11/23/18
Prof. Cacoilo
Gallery post
The Macabre
I will be confronting the sentiment of “Anti-vaxer” parents. Anti-vaxers are parents who contest the vaccination of (their) children. Vaccinations offered at birth are now being foregone on a large scale; as a result, early childhood diseases such as whooping cough and measles have adopted a growing trend in America.
Simply put, I want to use the feelings of disturbance that gothic styles have upon people to make them confront the weight of the issue that is the Anti-vaxer movement. I want the uncomfortable feeling that it may stir up within viewers to spur them towards acts of change. I want this discomfort to give rise to a conversation. I think an easy comparison would be to the social aspect of Deller’s Iraq war piece,“Conversations abounded, and it was Jeremy’s hope that these two experts would allow the public to have an encounter that was experiential, and not simply didactic: viewers could express their ideas and ask questions of those who knew much about the war. The project was open-ended, and the conversation could go in any direction. Veterans would warily circle the project… after about an hour, they would walk up to Harvey, begin asking some questions, and end up staying all day, unloading sorrowful stories. Wives and parents of soldiers would talk about their kids. Iraqis, Arabs, and black Muslims would talk about their fear of the encroaching paranoia about Islam that had emerged during the war on terror. Through it all, Pasha and Harvey were masterfully eloquent. Harvey would listen thoughtfully as young vets told war stories of roadside bombs, battles in Kirkut, and bouts of depression back home”(seeing power page 30). I think there is a decent amount of similarity between Deller’s work and my own. I wish to incentivise an opening for conversation as he had. I also think that everyone has a story to tell on the subject. I think that the veterans and their reaction to Deller’s work is a decent analogy for how I would like Anti-vaxers to react to my own work; starting out feeling uneasy and perhaps challenged. However, by the end of it, they’re sat down and happily contributing to the discussion. The main difference between the works, is the way the discussion related to the works take place. For Deller, the ensuing discussion takes place in the space the display is held, with people supplied to hold a discussion. For my own work, no one will be there to facilitate discussion or share information. Any information must be individually sought; any discussions held on the topic will be done at one’s will. Similar to this sentiment of opening up a cause for discussion were the Haha Collaborative’s 2004 Taxis; “the Taxi project is a method for facilitating public speech. The mechanism behind this project is a GPS triggered digital sign on top of a car that allows community members to post messages. Originally designed to advertise for specific neighborhood markets, Haha is using the technology to visually broadcast messages with topical interest submitted by residents of a given city”(Interventionists page 30).
(Two examples of taxi cab cards created via the Haha collaborative’s initiative in 2004)
I also saw a connection to my project within the Yes Men’s work. I started this idea as a way to display my anger and sheer feelings of frustration towards parents who are willing enough to risk the lives of not only their own children, but also the lives of other kids in which they come into contact. The skeleton baby was first conceptualized as an idea to make fun of how Anti-vaxer children could be seen. The Yes Men, in turn, make a joke about almost anything in order to draw attention to issues, such as the golden phallus, “The purpose of the “Management Leisure Suit”, Hank explained, was to allow managers, no matter where they were, to control their remote workforces in the developing world. Using a video interface at the end of the phallus, the manager can see the workers and give them electric shocks when they don’t work fast enough.”(Interventionists page 74). Just as children that aren't vaccinated do not directly turn into skeletons, no harmful business executive owns a gold suit with a large phallus; both play upon the reality of the situation in order to draw attention to it.
The socio-political issue of my project is that the uninformed are refusing to accept the truth that vaccinations do not cause issues such as autism. These vaccinations have been tested over time, and drastically improved the modern quality of life. No longer are children dying at such young ages from diseases like Polio. I can see why people against vaccines may not want to vaccinate if they see it as a capilastic gambit. However; the truth is that these vaccines keep our children alive. If it were a victim of capitalism’s cruelty, these vaccines could be put at a much higher price, only available to the one percent.
