAmc/LO9-5m7qKzM/s400/Rotulistas-low+res.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="right"><td class="tr-caption">Rotulistas</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal">I first came across the work of Francis Alÿs in a book about Painting. The work featured was his <i>Rotulistas</i> series (1993-7). For this Alÿs used the tradition of signwriting (commonly used in Mexico, where Alÿs lives) to make comments on individuality, mechanical reproduction, how the mechanical has replaced the artisan, market forces, production value vs. use value, originality, intellectual copyright, authorship, collaboration, ethics, and exploitation. Alÿs produced a series of paintings based on the style of the painted adverts in his local neighbourhood. He then approached various signwriters to make enlarged copies. Once completed Alÿs made a new body of work based on the most significant elements of each sign-painter’s interpretation. The process was to contuse until the market could not absorb any more copies - that is until Alÿs couldn't sell any more. The project failed, in a sense, when Alÿs stopped it because he never reached that saturation point. To what extent was this exploitation? When you consider that he was employing tradesmen there seems to be no problem, until the question arises of how much they were paid compared to how much their paintings fetch. A decade after the project the paintings had amassed such value that they were well beyond the means of the humble signwriter – or even the artist himself. Of course this isn’t a problem unique to the art world – an advertising agency will undoubtedly made many times more as a result of an advertisement than they pay the commercial artist. “So what?” you might think, the artist agreed to work for that price, the ad-campaign might have been a failure, the company might have even lost money. True, but the bigger picture here is that of the worker and the CEO. How many times more should CEOs earn than they pay their workers? Think about it, you own a factory, you take the risk, it’s your factory, maybe you deserve a big part of the profit…but how much? Do you pay yourself twice as much as your average worker earns? Three times as much? Ten times? What would be reasonable? At what point would you be embarrassed, ashamed to look your workers in the eye? <a href="http://www.kyklosproductions.com/articles/wages.html">In 1965, CEO pay was 26 times that of their average worker. In 1980, [it was] 40 times. In 1989, it was 72 times. In 1999 it had risen to 310 times, and today [2001], as per the above data from the accounting firm, Towers Perrin, survey it has reached 500 times</a>. Think about how much money that is! If a worker earns $20K then the CEO, in 1965, was earning over half a million dollars. By 2001 they would have earned £10million dollars while workers pay would have seen a negligible rise. Questions of ownership come into play and it becomes easy to take a Marxist reading of the Rotulistas series. If the workers become more productive and efficient (because of experience, for example) the owner’s profits increase, while the workers’ wages stagnate. In many countries workers can never aspire to own the good that they produce, every hour. The beauty about Alÿs’ project is that you can read all this into it, but you could just as easily focus on reproducibility and notions of authenticity. This also raises political questions. How can we trust news or media footage as both original (source) and authentic when digital media is so easily manipulated and replicated? The Rotulistas at least leave their own hand writing on their images, in this way each painting is unique, an original. </div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ULluQKN_ga0/T2i6z3xxSDI/AAAAAAAAAmU/PVf713so6KI/s1600/saint_fabiola_5.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="258" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ULluQKN_ga0/T2i6z3xxSDI/AAAAAAAAAmU/PVf713so6KI/s400/saint_fabiola_5.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="right"><td class="tr-caption">Fabiola Installation shot</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal">Alÿs continues to explore themes of originality and exploitation in other works. The first exhibition of his that I saw was <i>Fabiola</i> at the National Portrait Gallery. For years Alÿs had collected paintings of Saint Fabiola. The original painting has long since been lost but people continue to make "copies" based on this original, as if there is some sort of cultural memory of the object. If enough of the hundreds of copies are similar, can we assume that the painting existed and that it looked like the copies? Seems reasonable, doesn't it? This raises questions about fables and religion, and Chinese whispers. Alÿs works with fables in many of his works. </div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-xhjQqtBj1oM/T2i6tDHqnuI/AAAAAAAAAlw/xwJc8vFTXo4/s1600/WFMAM1.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="250" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-xhjQqtBj1oM/T2i6tDHqnuI/AAAAAAAAAlw/xwJc8vFTXo4/s400/WFMAM1.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="right"><td class="tr-caption">When Faith Moves Mountains</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="285" mozallowfullscreen="" src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/14129166?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="400"></iframe><br />
