Politics x Art

[sleepboy]

Nov 10, 2008 11:15:41 GMT -8 lowpro said:

Nov 9, 2008 10:45:15 GMT -8 sleepboy said:

Anyone know why Josh Keyes was included in this video?

I think the Keyes work belonged just fine. Sure, on the surface they might seem a little out of place, as they weren't explicitly used in Obama's campaign. Obviously, the person producing the video is hip to what's going on with this art movement, on some level at least. Keyes' politically and environmentally motivated work is certainly very much in line with the ideals of this new presidency. Moreover, the importance of the Guardian series, more so than any of his other work, so appropriately and effectively conveys the need for us as humans to act as stewards to the planet and to enact more sustainable policies as a government.

yah, i could kinda see how his work might relate in that sense but i was wondering more about whether anyone knew keyes from obama's camp or vice versa.

[sleepboy]

Anyone understand this one? Why the law book?

[devours]

A few more CRO pieces here...

www.gotellmama.org/

When I noticed that image, I immediately thought of a modern interpretation of Lady Justice.

[gildoinc]

I love this print. I keep coming back to it even though I can't really imagine putting it up on my wall.

Breakfast of Champions
By Hank Willis Thomas and Ryan Alexiev
Edition of 100
40X30 Archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle photo rag 100% cotton paper

[sleepboy]

Maybe as the tide turns a little, we'll see more of these street pieces like this of Obama.

[commandax]

Yeah... artists are obviously against having access to health care. That would be terrible!

[chetzar]

Aug 4, 2009 10:27:52 GMT -8 commandax said:

Yeah... artists are obviously against having access to health care. That would be terrible!

Yes, God forbid we get health insurance.

[evilchoy]

Aug 4, 2009 10:41:26 GMT -8 chetzar said:

Aug 4, 2009 10:27:52 GMT -8 commandax said:

Yeah... artists are obviously against having access to health care. That would be terrible!

Yes, God forbid we get health insurance.

I worry since mental illness is what really drove and inspired goya and many other amazing artists. I worry that if chet was able to get his meds that he will start painting flowers or girls in trees with dragons.

www.blisstree.com/articles/famous-writers-and-artists-and-mental-illness-234/

[chetzar]

Aug 4, 2009 11:13:45 GMT -8 evilchoy said:

Aug 4, 2009 10:41:26 GMT -8 chetzar said:

Yes, God forbid we get health insurance.

I worry since mental illness is what really drove and inspired goya and many other amazing artists. I worry that if chet was able to get his meds that he will start painting flowers or girls in trees with dragons.

www.blisstree.com/articles/famous-writers-and-artists-and-mental-illness-234/

Good point. That would be a fate worse than death!

[cgriffin]

Suffer for your art....SUFFER, I SAY! *cracks whip*

[entropy]

Aug 4, 2009 10:25:18 GMT -8 sleepboy said:

Maybe as the tide turns a little, we'll see more of these street pieces like this of Obama.

I'd love to know which artists and collectors support the propaganda behind this campaign. If this becomes a trend, I hope they come out publicly. I'd be interested to hear how and why they think the former regime, the party that wrecked America, was so much better.

I love Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight film. Not as great as say Sidney Lumet's Network or Akira Kurosawa's Ikiru. But it's up there. And so it kind of pisses me off that its cool imagery is being appropriated for some conservative moron's two-bit agenda.

I truly believe conservatives are misanthropes. I really don't believe conservatives are capable of really appreciating art except as 1. an investment and 2. a symbol of "status", 3. maybe home decor (you know, something to match the curtains or their original Thomas Kinkade and Marla Olmstead paintings). And perhaps 4. propaganda (and advertising).

So one of my heroes (heroines) is Melissa Harris-Lacewell, an author and professor teaching at Princeton. Indeed, I have a mad crush on her... well, here she wrote an ultra cool piece for The Nation in partial response to this Obama/Joker "street piece"

If you're a Republican, you may want to turn the page here. You're not cool enough to read this


Conservatives are the Real Joker
by Melissa Harris-Lacewell (reprinted here without permission)
August 04, 2009

SOCIALISM is the tag line of a bizarre new campaign against President Obama. The word "Socialism" appears across an image portraying President Obama as Heath Ledger's Joker in last year's The Dark Knight. The Obama/Joker mash-ups have appeared on posters in Los Angeles, have gone viral on the Internet, and are available as t-shirts, mugs, and other political swag.

It seems that some elements of America's fringe Right have become embarrassingly Freudian. This is a clear cut case of projection. The Right is the Joker, not President Obama.

Heath Ledger's edgy, dark portrayal of the Joker was remarkable and disturbing precisely because it was rooted in irresistible chaos, not in tight control. If Obama's critics are trying to claim he is a big-government loving, bureaucracy building, state-control planning mastermind then they could not have chosen a worse image than Ledger's Joker.

Joker's evil is banal, random, gleeful and almost effortless. "Do I really look like a guy with a plan?" he asks.

If the current political moment were mapped onto The Dark Knight script, it would be the right wing fringe of the GOP cast as the chaos-inducing Joker.

Conservative tactics of social divisiveness feel distinctly Joker-like. Elected Republicans and conservative talk show personalities like Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck used the Sotomayor hearings and President Obama's response to the Dr. Henry Louis Gates' arrest to claim reverse racism, stoke racial anxiety, and suggest that some citizens are more worthy than others.

In the film Joker rigs two ferries with bombs. One carrying ordinary citizens, the other carrying convicted criminals. Joker offers a terrible choice,

"Each of you has a remote... to blow up the other boat. At midnight, I blow you all up. If, however, one of you presses the button, I'll let that boat live. So, who's it going to be: Harvey Dent's most wanted scumbag collection, or the sweet and innocent civilians? You choose... oh, and you might want to decide quickly, because the people on the other boat might not be so noble."