My project attacks vaccination disdain in a similar way to which the Critical Art Ensemble went about the Free Range Grain “laboratory as performance” piece. “This artwork questions power in two distinct ways. First, the artists self-consciously trespass into the field of biotechnology and, in doing so, disrupt assumptions about what a performance can be. Second, they create a pedagogic space for considering the politics of biotechnology, which is revealed to be a highly closed—and undemocratic—system. Through the use of tactical media, CAE is able to do numerous things at once, by self-consciously operating across a few infrastructures of resonance”(seeing power page 72). As a science student, who hasn't taken an art class since the seventh grade, I feel as if I myself am trespassing similarly into the art works for this project. I feel as though this is a risky way to put yourself out there; placing beliefs before your area of expertise. Despite this risk, nothing is more important than putting your voice out there, if you believe in what you are doing, you cannot possibly be acting as an activist in the wrong way. While other students have taken different approaches to their way to reach an audience, I chose mine as the best way I could interact with an outside basis. If nothing else, activism is about putting yourself and your beliefs first and foremost, and sharing with the world in any way you can, as the CAE demonstrated.
The three works from NJCU’s Galleries show The Persistence of History were: F(armed) by Michael Oatman, Trade Canoe: The Dark Side by Juane “Quick-to-See” Smith, as well as The Project to Dismantle The Enola Gay by Gaku Tsutaja.
Each work connects to my project as they all have a very haunting element. For F(armed), I saw war within what would normally look like an agricultural image, until one realizes the farmers are actually military men, each performing their job under a thin veil meant to resemble farmwork. Within Trade Canoe: The Dark Side, aside from the obvious allusion to the macabre in the name (the dark side), there are some very dark elements in the painting itself, with the mountain of death taking center of the canoe.Finally, upon seeing The Project to Dismantle The Enola Gay, I immediately felt uncomfortable. I felt unsettled by the small size of the parakeets, and how they had suffered at the hands of tragedy.
(F(armed), By Michael Oatman, a collage)
F(armed) is a collage of historical book images assembled upon a singular paper. The subject and message of this work is of farmers at the turn of the century (WWII) where they have begin to trade their traditional “varmint” they used to hunt for a new, different one. Oatman addresses the sociopolitical subject in the piece not overtly. However, I believe it is a pro war sentiment, as it seems to equate prosperous agricultural systems with a thriving military. The supportive angle stems from the innocence which the image holds. The gunner that is plowing the field looks like he'd been enjoying his job, and the man in front seems to be ecstatic to share his lettuce which are a likely metaphor for spoils. However, the piece does also show the more difficult side of war as well, with a gas masked man operating the tractor, while what I hope is an enemy tractor on the opposite side of the field explodes. This piece is reflective upon the time in which capitalism wasn't critiqued, and how, looking back on it now it seems like we were all blindly following the silly whims of the government. The piece touches on power as something you can gain, if work is acknowledged, until then you listen to whoever is in charge. Back in the 1920’s the largest cultural capital was held by white men. They had the ability to work, to work in the military, and to treat women as they wished. The only brief equalizer was the draft, and even then the military was still horribly segregated. This left white men, as we can clearly see from the demographics of this image, to be the face of the war. I feel like this image has an interesting way of engaging the audience. First, I saw that it seemed to be an odd image of farmers, wearing weird hats or something. Then you look closer and begin to realize they they have military looks about them, such as guns, helmets, and gas masks. Finally, there's the background explosion, which also has an attracting power to the viewer. All of these elements draw you in s you can answer the question, “just what IS going on here?”. This piece also says a lot about what capitalists stand to gain from war. All the men look happy to be doing their work, whether it is a farm or war related task; this represents the unfortunate boon to economy that wars provide, and the United States’ readiness to comply.