<a href="http://vimeo.com/14129166">Francis Alÿs, "When Faith Moves Mountains" (2002).</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/user4491818">Daily Serving</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a>.<br />
In his performance <i>When Faith Moves Mountains</i> he used hundreds of volunteer workers to literally move a mountain. The workers, armed with shovels and brooms moved the dirt and sand about 10cm. The mountain literally moved. Why did Alÿs do such a thing? Was it raise questions about workers rights and pay (as above)? He claims that it was to translate social tensions into narratives. Alÿs aimed to infiltrate the local history and mythology of Peruvian Society. He aimed to create a story that lived on beyond the act, a fable, or myth. Parallels to Hebrew slaves building pyramids or Stone Henge are evident. </div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div class="MsoNormal">In<i> Barrenderos</i> (2004) he performed a similar act. This time a line of street sweepers pushed garbage through the streets until they were stopped by the sheer mass of trash. </div><div class="MsoNormal">Alÿs is at his best when he refers to his environment - and this is done best in Mexico, where he lives. Through a kind of anthropological study of Latin-American people Alÿs is able to investigate resistance to modernisation. Mexico sits is a strange place, not quite 1st world, certainly not 3rd world. It has never fully integrated with the USA. Mexicans I met will tell you of their disdain for Americans but at the same time they will idolise US gangster rappers, they will buy US clothes, even have US posters in their house. Of course, they also go to the US to live and work as the salaries they can earn there as a waiter exceed what they can earn as a High School Principal in Mexico. Alÿs addresses such issues of resistance to modernity through his Ensayos (rehearsals). Two films provide </div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-36hSj2TfhBc/T2i6xgRDgJI/AAAAAAAAAmM/x-Pm4HpQK2E/s1600/politics+of+the+rehearsal.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-36hSj2TfhBc/T2i6xgRDgJI/AAAAAAAAAmM/x-Pm4HpQK2E/s320/politics+of+the+rehearsal.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="right"><td class="tr-caption">Politics of Rehearsal</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-mpFVgAbTX1c/T2i6ribRnDI/AAAAAAAAAls/6Tjgozyz4bQ/s1600/TheRehearsal-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a></div><div class="MsoNormal">good examples. In <i>The Politics of Rehearsal</i> (2004) a stripper undresses while a band rehearses. Every time the band stops, she starts to re-dress. This is a good metaphor for the flirtatious relationship Mexico has with the US. The stripper titillates us but we are never satisfied, as she never completes the routine. It is accompanied by a voiceover about the ideologies of the Modern in Latin America, which starts with Harry Truman’s inaugural address in which he coins the term “underdevelopment”. “One of the arguments of the work is that the notion of ‘development’ operates as a form of political pornography, transfixing us with a promise of arousal precisely because it is forever denied” (Cuauhtémoc Medina, Tate exhibition catalogue). </div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-mpFVgAbTX1c/T2i6ribRnDI/AAAAAAAAAls/6Tjgozyz4bQ/s1600/TheRehearsal-1.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="241" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-mpFVgAbTX1c/T2i6ribRnDI/AAAAAAAAAls/6Tjgozyz4bQ/s320/TheRehearsal-1.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="right"><td class="tr-caption">The Rehearsal I</td></tr>
</tbody> </table><div class="MsoNormal">In Rehearsal I (1999-2001) we see someone (presumably Alÿs) driving a Beetle car up a hill near Tijuana while we also listen to audio of a Mariachi band rehearsing. One can imagine this act in the context of Mexican migration to the US via Tijuana. Many of Alÿs’ works encapsulate epic struggle and failure (<i>Paradox of Praxis I</i> – <i>sometimes doing something leads to nothing</i> or <i>The Loop</i> (below), for example). Whenever the band stops so does Alÿs, and the car rolls backwards down the hill, of course, never reaching the top. I first saw these two films at the Francis Alÿs retrospective at the Tate in London. I usually find video art troublesome: you </div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-trtqu40BlM8/T2i6wMeA9UI/AAAAAAAAAmE/4jMcMISXIok/s1600/cuentos-patrioticos-1997-by-francis-alas.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="298" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-trtqu40BlM8/T2i6wMeA9UI/AAAAAAAAAmE/4jMcMISXIok/s400/cuentos-patrioticos-1997-by-francis-alas.