The Assassination of Art

YouTube Dictatorship

I was struck over the past few days by the extent to which we have become a culture driven by "Gotcha" politics. I wrote recently about the flak Hillary Clinton got for her remarks on RFK's assassination in June 68. Obama has had his share of faux-pas, although his were mostly the result of his now erstwhile pastors getting a little too outspoken and provocative by the standards of middle America. The theatrical Michael Pfleger makes an easy boogeyman for the republicans, another bullet for them to swift-boat Obama into a liberal radical, piling on to the assumed reluctance of many white voters to vote for an African American.

When I looked at that clip on YouTube, over half a million people had already elected to watch it. We have gone from the dictatorship of the 24 hour news cycle to that of the recorded image that can be played and replayed online on demand. Every single misstep that an exhausted candidate can make on the stump will exist for ever, and can have an impact that it never had before. The iconic example of this new dynamic is of course George Allen's infamous Macaca comment, which helped make the democrats the Senate majority again in 2006.  In a way Americans are now writing the headlines themselves rather than waiting to see what a newspaper has decided for them should be front page news. Which you could say is good for democracy. But there is a downside to this: the risk that anyone's actions will have to become entirely scripted to avoid any potential slip of the tongue.

And I'm not even talking just about politics. Dior quickly dropped ads in China featuring Sharon Stone after she gave off-the-cuff remarks to journalists at the Cannes Film Festival in which she candidly shared her musings on karma. 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. Even more baffling was how conservative bloggers managed to get Dunkin Donuts last week to stop running an ad with Rachel Ray simply because she was wearing a keffiyeh, which apparently makes her a supporter of Arab terrorists.  What's next? I am certainly familiar with the threat of censorship, and the pressures to remain politically correct. But you know that being intimidated is not my style. Art will not be silenced, and with your support and that of organizations such as ANAVAILABLESPACE, I will keep on fighting for the freedom of all artists to speak their mind. Yes, even using YouTube to make that happen!

The Making Of...

Being an artist is all about putting forth in the world a vision that is yours and yours alone, a perspective that hopefully many people will find unique, challenging and rewarding. But even though my signature is the only one at the bottom corner of my paintings, part of how I work is by bringing into the development process my wonderful circle of friends, who have been rallying to my cause for years now. Be it to contribute to the pieces, to help produce them or promote them, I count myself incredibly blessed that, every time I put a call out to those who love me, I know they will be there for me, no matter how crazy my request.

And so it was last Saturday morning. Even to those who know me, the message must have sounded a little more insane than usual. I was working on the invite for the temporary "resurrection" of my installations, this Thursday in New York thanks to the folks at ANAVAILABLESPACE. So I asked: could they help me carry a giant black cock around the streets of Manhattan?

A few were baffled for a second, and then they remembered the piece from my exhibit. Surely, I wasn't talking about carrying an 18 foot long penis around? Yes, I was, and the re sult was a trek across Downtown like we will never have again.

The question on everyone's lips that morning was - could we get arrested? Well, yes, of course. And yet somehow, not one of my friends tried to find an excuse to get out of it. Everyone donned on gloves to protect the artwork, and duly lined up carrying a section of the penis. Off we went. Where to first? I think it was too late when everyone realized that I had taken them right next to a police station. Some might have suspected me of trying to make a statement, to dare to go right where I shouldn't. And maybe I was. But before you know it, we were crossing a major street holding a giant, stiff black cock.

And on we went, from next to a police station to a very discreet location: the Southern tip of Manhattan, where tourists line up for the ferries to the Statue of Liberty. In fact, thousands of them seemed to have lined up there that morning. I wasn't to sure what to expect from the crowds. I was happy to see that so many people got a kick out of what we were doing, taking pictures from every angle, even from their apartment windows as they waved to us. I love this city.

More importantly, I love all of you who believe in me, who are always willing to lend a hand, a who cheer for me when I succeed. There is a little bit of you in every one of my pieces.

Krugman to the Rescue

The NY Times' Paul Krugman can always be counted to fight for Hillary's corner. Week after week, he finds new ways to laud one Clinton or another, and backhanded ways to denigrate Obama. Krugman was at it again today, turning Hillary's chronicle of a loss foretold into a reason for Obama to give in on counting Florida. Krugman almost sounds Clintonian in his determination to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.