(Trade Canoe: The Dark Side, by Jaune “Quick-to-See” Smith)
Trade Canoe: The Dark Side, is a piece that uses mixed media on canvas. This painting talks about the unequal “sharing” that happened between colonizers and native Americans. The natives provide the good qualities, such as food, shelter, and knowledge of the area (represented by the canoe). The colonizers, in turn, eclipse these good deeds (just as the sun is being eclipsed in the background of the image) by bringing death and destruction to the natives way of life (represented by the contents of the canoe). I liked this piece, as it is one of the few times where the white guy doesn't win. The political and capitalist critique (as well as what it says about activism and power) here is that the white man isn't always the right man. He can hurt people, and eclipse their needs. Trade Canoe also represents an outlet for the historically silenced minority. When explaining the holiday of thanksgiving we hardly address the fact that the settlers soon killed and took away land from the natives that helped teach them to live through the winter. Naives get very little social/cultural capital, as well as power and representation. A great example of this is the issue of the Dakota access pipeline. Despite how serious the issue is to Natives, whom we only occasionally acknowledge we owe so much, we still overshadow their needs in order to make things easier for ourselves. I think this painting has less of a draw to it than others may. I honestly didn't see much in it looking around the gallery up until the professor suggested it for me and explained its gravity. This was mainly due to my opinion that I disliked the colors and brush technique.However, I can see the pile of death and destruction in the center, as well as the eclipse having a tremendous effect that draws in viewers. The critique of the white man that this image provides is quite important, as today even the white man still proceeds unchecked, hurting others in his wake (cough cough, most white men in power have terrible intentions or inflicted harm).
(The Project to Dismantle the Enola Gay, by Gaku Tsutaja)
Finally, The Project to Dismantle The Enola Gay is a piece that uses several mediums; reeds, branches, wire net, Spanish moss, wood, paper, clay, India Ink, canvas cloth, net, and string. The subject of this piece is the issues that came from Japanese internment during WWII. Tsutaja addresses the sociopolitical issue by showing the awkwardness the “parakeets” go through. Once they were a welcomed addition to America, but since the attack on Pearl Harbor, they were alienated and treated as threats. Even young children were treated as if they may be war criminals. This piece, similar to Smith’s work, gives a voice to the silenced. Tsutaja works to show how hard it is to have the issue of internment addressed, and even more importantly, address the damage which the Enola Gay had done. Very similar to the issue of Native American erasure Smith’s work shows, Tsutaja talks about the issue not knowing about crushing events (such as Japanese internment) takes upon growing up as a young Japanese American. Envisioning the interned as parakeets (a species that came into America as an invasive species) is a creative way to parallel the erasure of personhood and lack of cultural capital held that happened for the Americans that suffered unjust (and quite racist) imprisonment. This work was my favorite, as it was easiest to be engaged with. I was drawn in by the branches and parakeets. Upon further inspection, inside the mini internment camp that is set up are drawn images of the Enola Gay. By drawing you in with the branches, moss, nets, and many small modeled parakeets, you look further into the motivation behind this work, and perhaps even come to understand the hurtful nature behind Japanese internment, as well as the destruction caused by the Enola Gay.
Art activism is different as opposed to normal activist means, as art doesn't always have a voice so you can understand its intentions for change. Despite having a cause behind it, whether or not the viewer understands the cause or issue, it can still be interpreted differently by viewers, depending upon the viewers understanding of the issue. “When is a socially engaged work of art too obvious? And when is it too confusing? For many involved in the arts, an artwork must remain opaque enough to invite a proper amount of speculation and guesswork. Confusion is applauded over the crass simplicity of the obvious. An artwork easily open to interpretation provides a certain freedom from instrumentalization—from an agenda— and allows a viewer to experience speculation and consideration. In activism, though, clarity is celebrated, and a cogent message can reach a wide audience and can serve as a weapon. The two ends of this dynamic, which I refer to as the ambiguous and the didactic, have long proven irreconcilable”(seeing power page 34). Even when you have a clear cut vision of what you want it to represent, there can always be a different interpretation. It is art, it cannot outright explain to people what its cause is and how it is meant to be seen. When engaging or creating activist art, you must let people form their own opinions and understanding, otherwise, activist art would be pointless.
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