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="right"><td class="tr-caption">Patriotic Tales</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal">never know how long it will last (and it’s often very boring), why don’t they provide seats and timed screenings? Or if this is not possible, why isn’t video art shown on the Internet instead of the gallery? There are, however some exceptions where the art is engaging and you don’t care how long it is going to go on for (or that there is no seat). I found Alÿs’ Patriotic Tales to be one of these exceptions. I watched as Alÿs walked into the near empty Zocalo (main square in Mexico City famous for its giant Mexican Flag) followed by a line of sheep. Alÿs walks around the flagpole for some time in a mesmerising, entrancing act of repetition. The sheep follow, forming a circle. Eventually Alÿs slows down so that he becomes not the leader, but a follower at the back of the line. The sheep continue to walk in a circle, not knowing who they are following, unaware that in fact they are the leaders. This seemed, to me, to be a profound political statement about who we allow to lead our countries, and also how we have the power to become leaders – not just sheep that blindly follow. After a while the odd sheep walks off. Far from breaking the spell the majority of the sheep continue walking in a circle, even though they must have seen that they are free to leave – perhaps we can reflect on Crowd Theory and Safety in numbers here. The performance really is spellbinding and worth watching until its conclusion as one by one the sheep decide to leave. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Alÿs also makes more explicitly political works, three of which I will describe here: </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><ol><li><span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"></span>In <i>The Loop Tijuana-San Diego</i> (1997) he travelled from Tijuana to San Diego without crossing the US-Mexican boarder. In order to do so he travelled south through South America to Santiago de Chile, then via New Zealand and Australia to Singapore, Bangkok, Rangoon (hardly easy to get to in itself) Hang Kong, Shanghai, Seoul, Anchorage (Alaska) Vancouver before heading south to San Diego. The absurdity of such a journey reminds us how lucky we are to have freedom of travel and that others are not so fortunate. In fact, speaking about another project, Alÿs tackled the issue of freedom of movement directly by asking “…how can we live in a global economy and be refused free global flow?” </li>
<li> <style>
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</style> <span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt;">“<i>Sometimes doing something poetic can be political, and sometimes doing something political can be poetic</i>” (Francis Alÿs – exhibition catalogue, David Zwirner Gallery, New York 2007). </span>In 1995 Alÿs set out to make a poetic gesture about action painting for the São Paolo Biennale. He walked from the gallery carrying a leaking can of paint – which of course drew the line of his journey. For <i>The Green Line</i> (2004) Alÿs recreated this performance by retracing the portion of the green line (which denotes the demarcation line established after the 1948 Arab-Israeli War) that runs through Jerusalem. The resulting film features a voice over of the reactions of Palestinian, Israeli and International individuals. </li>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-pMl3OCEgAQE/T2i6q8o4wOI/AAAAAAAAAlk/cLB3SkmOCE8/s1600/The-Green-Line.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-pMl3OCEgAQE/T2i6q8o4wOI/AAAAAAAAAlk/cLB3SkmOCE8/s400/The-Green-Line.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="right"><td class="tr-caption">The Green Line</td></tr>
</tbody></table><li><span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"></span>In 2006 Alÿs set out to create a bridge between Havana and Key West in Florida by lining up the boats of fishing communities in each city. The boats would never actually touch but would give the appearance of touching by their extension beyond the horizon. This work was a response to an article on the dispute between Cuban migrants and US Immigration. A law passed by Jimmy Carter states that if a Cuban is intercepted at sea they are to be returned to Cuba but if caught on dry land in the US they were to be granted legal right to remain in the country. In 2005, however, some of the Cuban migrants were intercepted on one of the bridges that link the Florida Keys – causing a debate as to whether they were allowed to remain or be returned. This performance was recreated in 2008, this time across the straight of Gibraltar using not boats, but children. Each child carried a boat made from a shoe and walked into the sea – half of them from the African side, heading towards Europe, and half from Europe heading towards Africa. Both formed a single-file line heading towards each other – obviously reminiscent of not just the 2006 <i>Bridge</i> but also <i>The Loop</i>. </li>
</ol><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-xfZrOuZmy5Y/T2jG0uIFh_I/AAAAAAAAAms/JgYvJDWyslU/s1600/Dont+cross+the+bridge+before+you+get+to+the+river.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="201" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-xfZrOuZmy5Y/T2jG0uIFh_I/AAAAAAAAAms/JgYvJDWyslU/s320/Dont+cross+the+bridge+before+you+get+to+the+river.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="right"><td class="tr-caption">Don't Cross the Bridge before you get to the River</td></tr>