I do agree with him though that Hillary has been unfairly attacked for her comments on RFK's assassination in June of 1968. I think she was making a genuine historical comment when underlining that it's not over till the fat lady sings, however inappropriate her example may have been. The trouble now is that too many people think she will just say anything to get a few more votes, they are convinced that she will stop at nothing to get elected. Then again, maybe she won't. What if she wins with such a margin in Puerto Rico that she can actually claim the majority of the popular vote if Florida and Michigan are counted? The democratic convention would be the most anticipated event of the year...

Hillary the Working Class Heroine

You have to give Hillary credit. Despite she and Bill racking up over a hundred million dollars in income over the two Bush terms, and despite having been the establishment candidate, she has managed to position herself as the voice of the white working class. Even better, more specifically, the male white working class, one of the pillars of her success, along with the Hispanic community and older women.

Meanwhile, Obama, whose single mother lived on food stamps, is being seen and portrayed as elitist and out of touch. Since his remarks at a fundraiser (to a group of "San Francisco democrats") about how disillusioned people "cling" to their faith or to their guns for solace, he has been trying hard to reposition himself as a regular guy. He even went bowling just before the Pennsylvania primary, although not very well (after a dismal game he declared that his economic plan is better than his bowling. "It has to be", someone shouted.)

While Hillary certainly wasn't born with a spoon in her mouth like some others of our recent Presidents.
I wonder what it says about our country that to be seen as elite is a bad thing. As conservative hero William Buckley Jr. observed in the 1960s, he’d rather “be governed by the first 2,000 names in the Boston telephone book than by the 2,000 members of the Harvard faculty.” Shouldn't we want to elect the creme de la creme, the smartest guy (or woman) to our highest office?

Tarring democrats with the label of elitists, portraying them as out of touch with the values of "real, hard-working Americans" is a tactic that goes back to Nixon and has served the republicans well until now.

But maybe what many Americans resent is not the drive to make it to the top, but rather the sense that the guys at the top form a self-perpetuating clique, an exclusive society from which all our leaders emerge, from the left or the right. What matters is not that someone underprivileged managed to make it through Harvard or Yale, but rather that so many of the people in power come from those same institutions - irrespective of whether it was easy or difficult for them to make it that far. The "good old boys network" rules. It's not what you learn at those institutions, it's the connections that you make...

That feeling is probably reinforced by the almost dynastic nature of our recent elections, with two families pretty much monopolizing the Presidency for the past twenty years. Maybe that is reason enough to give someone else a chance this time, even if Obama did graduate from Yale...

The Greatest Show is Earth

As I was looking again at pictures of my trip to Angkor, I wondered how long it would take before it becomes impossible to have such a unique experience visiting the temples when they are nearly empty. With the ranks of the middle class growing quickly in places like China and India, the number of global tourists will probably rise inexorably over the next few years and decades.

The increasing awareness of the need to reduce our impact on the earth has been mirrored by the appearance and rapid development of "responsible tourism". At its most basic, it consists of resorts designed to limit their impact on the environment, potentially combined with real or emblematic support for a local regeneration project. That trend is not limited to the countryside: hotels in urban locations have also understood the potential draw of green credentials (a good example is the hotel I stayed at in Bangkok).

One step up, luxury experience-based destinations are being created in the unlikeliest of places, for instance in proximity to areas in Africa devastated by war or famine. They help desperate governments earn some much needed cash, some of it dedicated to protecting the local wildlife. Tourists can even pay a lot of money to work hard and live rough but feel good about being involved in a local project.

But when even publications like Good magazine focus on places to go see and visit, who will rise to suggest that maybe the best eco-tourism is no tourism? How about not flying anywhere, and not discovering the last stretches of earth not yet conquered by mankind? Alternatively, why not encourage discovering the wonders of places like Iran or Syria, which might help us create bridges with nations that we are so unfamiliar with? Americans love to vote with their wallet and with their feet. Maybe it's time we voted with our passports!