Cutting Public Art in OK Isn’t Fiscally Responsible

On the local beat, the OK legislature is currently considering bills that would suspend or do away with the Percent for Public Art program in the state. This comes at a time when austerity is the word of the day and cuts to government spending are being made seemingly just for the hell of it as opposed to any sort of logical metric. Except here’s the thing about the Percent for Public Art act: its funds don’t affect the state’s finances. The art is paid for through a percentage of the construction cost. That means OK gets public art at literally NO COST TO THE STATE. So the argument that suspension or cuts are necessary in these tough economic times is really bullshit. Fallin just found an additional $100 million in revenue and is thankful she can cut taxes because of the growth rate trigger;  would she be happy with a program that not only has nothing to do with the shortfall but has the extra added bonus of potentially increasing the growth rate? It means she can cut more taxes!!!

The Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition is front and center on this issue and I know anything they support, I’m behind too. It’s pretty critical that Okies get on the horn to their state legislators soon because these bills are going before the chambers in the next couple of days. We need public art in OK. I would like something to look at on the highway besides Wal-Mart bags and Sonic cups.

 

Those Poor, Sensitive Bigots

"Heritage" By Stanley Bermudez

Here’s an interesting find from Balloon Juice. It encompasses everything that is wrong and backwards about the “Southern Heritage” movement. They claim to disavow anything about the South that could be construed as racist, but want to enshrine the traditions that make them unique. Well, unfortunately, there’s no cleaving the two. the South was built up on the premise of slave labor and, when that crumbled (after a bloody civil war, mind you), a few generations of racial violence, terror, and intimidation that still haunt our discourse to this very day. The confederate flag is a symbol of all of that, no matter which way you slice it. It’s part and parcel of the argument that the ‘War of Northern Aggression’ was fought over ‘States’ Rights’. There’s an element of truth to that; the South wanted the right to own people and the North said no.

I recommend you read the whole story. It’s amazing the lengths to which some people will twist themselves to deny history. At the most, the confederate flag should be relegated to a dusty footnote in the annals of history, to be mocked with disdain whenever someone dredges it up; at the least it should be derided as the symbol of repression and oppression that it is.

Xenophobia in Oklahoma City Threatens Mural

In a story that has been generating some discussion in local circles the past few days, a new mural hanging at the capitol is being threatened with removal by some lawmakers. The piece in question, “Beyond the Centennial” by Oklahoma City native and Mexican immigrant Carlos Tello, depicts the state’s history and future in a vibrant and colorful fresco. As the above video notes, lawmakers have gone out of their way to insist that their displeasure with the work is purely aesthetic and has nothing to do with the painter’s nationality.

While that is certainly an admirable and politically expedient move, it just doesn’t pass muster. After all, this is also state that is going out of its way to prove its xenophobic bona fides, seeking to one-up the recent draconian anti-immigration law in Arizona. Indeed, State Rep. Randy Terrill, noted anti-immigration demagogue and author of previous legislation to strip immigrants of basic health care, would like to mimic Arizona’s law with the added provision of property seizure. In a Republican dominated legislature, his plans may actually come to fruition.

Now it may be that OK lawmakers truly don’t like the mural because it “doesn’t fit in with the other art” at the capitol. Most of the pieces at the building are straight-forward, figurative depictions of Oklahoma’s historical figures. Tello’s more stylized mural is certainly more eye-catching than the others, utilizing not only a bright color palette, but a fracturing of the picture plane and forced perspective that owes much to the Mexican muralists, most notably David Siqueiros. Carlos is a self-taught artist and the work has a style that also brings to mind some of the more detailed and ornate examples of Outsider Art.

Disliking the mural on grounds of taste might be one thing. But the anti-immigrant fever sweeping the nation and some quarters of the capitol is hard to overlook as possible motive. Would the mural be generating the same response had the artist been a native (read: caucasion) Oklahoman? If the politics of Oklahoma were dictated by inclusion and open-mindedness, these unnamed detractors might be forgiven for their artistic ignorance. After all, it is a very intriguing piece and very much sums up the spirit of Oklahoma: unique, spirited, and a little off-kilter. But the xenophobic fog that clouds the mind of Terrill and his cohorts is as myopic as it is disturbing. Rabid anti-immigrant conservatives tend to see the specter of the evil Other around every corner. Given their track records, its difficult to believe that Mr. Tello’s fresco is any exception to their thinly-veiled hatred.