</tbody></table><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-aQD7ITeMLKs/T2jGyqCWv_I/AAAAAAAAAmk/ZemJTo8TdPg/s1600/Bridge.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-aQD7ITeMLKs/T2jGyqCWv_I/AAAAAAAAAmk/ZemJTo8TdPg/s200/Bridge.jpg" width="129" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="right"><td class="tr-caption">Bridge</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit;">Alÿs’s approach is indeed poetic, and sometimes overtly playful. There is so much to his work that I cannot summarise it all here. There are multiple layers to his work, which can be read in different ways. Never didactic, he always seems to provoke debate. His works are “slow burners” that continue to engage and surprise me. He is, for me, the number one contemporary political artist. </div>Malaisedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17244765654166612162noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1229078026895306558.post-30814415100806343772012-01-29T15:48:00.000+00:002018-01-10T15:48:42.959+00:00Circa 1960<h3>
Guest Projects, London<br />27 - 29 January 2012</h3>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vcToGQy87OM/WlY1BkG3O7I/AAAAAAAAJLY/js9do9bB_Isrme-KjF1d4wX7oP3KNpCiwCK4BGAYYCw/s1600/Installation%2BShot2_Photo_Jimmy%2BMerris%252C%2BCourtesy_The%2BArtists.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vcToGQy87OM/WlY1BkG3O7I/AAAAAAAAJLY/js9do9bB_Isrme-KjF1d4wX7oP3KNpCiwCK4BGAYYCw/s640/Installation%2BShot2_Photo_Jimmy%2BMerris%252C%2BCourtesy_The%2BArtists.jpg" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
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What is <i>Circa 1960</i>? Upon entering <i>Guest Projects</i> space you are confronted with <a href="http://www.manifesto-art.co.uk/">Mark Selby’s</a> <i>No Need to Shout</i>,
a top heavy structure with a large red PVC trumpet shape (reminiscent
of Kapoor’s Marsyus) leaning towards you. The main structure is made
from Meccano-esque steel and stands about eight feet tall. To the left there is a pile of handouts on a chair. It tells you that:
<br />
<br />
“Circa 1960 is a group of artists/ Circa 1960 is a residency/ Circa
1960 is a research project/ Circa 1960 is a physical and metaphorical
meeting space/ Circa 1960 is a group show/ Circa 1960 is an exploration
into failure, notions of modernity, sci-fi, design and ideals.” <br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; height: 412px; text-align: left; width: 246px;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-fUf7k2zuvNQ/WlY0EwV0LuI/AAAAAAAAJLI/H3l2qPS7BNYwBz1MI2KGlPH5oyFXZ18GQCK4BGAYYCw/s1600/Jimmy%2BMerris2.%2BCourtesy%2Bthe%2BArtist.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-fUf7k2zuvNQ/WlY0EwV0LuI/AAAAAAAAJLI/H3l2qPS7BNYwBz1MI2KGlPH5oyFXZ18GQCK4BGAYYCw/s400/Jimmy%2BMerris2.%2BCourtesy%2Bthe%2BArtist.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="artist">Mark Selby</span>, <i>No Need to Shout</i>. Photo: Jimmy Merris. Courtesy: the Artist</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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<i>Circa 1960</i> fits aptly with <i>Guest Projects’</i> ethos:
the artists are guests, invited in to create a project of which the
exhibition was just one small part. Examining failed ideologies of
Modernism; we must view this project as a whole, as mocking the ambition
of the Modernist project. The sheer scale of ambition in the project
smacks of this and it is for this reason that I will turn my attention
to the satellite events that occurred during the build up to the
exhibition. There are clues that the artists may not be taking this too
seriously here. Events included a Danceathon by <a href="http://heybabychiefpanda.blogspot.com/">Hey Baby Chief Panda</a>
– which was a competition where the winner is the last person dancing,
and (so I am reliably told) a parody performance of a Careers Centre by <a href="http://www.economicdownturn.org.uk/1/studio-downturn/">Jimmy Merris</a>
– where instead of delivering careers advice the performer tried to
give the customer whisky, and stared them for long periods while a man
named “Paul” talked about his own work. The story of the Careers Centre
struck me because my wife works in the careers department of a London
university. University careers centres have long since abandoned
actually giving careers advice – Christ no! They might get sued. Also,
more liberal teaching philosophy underpins their decision to act more
like counsellors. Instead of making suggestions they ask questions
like, “What do you want to do?” and “How do you think you can achieve
that?” – the aim is for the individual to realise, for them selves what
they need to do to achieve their aims. Very well you might think but
due to cut backs even this service has been retracted and this major UK
university now offers no face to face careers service to students – it’s
cheaper to print such questions on a help card, or better still
“develop online resources”. This got me thinking; in the context of
failed ideologies the university is right up there. Governments have
bent university education to conform to vocational needs; it’s all about
employability. They have done this by forcing the cost of education
onto the recipient. This has two effects. Firstly the recipient takes a
financial risk, and is re-assured that they will be well remunerated
over a lifetime as a graduate. Secondly, a covert message is sent out
that higher education has no benefit except for the recipient, therefore
they should pay for it – there is no benefit to society as a whole (who
needs doctors, teachers, artists anyway?) so why should society pay?
