The intent of an artist is to affect the viewer. I remember seeing scary movies as a child and my brother telling me that all blood in movies was ketchup. It helped me understand that there was more than one truth and that no matter what I saw on the big screen, it was a trick to effect me. After that, I was able to watch just about any movie.
The ability of artists to manipulate feelings has been more apparent to me of recent. I’m not sure if it’s because of all the new projects I’m in the middle of, or all that’s been in the news since last I’ve written.
One often-forwarded image in the immediate aftermath of hurricane Katrina was a composite of two photographs side by side that had been taken from the yahoo news website. In one, a young black boy is wading through chest-deep water carrying food, and is described as a looter. In the other photo, two young white people are wading through chest-deep water carrying food, and the caption describes them as having “found food.” A photographer took that picture, a writer wrote those words. It’s ‘ketchup.’
Kanye West saying “George Bush doesn’t care about black people” on TV - that close to the release of his album - was a big old splash of ketchup that got people’s attention.
Sometimes I forget that however crude, this is all done by design to produce an effect. Ketchup.
Speaking of which, I was part of what I’d like to call a live performance piece this year. Right before the storm, I was LEGALLY searched by NYPD on the long island railroad. Ever since it became legal to search civilians, there have been armed troops, as well as police, all over the commuter rail and subway stations. I was coming back from teaching class. I was wearing a kufi, glasses; a "black nerds unite" t-shirt a backpack full of my students work. I was holding a digital camera (I was teaching documentary filmmaking.) Apparently, that’s terrorist attire. Two cops descended upon me while 2 others watched from a distance and a troop armed with an automatic paced up and down. I won’t get into the details but just know that it was embarrassing, and to top it all off they held my train door open until they were finished. The crowd around me and the crowd on the train treated me like it was 1983 and I shouted out I have AIDS. People switching seats and averting glances. Clearly it was an effective performance… however I don’t know who felt safer after that.
At least they didn’t shoot first, like they did to that dude in London.
The trick is to not be paralyzed by fear… to know that it’s all ketchup. I wont front … I haven’t worn my kufi out as much since that performance … which I know is wack. Because when we change in even those simple ways we give others the affirmation they need to further deny reality/truth.
And what’s truth. The truth is that we (human beings) are always on the brink of death. The truth is, we are a frail and mighty species with no claws, wings or fangs. The truth is we are full of contradictions right down to our design…our up right posture corrupts our spine. The truth is that safety is the illusion.
Finally. Bush’s reaction to the storm made me think of Batman’s character in the movie “Batman Begins” when he said, “I won’t kill you but I don’t have to save you”
Then I thought of all the things that have kept me from being a batman fan. There’s the fact that he’s this rich guy with no superpowers that lives in a mansion and decides to go out at night and fight crime ungoverned by the rules of law. He never deals with white-collar crime but instead opts to swing from rooftops knocking out bank robbers and masked lunatics. He never for once sees himself as a lawbreaker and is never questioned for living with young “boy wards.”
…That aside 'batman begins' was the best batman flick I’ve seen :)
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