What talisman protects the yearning/grieving soul from the pathological criteria of modernity that ancient, more poetic cultures would have regarded as possession by less than salubrious spirits? The body itself"that is restored by communal engagement. The body cannot thrive without dance, without eros. The body"that is attune to the songs of the bones of the earth"that lives beyond itself when taking in the evening sky.
The body that is slighted to the point of neglect by the misnomer of life spent before glowing screens. The body, suffering in direct proportion to the besieged earth at the rapacious hands of humankind. We are alienated from the verities and mysteries of life itself. Yet, the body, the forsaken body, is encoded with maps limning the pollen path of healing.
The ground before us is skeined in gold.
*All excerpts from: Federico Garca Lorca, Theory and Play Of The Duende.
Hiroyuki Hamada: I am a generation or so younger than you two. And I've spent the bulk of my life as an artist struggling with visual elements within the confines of my studio, somehow trying to find a profound connection to life that way. It's been only a decade or so since I started to really see the trajectory of our species in relation to the material reality of the planet, and the structural impediments in the way of our survivability.
But I'm learning fairly quick. I feel that it has to do with the very nature of art making in general, which forces us to grasp the essence of a particular theme intuitively and to be sensitive to multi-aspects of each element in the work in constructing a meaningful wholeness. We do this over and over in our studios. And, many of us, while we make, strive to break down an existing framework in order to see a new reality based on an unknown order.
So, the paradoxical tendency we see today, where many of our fellow artists are believers in corporate politics within the realm of the imperial framework, should be seen as the reflection of a grave crisis as well as the strength of the establishment to contain any ideas outside of the framework.
And ways to release this potential certainly can contribute to what Phil brought up at the beginning. Otherwise, the art can be a tool to embellish and whitewash the imperial framework. And I am afraid that there is a lot of it going on.
Obviously, the economic reality certainly is a huge impediment for artists. It certainly allows the expressions of the affluent to be more prevalent, while the cultural tendency against art in general, that John has mentioned above, might make artists avoid being associated with ideas condemned by the mainstream culture: Primarily, the stuff to do with anti-imperialism and anti-capitalism. One of the direct results would be an abundance of art works with narratives within corporate politics or identity politics, which, of course, can mask the structural mechanism of a global invisible caste order, enabling the systematic accumulation of wealth by the powerful few.
The tendency can certainly be seen within the broader realm of western culture itself. And it brings us to what John said about people not reading anymore. But I think this topic has a duality to it, in which the establishment narratives, holding strong roots in the society, are also crumbling with the wealth of facts and networks spreading beyond the imperial cage.
In a sense, we have a new layer of networks over our species. But it is of course aggressively colonized to serve the interests of the capitalist hierarchy. I've been learning a lot from research done by Cory Morningstarr with the Wrong Kind of Green, for example. The enormous wealth is finding ways to herd the momentum of dissenting voices within the framework of corporatism, colonialism and militarism by establishing a Non-profit Industrial Complex. The data provided by corporate NGOs and activism cultivated by corporate think tanks, corporate organizers and institutions finds its way into mainstream culture by acting seamlessly with the established order maintained by corporate media, academics and elected officials.
And I still can't see how this new direction is manifesting itself regarding the topic of discussion here.
The phenomenon of "antifa" can be seen as a visible battle ground of this conflict. Corporate media actively depict "antifa" within the framework of corporate politics by primarily describing the momentum as a mixture of "resistance" against the current administration and an undesirable element generally described as the equivalent of "terrorists". Now, the accurate description, of course, involves the third element, which, needless to say, is a genuine awareness and sympathy toward anti-imperialism as well as anti-capitalism. It is easy to assume that among those who wish to preserve the "democratic" framework guided by capitalism, there is a chronic fear of such momentum spontaneously emerging among the general population, systematically subverting the structure of the capitalist order from the bottom. Therefore, "antifa" must be rounded up to be demonized systematically in the same way Muslims, blacks, communism, socialism and so on have been cornered by the corporate culture.
John Steppling: Allow me to just interject here. And this is somewhat anecdotal but I rarely see leftists who embrace abstract art. Something that simple. Hiroyuki, whose work is non objective, is something quite unusual, actually. I remember being at a meeting of activists and leftists in Los Angeles, in an area outside the center, really, and this small meeting hall was deciding on what films to show that month. I forget really the context, but I had gone to suggest lectures on films. But when I suggested film noir and US film after WW2, I was met with no interest at all. Incomprehension in fact. They decided, eventually, to show a documentary on the homeless or something, and Battle of Algiers (which everyone had seen six or seven or twenty times). Now this is a very pronounced tendency on the left. Moral instruction is seen as the basic premise of cultural production.
Partly this comes out of an old factory marxism, but it also an American phenomenon to some degree. The old left in the U.S, or many of them, are myopic and inflexible. And I know activists who don't want to work with any of them. They are obstructionist. They demand purity. On the other side is the reality that most of them are usually correct when analysing something. At least foreign policy. So why are so many young activists ignorant of US Imperialism and why do American leftists view art strictly in terms of theme and message? I have no answer. I do know a writer for The Nation that i had an argument with and accused me of *mansplaining*. And whose knowledge of Marx, as it happens, was shockingly inadequate. But this was a person driven by career. And there is no escaping that dynamic in the U.S. Success and failure. And they are measured by economic gain. Period. Putting this together one sees a kind of legacy of the colonial mind set, and nearly Calvinist distrust of that which cant be weighed or catalogued and which has no meaning. Adorno said art's meaning was in its meaninglessness. Its lack of utility. For therein lied an autonomy and distance and potential for radicalness. I am simplifying. But there is a deep need now for the left to work at pedagogy. That is first. Cultural pedagogy, and arts teaching in most public schools is actually nonexistent today. And two, to work at developing awareness of the nature and implications of white supremacy. And third to educate about patriarchy. For a lot of bourgeois feminism is hugely problematic. Counterproductive in fact. I see defenders of Melania Trump and her f*cking Christian Louboutin stilettos. And I see a good deal of distrust that circles around the power of images. A lack of awareness. As if most Americans of any political bent simply do not deconstruct image. Rhonda Garelick wrote a very sharp brief take on Melania and her shoes. The response to that article went along the lines mostly of 'who cares, whats that matter. and best, you are bullying this poor woman. POOR woman'? Yes, that was written. A feminist said that. Victimhood. I see white people clutching desperately to victimhood. The white victim. And i say again there was a global wound that happened when the USSR dissolved. Same with the death of Castro. For the USSR and Cuba fought for African independence and against colonial adventure. They defended the liberation of black America as well. George Jackson looked to Lenin and the Russian revolution, and to Mao and to Fidel. Same with the destruction of Yugoslavia. Another wound. And this wound continues to fester as well.
White victims, and white voyeurism. I wrote a piece on Jacques Ranciere's regressive tone deaf neo racist take on Alfredo Jarr's Rwanda Project installation, The Eyes of Gutete Emerita. This was what I wrote:
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