Additionally this makes the student arse-kiss lecturers as they worry
about grades and references and how this will affect future job
prospects. Saddled with a huge debt the student runs to the careers
centre for re-assurance that it’ll be worth it and advice on how to
achieve their goals – only to be told that they need to figure it out
for themselves – there is no help (unless you want to pay for it
privately of course). Anyway, most industries operate on healthy
nepotism and you can always “network” by doing years of unpaid
internships. In this context a drunken, selfish and unhelpful careers
advisor is not a far-fetched as it may seem. The performance comments
on university life and the struggles that will follow after graduation. <br />
John Walter tackled the failure of Modernism through a performance
exploring the break up of couples, using home made theatre costumes
reminiscent of Picasso’s <i>Parade</i> which in turn dealt with the
horrors of the First World War through a Dada-esque ballet – as if the
only way to respond to the realisation that the Modern world of
industrialisation has just collapsed into mechanised slaughter, that all
that the machine promised us in terms of helping society and lessening
workloads has been reversed by taking away jobs and taking away lives,
the only way to respond to this is through absurdity. This reminded me of the Gaddafi quote <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-12781009">“If the world is crazy, we will be crazy too”</a>.
Perhaps Circa 1960 isn’t just about failed Modernism in the 60s, but a
response to the absurd and frightening debt ridden situation we find
ourselves in today. <br />
<a href="http://www.karentang.co.uk/">Karen Tang’s</a> wall based sculptures are inspired by science fiction. <i>A Mass of Crystalline Tissue</i>
is inspired by a JG Ballard quote both in its form and content – the
content being a distorted image of the magazine cover in which the quote
first appeared. The work goes one step further by crystals set into
resin to make the work a literal interpretation of the quote as well as a
meditation on the Ballard story. This piece is typical of Tang’s
sculptures in this show. <i>Decision Cave</i>, however, is visually
different to the rest of her work. For a start it looks much more
organic, evoking the craftsmanship of tribal communities and shamanistic
practices that you could associate with such an object. <i>Decision Cave</i>
differs from the other works in that it could be an actual object from a
sci-fi story whereas the other sculptures appear more as
interpretations. At the centre of <i>Decision Cave</i> is a toy called a <i>Magic Eight Ball </i>which
you use to answer questions. Its answers can be enigmatic, like the
oracle at Delphi. When I visited the show the words of wisdom were
“Outlook so so”. I don’t know if this changed throughout the show. <br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MVeM3jVlDdk/WlYz1mruKFI/AAAAAAAAJK4/OI46pkoPgAk0IKCXuqgg5ud-x7Wie6MywCK4BGAYYCw/s1600/Corinne%2BFelgate%252C%2B%2527The%2BLady%2527s%2BNot%2Bfor%2BTurning%2527%252C%2BMixed%2BMedia.%2BPhoto_Jimmy%2BMerris.%2BCourtesy_the%2BArtist.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MVeM3jVlDdk/WlYz1mruKFI/AAAAAAAAJK4/OI46pkoPgAk0IKCXuqgg5ud-x7Wie6MywCK4BGAYYCw/s400/Corinne%2BFelgate%252C%2B%2527The%2BLady%2527s%2BNot%2Bfor%2BTurning%2527%252C%2BMixed%2BMedia.%2BPhoto_Jimmy%2BMerris.%2BCourtesy_the%2BArtist.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="artist">Corinne Felgate</span>, 'The Lady's Not for Turning'<br />
<span class="credits">Photo: Jimmy Merris.</span> <span class="credits">Courtesy: the Artist.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Handbags play a surprising role in the show. Adrian Lee’s <i>Beuys/Vuitton Remade</i>
is a Louis Vuitton handbag stuffed with fat and with felt patched on
the outside. I’m not aware of the original Beuys piece but assume that
it did exist as with <i>Portrait of the Artist as Tretchikoff’s Blue Lady</i>
Lee draws our attention to the reproducible. It is said that the Blue
Lady (as confusingly known as The Green Girl and the Chinese Girl) has
been reproduced more widely than the Mona Lisa. It also revokes the old
high-art low-art debate especially when artists in the 1990s started to
cite him as a precursor to their ironic postmodern style. Perhaps it
is this play on “commodity” that points us towards the other handbag in
the show, which makes up part of <a href="http://www.corinnefelgate.com/">Corinne Felgate’s</a> <i>The Lady’s Not For Turning</i>,
a bewildering series of sandpaper plinths with objects placed on them
in a manner not dissimilar to designer shop window displays, but this
time the handbag is made of clear resin encasing various types of salami
with a chicken foot, adorned with nail polish, perched on top.
Another work by <i>Felgate, Hair Brush</i>, seems to be a
straightforward joke – the bristles of the brush as replaced with the
artist’s childhood hair. But then you are confronted with <i>Exponential Growth</i>,
a chair entirely covered in hair – “cousin It” style, which is funny,
until you read the materials “Brazilian Human Hair and Wood”, then it
becomes disturbing. Where did she get so much Brazilian hair? Probably
from a Brazilian hairdressers, but you begin to wonder if it’s available
online – anything can be a commodity now we have the Internet. Perhaps
the display of <i>The Lady’s Not For Turning</i> is intended to refer to commodities and in the context of <i>Circa 1960</i>
we are reminded of the end of rationing and the rise of luxury goods.
