character assassin
Look what Jon from Verbal Acupuncture sent me:
This is from an art gallery by Yazmany Arboleda that opened in NYC entitled The Assassination of Barack Obama. In actuality, it’s about the character assassination brought about through media coverage of Obama during this primary season. The gallery opened alongside The Assassination of Hillary Clinton.
From its press release:
The installation explores the figurative, but highly effective attempts by the American populace to assassinate Barack Obama’s reputation during his historic candidacy for president. Reflecting the sentiment that no one is without blame or responsibility, Arboleda shows the extreme effects of a society intent on castrating anyone in power.
Yesterday morning Aboleda tried to set up the exhibit in Midtown across the street from the NY Times building, but by 9:30am the cops had taken him into custody to be questioned (disallowing media coverage) and covered up the word “assassination” with censo[red] tape.
It’s interesting to see all of this unfold…at what point did we start being so polite? Maybe around the time they started blanking out Biggie’s line “blow up like the World Trade” on “Juicy.” Now an art gallery with the word “assassin” on it gets shut down with the swiftness. In the same country that screened The Assassination of a President on screens everywhere. On the news everyone’s evaluating if America has “healed” from racism since we might have a black president. Like it was a parasite, or a disease, that America acquired. Like it wasn’t always like that.
Nobody wants to talk about it. But everybody’s thinking about it. Even the people my age, who only know of assassination like some phantom concept that we toss around during Big and Pac conversations, paranoia quivering from our tongues. People my age, we don’t know assassination like our parents do. Like they know Lennon. And Kennedy. And Malcolm. We weren’t even alive to see Reagan get shot.
So what is it that makes it so that even the high schoolers I talk to respond to the word “Obama” with the word “assassination” like some sick game of Taboo? These people know of assassination through 50 Cent. Theirs still live, even after 5 shots. And really, no one knows exactly how we would react if something were to happen. It’s that instinctual sour taste in our mouths, that taste that made me feel like I could rejoice for Barack taking the nomination, but rejoice with caution. Surely, we live in a sensitive era. But what’s the expense for not talking about things that we don’t want to happen? What’s up with this jinx society? People with their noses deep in The Secret don’t want to speak assassination into existence and so the conversation falls limp. So isn’t it the role of the artist to uncover the topics no one wants to talk about? Or would this be considered irresponsible and in bad taste?
I’m interested to know what folks think of this whole…thing…being cooped in my apartment writing has gotten me all weird and artsy.
Check out the galleries here:
www.theassassinationofbarackobama.com
www.theassassinationofhillaryclinton.com
And then watch this:
June 5th, 2008 at 7:58 am
i usually don’t make comments about things that i don’t fully understand, which i probably why i never comment on any of your political posts. but i do know art (i think). and what’s the point of art if you can’t offend someone. actually unless you make paintings of rainbows and roses your probably going to offend one person or another. i agree with you though, no one wants to talk about it and thats the job of “socio-political artists” to put what we don’t want to talk about in our faces so we’ll finally talk about it.ive definitely seen more offensive things in my life, and there have been plenty of artists before this to challenge ideals. i think as a society we’d all like to bury our head and not think and anytime someone forces us to think. our first response is to shut them down until they sugar coat and spoon feed us less than a fraction of truth.
ohh by the way you say wierd and artsy like its a bad thing.
June 8th, 2008 at 1:42 pm
my humble opinion.
straight up, i think that gallery is racist. there’s a difference between offendin people w/ thought provokin shit and offendin people unintentionally while not knowin the full ramifications to doin such things. it’s another example of someone not havin their “skin” in the game , failin to understand the nuances of these issues. like why there’s no artistic merits in perpetuatin images of Obama’s daughters w/ the caption “nappy headed hos” or paintings of various nooses. sensationalism at its best. and who’s his audience? i doubt it’s people of color that know what’s up. i checked out his website briefly and he doesn’t get why Hillary is gettin flak for her RFK comment. seriously? oh and he co-signed Sharon Stone’s comment, sayin “If you watch the whole clip though, clearly you understand that her intentions are good, and that of course she was not rejoicing in the death of tens of thousands of people.” right.
on assassination. there are vid of older black folks refusin to vote for Obama cuz they don’t want him to get killed. this was late last year. it’s an extremely sensitive subject that should be handled with extra care. it’s a given. the threat is real. like not trustin the police. most people know it already. but there’s always somethin more to say about it. it’d be bad taste dependin on how you tackle the issue. that jerk w/ the gallery, bad taste AND irresponsible.
June 9th, 2008 at 12:37 am
that’s a good point, p…i didn’t take the time to read about the artist and i didn’t know about those points of view that he has. i think that’s very true that art should be responsible. i think in the end if it sparks dialog then that’s doing a lot of good.
June 19th, 2008 at 2:37 pm
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