(cross-posted on Examiner.com)

Art That Matters: Ben Perrone

photos by Rose Mattrey for Artvoice

Not long after I set up my last show, my good friend and contact at Artspace, Joanna, e-mailed me with an interesting proposition: did I want to cross promote the show with another artist’s opening at the Burchfield-Penney Art Center? Of course, the answer was yes. But when I read the actual proposal I was even more enthused about the association. Ben Perrone has been making art in Western NY for a long time and his piece at the Burchfield is  the culmination of a career filled with aesthetic activism and lots of stylistic exploration and innovation.

The installation itself is a brooding monument to the destruction of war and is not to be missed (hurry! It runs through May 30th). It recalls both the numbing repetition of graves at Arlington National Cemetery as well as the formal elegance of the holocaust memorial in Berlin with its imposing grid structure. Juxtaposing the wall of bags is a pile of more, discarded bags, wheelchairs, and video and sound work, forming an enveloping tomb around the viewer. A list of the casualties to date cascades over the scene, visually shattering as they fall across the detritus, mimicking the senseless and chaotic destruction of lives in wartime. You can read a fine article about it and him here and see him talk about it here.

Luckily, some of his figurative work dealing with the conflict in Kosovo  is also on view at Buffalo Big Print and is also a must see, running until June 1st. It’s a great opportunity to see the breadth of work that Perrone makes, with the charged, sparse drawings offering a look at a different medium with the same message.

As if offering to include me in the project’s promotion and attending my opening wasn’t enough, Ben was also kind enough to answer some questions from me about his work, the installation and the state of activist art today. The interview is after the jump…

A Quick Note

I’ll be heading to PA for a little trip (actually, I’m already gone. Isn’t the power of the internet awesome?), so I likely won’t be around again until mid-week. Do stay tuned for the long-awaited return of ATM on Saturday, though; it’s going to blow your MIND. I’m also going to try to get a read on the Sestak-Spector battle from my friends and family across the Keystone State, so I’ll have a full report when I return.

Have a safe weekend everyone! Ciao!

New Stuff is Coming!!!

This is a big week for me, so I apologize for not having much time to blog.There’s lots of crazy developments that I would love to tackle: the crazy Arizona immigration bill, financial reform, immigration reform, the climate bill, midterm elections. But, seeing as how nobody’s paying me to write this crap, it’s just a hobby.

The interviews I did will be posted in TWO new Art That Matters features this weekend, so you’ll definitely want to check back on those. I also finished my thesis paper, a defense of the practice of painting. I’m going to propose it for presentation at next year’s CAA, so I’ll keep you posted on how that’s going. I may even be able to post it here in series format… we’ll see.

In other art news, I’m participating with a number of Media Studies students in a performance/installation collaboration for Hallwalls’ Artists+Models:Stimulus event on Saturday. We’re doing an interpretation of Georges Bataille’s The Story of the Eye. It is going to be pretty insane and I have a feeling we might be the talk of the event. If you don’t know what The Story of the Eye is all about, then please be forewarned before you start to read it: it is a pretty graphic exploration of sexual and cultural taboos. Definitely not for the faint of heart!

Hopefully, I’ll have some more time for blogging soon, but it’s shaping up to be one crazy Summer. If you’ve been following me, then please send me a note or comment on a story so I know you’re still out there!

Art that Matters: Update

So, there was no Art That Matters this week and for that, I apologize. I’m working on a couple of interviews and when we get those done, there will be a extra special edition, possibly next weekend. There’s also some other features I’ll be trying to implement this week so check back to see what’s new.

In other news, I have some thoughts on the OKC Bombing Anniversary and the gun Nut Rally in DC, so there should be a couple new posts by this evening. Trying to keep up with current events is tough when you’re also trying to finish a Master’s program, but somehow… I’ll persevere.

Whew!

My apologies, but posting might get kind of light through Saturday. I’m installing my thesis show and I will be busy, busy. There’s a chance I might sneak away for a little news-watching, but I don’t know how much blogging will get done. I do have some cool things lined up for Art that Matters though, so be sure to keep checking back!

Art That Matters: Sarah Rahbar

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, I maintained a fairly strong presence on Myspace. One of my favorite things to do there was search for other artists who might be inhabiting that maddening crowd with me. Despite the sometimes overwhelming flood of crap, Myspace is actually pretty fertile territory for artists of all stripes. Every so often, I would stumble across work that seemed out of place within the confines of the social media neighborhood, if only because it seemed too good. It’s not that Myspace isn’t home to plenty of talented and professional artists. It’s just that the ratio of spectacular to trite is pretty low. Luckily, that’s not the case with Iranian-born artist, Sarah Rahbar.