Earlier work such as Austerity Measures (a Chanel handbag hand made from
a paper bag with gold leaf, marker pen and gaffa tape) appears to
confirm the link. <br />
I made a visit to the project space on the 12<sup>th</sup> January and met three of the artists. <a href="http://www.alastairlevy.net/work/box-set">Alastair Levy</a>
has a practice rooted in 60s Minimalism. He feels that the last
hundred years has freed people to work in any way they want in a kind of
pick and mix culture, taking from previous styles. In his case
Minimalism and Conceptualism are raided. Levy has a series of differing
works in the space. A painting about the everyday was made by
stretching an old tablecloth over a frame. The tablecloth has been used
as a shower curtain for sometime and had recorded the marks of a daily
activity in the form of stains. A C.D. perched on a windowsill was
another artwork. It was exactly half filled with data. This links with
another work <i>Box Set</i> (featured in the exhibition) where all
the paints from a Daley Rowley box set were mixed together to make a
bistre-brown which he used to cover a canvas. Both works are about
middle points. But Levy also had an ashtray on the floor with a half
smoked cigarette made from grass taken from the pitch at White Hart
Lane, and in other works he stages reconstructions of EBay photographs.
For Levy failed modernism means he can do what he wants. <br />
Luke Ottridge was half way through his residency when we met. His
installation seems to me to be very much in the spirit of mocking
Modernism’s grandeur and I was pleased to see <i>Event Horizon</i>
make the exhibition. The centrepiece of the installation is a copy of a
plaster bone from Texas, which in turn was a copy of a destroyed bone
from about 100 years ago. There is a creationist myth attached to the
story which supposes that this is evidence that angels walked the earth.
There is also doubt as to whether the original bone ever existed. The
bone sits on a circular “black hole” and is surrounded by the only 3D
shapes which are symmetrical. These refer to Platonic ideals and their
copies (referring back to the bone as a copy). Also around the whole
are a series of TV monitors depicting a blind man walking or stumbling
about. Ottridge speaks about the circular composition as a tool to echo
religious cults and in turn he sees the failure of the promises made by
utopian 1950s gurus as unfulfilled; coming to an end with the Charles
Manson murders. <br />
The third artist I met was <a href="http://www.manifesto-art.co.uk/blog/">Mark Selby</a>,
who was yet to undertake his week-long residency. The only outcomes of
his that I saw were those in the exhibition. Where the unlikely
balance of <i>No Need to Shout</i> confronts and has a comic feel to it (like Hong Kong Fuey jumping out of a filing cabinet) Selby’s other work, <i>Better Half</i>, is different. <i>Better Half</i>
is a tidy piece of conceptual sculpture in the form of a chair (no hair
on this one), half made in plywood and half Perspex. Selby challenges
us to judge which is the better half. Both halves are made with the
industrial precision of a Donald Judd so there are no clues in the
making to give away Selby’s own position. The naturalistic wood could
be seen as nature re-capturing the (failed) Modernist chair, like ivy
growing over a house. Or the Perspex could be seen as a triumphant
prosthetic enhancing the wooden structure, like a cyborg. <i>Better Half</i>
works well as a seat of contemplation in the exhibition, encouraging us
to reflect on all of the works both individually and as a collective. <br />
<h3>
</h3>
Malaisedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17244765654166612162noreply@blogger.com01 Andrews Rd, London E8, UK51.5355398 -0.061751899999990251.5355398 -0.0617518999999902 51.5355398 -0.0617518999999902tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1229078026895306558.post-20236656605293613572011-12-31T15:33:00.000+00:002018-01-10T15:34:33.531+00:00Contemporary Art in Majorca ain’t as bad as what it oughta (be).<div class="short-description">
<h3>
CCA Andratx (Majorca), Andratx</h3>
<h3>
29 September 2011 - 4 March 2012</h3>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NybUkNb6ppo/WlYvVq76UAI/AAAAAAAAJKA/6d0Evc_5-9UUDGfRz_BaYFlJYogJrnCEwCK4BGAYYCw/s1600/1838932.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="622" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NybUkNb6ppo/WlYvVq76UAI/AAAAAAAAJKA/6d0Evc_5-9UUDGfRz_BaYFlJYogJrnCEwCK4BGAYYCw/s640/1838932.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="credits">Photo: The Long Labb</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<h3>
</h3>
Having lived in Spain I already knew that Madrid and Barcelona had a
lot to offer in terms of contemporary art. Three years ago I visited
family in Palma de Mallorca and was surprised to find a whole host of