By encouraging Americans to nurture fears of racial and ethnic competition, the Right similarly asks us to blow up one another. They ask citizens to see themselves as more worthy than their neighbor and to destroy others for the sake of self-preservation.

The Birther movement of the right wing is distinctly Joker-like in its sheer madness. By repeating their baseless claims, the Birther
movement has managed to convince a sizeable portion of Southern, white Americans that President Obama may not have been born in the United States. As the bizarre strategy makes inroads into Americans' consciousness one can almost see some Birther leaders clapping their hands with the child-like mania of Ledger's Joker.

Nothing has been more reminiscent of Ledger's Joker than the current strategy of massive disruption at health care reform town hall meetings. The Joker blew up a hospital. The GOP is hoping to explode the effort for health care reform.

Our nation faces a crisis in health care. The massive economic downturn and rising unemployment make the limitations of employer provided health insurance clearer than ever. There is legitimate and reasonable disagreement on how we should address this problem. As legislators return home for the August break, town hall meetings are one forum for airing these disagreements and discussing alternatives.

Rather than organize Republican citizens to engage in thoughtful debate about an important political issue, GOP elected officials are supporting tactics of disruption and disturbance promoted by the insurance lobby. Their goal is to shut down conversation, confuse voters, and rattle members of Congress. To quote the Joker, "Introduce a little anarchy. Upset the established order, and everything becomes chaos."

The Dark Knight metaphor is completed by Blue Dog Democrats. Like the film's young politico Harvey Dent, they are turned by the Joker's chaos tactics into two-faced madmen wiling to leave the nation's future to chance.

Here the comic book ends. Unlike the Joker, the Right has goals beyond simple destruction. The GOP wants to win back Congressional seats and retake the White House. Rather than offer substantive alternatives, they are willing to flirt with the destructive forces of reckless chaos.

Americans cannot simply hope that a super hero is waiting to respond to the nation's distress signal. We will have to save ourselves. We can and must embrace the messy work of democracy and disagreement without descending into the destruction of meaningless chaos.

[richardtharbaugh]

Reading this makes my head hurt, and I'm registered as a political independent, with libertarian leanings.

The article itself is laden with sweeping generalizations and talking points, and seems like more of a film history, rather than political piece at times. Is the point otherwise that, when political liberal views are presented with emotion, that is compassion - and when politically conservatives views are presented with emotion, it's kookery? Are we to believe that anyone that would oppose any agenda proposed by the current administration is a part of an organized thoughtless 'right wing' attack on the President?

Back to the preface, though...

First, great - you want to hear from this 'other side' to come out publicly and explain why they think this regime that wrecked America was so much better... OK. The former regime was termed out. Now we're in 2009. What did George Bush do to wreck America? How has Obama fixed anything? How in the world are there only two implied choices - Loved George Bush, or Love Barack Obama.

You believe conservatives are misanthropes? Italicized misanthropes no less. Why, and all of them? That comes off as an intellectually shallow, seemingly group think view to espouse, but before that's clear, do you have any logical reason to support that?

Conservatives aren't capable of appreciating art? Yeah, copy/paste - same question from above.

Not all people who disagree with you are bad, I promise.

[commandax]

I think you missed the point of the article... which was that conflating Obama and The Joker makes no sense as a metaphor.

Let's not stoop to attacking each other's politics and beliefs.

[entropy]

But the Bush regime changed my perception of the world. If the wreckage is not self evident, well, I'm sorry it's still kind of murky for some. There are starter packages such as the documentary I.O.U.S.A. and a few good episodes of Frontline on the pbs.org site (check out Ten Trillion and Counting) that thoroughly and eloquently outline the quagmire we're in. And of course, I haven't even mentioned the pre-emptive attack and occupation of Iraq (for the benefit of OPEC?). When extrapolated, what will the true cost of the war be? About $5 Trillion.

Anyway, sorry to offend... I knew I was walking a fine line with my preface. But I didn't think I was any more provocative than the Obama/Joker poster itself. It would be cool if there was an ignore feature on this forum so people could just ignore me when I post something. But the good news: My posts are infrequent (less than 1 per week!) See my avatar, just run, if you can.

Believe it or not, I'm a registered independent. Back when I was an idealist, I voted for John Hagelin (Natural Law Party) in 2000 and in 1996, I voted for Ross Perot (Reform Party). And even had a several year subscription to Reason magazine. So believe it or not, I do know it's not totally a black or white (Right or Left) thing.

Initially I was going to post that I believed 99% of conservatives are misanthropes, and even put a disclaimer there, but ultimately decided to pare it down (my posts are always too long). After all, I just wanted to re-post Melissa's article. Didn't think anyone would give a s#1+. I was wrong apparently! ha ha. I also wrote that I believe misanthropy is a defining trait of all conservatives, or words to that effect. Just my belief. It's just from experience and observation. Just like some people believe in God, others don't.

The former regime has indeed termed out. But the damage it has wrought upon the U.S. and the world has not. We'll feel its effects for years to come. We're seven months into President Obama's new term. I say give him some time.

[sleepboy]

[sleepboy]

[sleepboy]

Obamao LOL.

[sleepboy]

[prettypikey]

(Not a banksy, but I think she/he is probably really influenced by Banksy's style... I think the artist is .Priest)

[sleepboy]

Emek

[sleepboy]

[commandax]

Interesting environmental campaign by the World Wildlife Federation uses graffiti to get its point across.

[sleepboy]

[sleepboy]

Is that Rumsfield? Painting by Michael Caines.

[lubernaut]

methinks that is Karl Rove.