Oppression I

As soon as I saw her profile picture, I knew that I would have to see what else she was up to. As it turns out, the additional photos she displayed on her page struck me in the same way. The simplicity of these early pieces belie the power and punch of their presence. Her eyes stare out in the photos, defiant, from behind a traditional Muslim veil and headscarf made from the Iranian and American flags. In some, her face is completely covered, metaphysically erased by competing cultures and oppressed by their symbols. Rahbar deftly excavates the layers of signification inherent in nationalism and exploits them to illustrate varied types of oppression: of women in Muslim society, of immigrants in American society, of the clash between East and West, of truth lost in the sea of information that purports to give us meaning but actually only buries our sense of understanding. As a bonus, these interpretations are complimented by a vibrant mix of colors that make the photos formally gorgeous as well as conceptually intriguing.

From the "Flags" Series

The work for which she is most well known, the Flags series, has a similarly multi-layered depth and design. Traditional Persian fabric, objects, and imagery is cut apart and re-sewn into hybrid American flags that seem tattered and frail, as if they might just fall apart at any moment. Even as it hearkens back to semi-romantic and discarded notions of “women’s work”, it also speaks to empowerment vs. disenfranchisement, a freedom of expression filtered through the prism of international politics, national identity, and personal frustration. As an Iranian living and working in the US, Rahbar brings to bear all the challenges inherent in her situation while asserting a place for herself in the midst of cultural flux. Her flags speak a language that comes not only from her but from her country, her heritage, and her appointment with ours. They contain codes and symbolism that need not be translated to elucidate. Patchwork color and texture become a tangible voice that embodies the experience of being caught between worlds without needing to shout to be heard.

It is tempting to compare her work with another well-known Iranian artist, Shirin Neshat. Both deal with Iranian society and all the misconceptions that the West holds about it. But whereas Neshat’s work is sprawling and dream-like in its scope, Rahbar’s is more personal, more direct. Not content to deal solely with the surreal, she reconfigures the symbols of culture into concrete statements that feel as though they should have been made before, even if they weren’t. The work has a familiarity that seduces and draws you into its world. Even if we do not grasp the details of the narrative she creates, we understand that there is a complexity here that goes beyond formal beauty. Rahbar accomplishes a rare feat in that she balances the formal and conceptual in a way that enhances both and creates work that is as intoxicating to look at as it is to interpret.

Art That Matters, Pt. 2

I’ve been thinking about how to organize this place a little better. It seems to me that breaking the coverage up into prescribed days might be a good habit to get into. Of course, given my irregular posting schedule, this might be a bit pie-in-the-sky. In any event, I’m going to try to cover politics during the week, perhaps with Quick Hits coming on Fridays, and leave the Art writing for the weekends. Now, that may change as circumstances warrant, but it might help me to organize my content for YOU, my esteemed readers.

"...and Counting"

All that said, I direct you now to the amazing work of New York based Iraqi artist, Wafaa Bilal. The project that first attracted my attention was Domestic Tension from 2007. The performance was a month long confinement of the artist that was broadcast via the internet to the world. During the month, Bilal chatted with people while holed up in his self-constructed cell. This relatively benign confinement was made into something else entirely by this one fact: visitors to his website could choose to operate a paint ball gun and shoot at the artist. A pretty stock “cell” performance was thus transformed into a disturbing reflection on conflict and technology. He kept a video blog of the entire 30 day ordeal which you can visit here. I can only imagine the mental fatigue of being at the mercy of the anonymous internet for a whole month and his videos make clear what a harrowing experience it was. Of course, the piece is meant to deal with the even more gruesome situation of countless citizens of Baghdad and the anxiety of being trapped in their own homes while war and violence reigns supreme outside the walls. The piece was inspired by his brother’s death at the hands of shrapnel during conflict in Najaf.

His current work is in the same vein, although it takes an even more personal tack. …And Counting is a border-less map of Iraq tattooed on the artist’s back, with a dot for every coalition and Iraqi death thus far. Considering that there have been over 5,000 coalition and an estimated 10,000 Iraqi deaths makes this an intense physical ordeal. Bilal is no stranger to pain, having lived under Saddam’s regime, and so it is only natural to use his body as the medium for his work. Although I find the paint ball piece to be much more disturbing and effective, I think ...And Counting is powerful in its own right.

I’m very excited when artists with direct connections to conflict and violence use their experiences as raw material. I’ve long maintained that art is meant to deal with our world in an engaging and challenging way and especially the aspects of it that are disturbing. Bilal brings his life into his art with an eye towards raising awareness of serious  issues at which viewers may other wise balk. It’s no question that living through the trauma of war is difficult; bringing that experience into the practice of art brings with it a whole new level of difficulty. Wafaa Bilal handles the controversy of such an act quite well. He achieves a delicate balance between art and activism that should be an example to artists everywhere.

(via We Make Money Not Art)