contemporary galleries showing international artists (Richard Billingham
and Mark Francis were among the British artists represented). In
addition to the commercial galleries Palma boasts two top class
“exhibition halls” (Salas de exposiciones). One of which, La Caixa
Foundation, is a bank which has other major exhibition centres in other
major Spanish cities. Palma also boasts the Es Baluard Contemporary Art
Museum. <br />
I returned to Palma for Christmas this year and set about
investigating what’s on when I came across “CCA” in the town of Andratx
(30mins drive from Palma, or an hour on the bus). CCA is “the largest
centre of contemporary art on Mallorca”. The bus driver had never heard
of it, but it was actually well sign posted, although a little way out
of the town. The space is amazing and CCA is a must for any
contemporary art lover visiting Mallorca. Andratx is a small, but
international town with a large German retiree population. However, CCA
is caught in the trap of trying too hard to appeal to everyone. Locals
(Spaniards and Germans alike) are catered for with its children’s room,
ESPAI (an exhibition space for artists residing in Mallorca) and a
commercial print room. More hardened international visiting art
aficionados look to be challenged by the best Mallorca can offer. There
were four main exhibitions on in the centre when I visited, which has
four wings around a quad. One side is taken up with four
artist-in-residence studios and a café. The reception, shop, print room
and a children’s room take up opposite side. The two other sides are
called the <i>Kunsthalle</i> and the <i>Galleries</i>. <br />
The first two exhibitions were both eclectic group shows housed in the <i>Kunsthalle</i> wing of the building. The first, in <i>Kunsthalle I</i>,
comprised of works from the AFM Collection and I was pleasantly
surprised to see work by Phillip Allen, Varda Caivano, Martin Creed, Jim
Lambie, Martin Boyce (2011 Turner Prize winner) and many other
international artists. The curatorial team of the Art Foundation
Mallorca is made up of (CCA director and co-founder) Patricia Asbaek
(DK), Barry Schwabsky (US) and Friederike Nymphius (DE). All three are
well known experts in Contemporary Art, travelling all year round to the
leading art fairs, exhibitions and events taking place on the
international art scene to identify the most talented artists and their
best pieces for the AFM Collection. This show is a star-studded
blockbuster but has no discernible theme, other than its baffling
labelling system and the strip-light overload on the ceiling echoing
Creed’s work, assembled in neat geometric shapes. The second show, in<i> Kunsthalle II</i>,
celebrates 10 years of the centre’s artist in residence programme. The
work from selected artists over the last decade was generally good,
diverse and…Nordic. The owner of CCA is Danish, but the most
represented Nordic nation was Germany.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-oeNZz5Dx-Rw/WlYv289SigI/AAAAAAAAJKI/plCktRhRQIoKcD4Jj_IbikYEPqWlz1hrQCK4BGAYYCw/s1600/Thoralf%2BKnobloch_%2527Kaminfeuer%2527%2B%25282004%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-oeNZz5Dx-Rw/WlYv289SigI/AAAAAAAAJKI/plCktRhRQIoKcD4Jj_IbikYEPqWlz1hrQCK4BGAYYCw/s640/Thoralf%2BKnobloch_%2527Kaminfeuer%2527%2B%25282004%2529.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Thoralf Knobloch <i>Kaminfeuer</i> (2004). <span class="credits">Photo: The Long Labb</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
I had no idea Thoralf Knobloch
had done this residency and, as always, it was a pleasure to see one of
his paintings. Jonathan Meese (also German) was another highlight
although we were spared the full force of his overindulgent
self-obsessed gay Nazi porn show installation (which I was lucky enough
to catch while in The Hague recently). You can read more about that <a href="http://www.gem-online.nl/en/exposities/jonathan-meese">here</a>, the show’s still on until January 15<sup>th</sup> so, if you’re in the Netherlands in the next couple of weeks…go on, have an unforgettable experience.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-KN8FnxECdlQ/WlYwcIQtLgI/AAAAAAAAJKQ/O2ZbFTOO4CMa5ylfZq0zFyOtmyeS8VT8QCK4BGAYYCw/s1600/Jonathan%2BMeese.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="253" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-KN8FnxECdlQ/WlYwcIQtLgI/AAAAAAAAJKQ/O2ZbFTOO4CMa5ylfZq0zFyOtmyeS8VT8QCK4BGAYYCw/s320/Jonathan%2BMeese.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jonathan Meese. <span class="credits">Photo: The Long Labb</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Upon entering the galleries wing you come across <i>Wall Sculpture </i><i>(04.11.11 – 04.03.12)</i>,
an exhibition by resident artist Paola Ricci. The corridor-esque
gallery space was filled with drawings on tracing paper pinned to the
walls, hairs stuck to paper (also pinned to the walls), envelopes,
strings, lamps (on the floor) casting shadows of the artworks, a linear
sculpture made from pointed sticks that reminded me of giant tooth-picks
(but were probably barbecue skewers) and sheets of paper (pinned to the
walls). The show reminded me of several resident “exhibitions” at the <i><a href="http://www.wimbledon.arts.ac.uk/ccwgraduateschool/projectscollaborationsnetworks/centrefordrawinganetwork/">Centre for Drawing</a></i> at <i><a href="http://www.wimbledon.arts.ac.uk/">Wimbledon College of Art</a></i>
where, as with this exhibition, I sometimes got the feeling that the
artist – pushed for time on a short residency – looked for playful and
readily available ingredients to fill the space quickly. Ricci’s work
is playful and it’s not by coincidence that her choices of materials are
light and ephemeral. Paradoxically, however, you are left with the
feeling that her intentions are profound and weighty. Much of what
she’s doing in this exhibition falls very much into the language of
drawing more than sculpture.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-IUOb_RQDavA/WlYxMm7TxrI/AAAAAAAAJKg/wbqPQ-TmHCUUifRxT82mlemcUtp-ThNwgCK4BGAYYCw/s1600/Paola%2BRicci%252C%2B%2527Wall%2BSculpture%2527%252C%2BMixed%2BMedia%252C%2B2011.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-IUOb_RQDavA/WlYxMm7TxrI/AAAAAAAAJKg/wbqPQ-TmHCUUifRxT82mlemcUtp-ThNwgCK4BGAYYCw/s320/Paola%2BRicci%252C%2B%2527Wall%2BSculpture%2527%252C%2BMixed%2BMedia%252C%2B2011.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="artist">Paola Ricci</span>, <i>Wall Sculpture</i>, Mixed Media (2011). <span class="credits">Photo: The Long Labb</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The second exhibition in the galleries <i>Unintended Sculptures</i>
(10.09.11 – 01.11.11) is by Danish photographer Henrik Saxgren who
photographs objects and occurrences which he sees as unintended
sculptures. These cool, sexy, large-scale prints are easy on the eye
and inviting to like. Exotic places and strange manifestations seduce
you. We are told that the artist starts with the assumption that
anything in the world can potentially become an art object. The artist
has travelled extensively, documenting man-made objects, left to
weather, decay and get taken over by the natural environment.
Alternatively, we may initially view natural landscapes only to
eventually notice the scar of man’s interference. Technically the
photographs are superb but the project failed to take me beyond the
initial intrigue and challenge my perceptions, feelings or beliefs.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ZkFvg8s6RCM/WlYxZyJsHTI/AAAAAAAAJKo/pBWrZ4u_QzEhX-FuaI9hAj074p_Q92L1QCK4BGAYYCw/s1600/Henrik%2BSaxgren%252C%2B%2527Unintended%2BSculptures%2Bseries%2527.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ZkFvg8s6RCM/WlYxZyJsHTI/AAAAAAAAJKo/pBWrZ4u_QzEhX-FuaI9hAj074p_Q92L1QCK4BGAYYCw/s320/Henrik%2BSaxgren%252C%2B%2527Unintended%2BSculptures%2Bseries%2527.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Henrik Saxgren, <i>Unintended Sculptures series. </i><br />
<i><span class="credits">Photo: The Long Labb</span></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
Between the two gallery shows lay a couple of paintings of waves and
one abstract reminiscent of Toma Abst, by British artist Rebecca
Partridge. In another small, almost hidden, space (ESPAI) resident
artist Olimpia Velasco is showing <i>In Non Places</i> (29.01.11 –
27.11.11). These two mini-exhibitions seemed a bit shoehorned in and
wouldn’t have been missed if they had not been included at all. In
general, although much of the work was good, there was too much of it
and no clear theme to the two <i>Kunsthalle</i> shows. It would have been better to delay the <i>AFM Collection</i> show in <i>Kunsthalle I</i> and allow the <i>CCA Collection 10 Years of Residency Programme</i>
show to breath and take over both halls. This was an opportunity for
the curator to really celebrate the work achieved by the resident
artists – perhaps stars like Knobloch and Meese could have been invited
back to produce larger showstopper centrepieces. I really regret that
this didn’t happen. On the other hand there is a buzz created by such a
large amount of work, almost like a degree show. Perhaps this is the
intention: to create a lived-in feeling of a space used by
artists-in-residence. The residencies are clearly a successful and
thriving part of the centre. They only last for about a month and there
are four studios so there is certainly a dynamic turnover and output
long may it continue, here’s to another ten years. <br />
<h3>
</h3>
</div>
Malaisedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17244765654166612162noreply@blogger.com0Carrer S'estanyera, 2, 07150 Andratx, Illes Balears, Spain39.5806401 2.43283599999995239.5806401 2.432835999999952 39.5806401 2.432835999999952