MAIN EVENT. A Good Place to Get Started --- a.k.a "Table of Contents"
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MAIN EVENT. A Good Place to Get Started --- a.k.a "Table of Contents" |
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THE MAIN EVENT | MY GLASS HOUSE | THE PREVIOUS EVENT | THE NEXT EVENT | |
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During the last half of the 90's,
The skeleton in Barbara Kruger's 1982 image intimates the penetrating depth, down to the marrow, of memory. An x-ray is a transparency that reveals an organism or object inside-out; masks are obliterated. For me, the diaphanous imagery also suggests that only so much mileage can be wrung from memories.
Our memories
The 90's have been exquisitely nostalgic. I cannot remember a time when I have remembered so much. I am not inclined to look over my shoulder for long periods of time, yet I find myself doing just this in the last half of the 90's. Am I my own enemy in this memory extravaganza? or are the cultural expressions of this epoch contributing to my mind-out-of-time dilemma? It is a duet and a duel: revivals, sequels, appropriations, and re-makes proliferate in every venue and medium; popular culture is our heritage; consumerism is our providence.
Increasingly gentrified, simulated, virtual, and manufactured landscapes and situations prohibit subjective impact and interaction, so new memories lack indelibility--life becomes a rote blur with no distinguishing marks or scars. Hence, the reliance upon the daring, identifiable marks and scars of yesterday.
We are so nostalgic today
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Another part of the explanation for nostalgic overdrive lies in the meaning of "nostalgia." When we are nostalgic, we are homesick--we suffer pangs for "home." Home represents roots, the past, history, thus memory. Different individuals have different ideas of "home." If one was subjected to a volatile home environment while growing up, their memories of comfort may consist of the arms of a grandmother or a patch of sun in a secret place. Smells, gestures and cultural expressions and events of a time past trigger painful and pleasant memory sensations (actual visual recall or simply a "feeling").
When we seek identity in the past,
The problem with appropriating the past
The art and science of mnemonics
Malcolm X and Che Guevara are celebrated personalities today, yet the problems that provoked their subjective roles in history still exist: one third of the black male population of this country is either incarcerated or on probation; Latin American countries are still the objects of the hegemonic policies of other countries; the United States still imposes a finger-wagging embargo upon Cuba. The insurgents who played subjective roles in history are popularized, yet often the current existence of the problems they originally protested are erased from our eyes.
LOS ANGELES - A postcard is taped on the wall in front of me. The postcard depicts an untitled 1982 image by artist Barbara Kruger: the words "Memory is your Image of perfection" are superimposed, like a slogan, upon a full body x-ray of a human female.
memory has been banging its fists more ferociously against the hallways of my interior. Consequently, in a quest to further define the momentum of memory within me and around me, I constructed my own image: a female is turned upside-down by the whack of a broom; her head is severed by the word "nostalgia;" her crown symbolizes the nobility of life; a television is ensconced within her tumbling, severed head. She is made of newspaper, or at least her facade is that of press; this is the Information Age--we are cocooned in messages of identities and definitions.
My own 1999 image intimates
the impact of exterior information upon an organism; the interior and exterior are masked with newspaper, a medium that documents and also prescribes history through the choice of events they expose and also how the events are documented. Furthermore, a reliance on the past (nostalgia) for definition severs one's full existence in the present-- even if the present isn't willing to mature into a definitive identity right away.
are abstract chapters of our personal lives. When we are the subjects of our own histories, tragic and comedic experiences etch themselves into the mind and soul of our lives. Collectively, we become a subject of history, en masse, when we reject, protest or perhaps even attempt to topple ruling forces that objectify us.
that we have become atavistic. Aboriginal styled music is piped into "organic" stores while goddess worship and other pagan reverence are serious pursuits for some and accessories that accompany ideological fashion statements for others. What are we trying to redeem? or requite? Experts and specialists trot out from any emerging trend, setting guidelines for any further personal definition. At what point does personal definition cease to exist or even matter?
Part of the explanation of nostalgic overdrive lies in economics. Plot and character formulas that were successful in the past are likely to provide bottom-line gain in the present. Profitable is the sentimentality of the generation who already experienced the formula; profitable is the hunger of the new generation who seek reliable amusement.
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are we trying to compensate for a lack of identity in the present? Are we afraid to see or name something in the present?
is that the spirit of the original innovation becomes more attenuated with each simulation, each imitation. Additionally, the original meaning of innovations and subjects of history are often censored or besmirched by current political agendas. This may be why one of David Bowie's recently released songs laments that "All the Pretty Things Have Gone to Hell." I would like to add that many of the beautiful things have gone to hell, as well.
has become selective. Malcolm X is now a romantic face on postage stamps while members of the wealthy chic ilk retrace Che Guevara's pre-revolutionary motorcycle ramble through South America. Both Malcolm X and Che Guevara were assassinated; their legacies include tomes of reactionary FBI and CIA files.
The 1999 uprisings in Seattle
According to the uprisings in Seattle,
The Establishment
The Seattle protests defy
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were deemed as an echo of the insurrections of the late 60's/early 70's. The 1999 uprisings in Seattle resonated the insurrections of the late 60's/early 70's because nothing has radically (at the root) changed. The same culprits are taken to task in both epochs: hegemony, imperialism and greed. There are still many people who feel compelled to be subjects of history, personally and collectively, rather than be defined and objectified by an incorporated fate; the WTO is an industry of fate. President Clinton can arrive on the scene with an "I Feel Your Pain" bumper-sticker on his ass, but he is still a CEO of Destiny, Inc.
history is repeating itself: the Establishment is still playing the same power/money game, but they have learned some new maneuvers in the aftermath of the last spate of protests. This has become predictable: same Establishment; different faces and styles. The Establishment of today dons liberally tousled hair styles; they feed Prozac to their dogs; they appropriate Jimi Hendrix for car advertisements. Their counter-cultural motif is dependent upon their history, their perfected memories of protest; however their motif disguises, what is now, conservative, reactionary behavior. Many of these ersatz bleeding heart liberals are today pro-capital punishment, pro-war, pretty much pro-everything they objected to in their counter-cultural past.
has become a baton passed in a perpetual relay race through bourgeoisie history; it's a compulsive continuum; it is a repetitive image of perfection for the participants who so enthusiastically objected to its authority in the past. The Establishment of tomorrow may don liberal tattoos; Marilyn Manson will be appropriated for car advertisements. What facets of their past will they erase in order to ensure their control?
the simulacrum of progressive social change. Once again history is up for subjective grabs; erased memory has the potential to become as perfected as advertised memory; nostalgia can hopefully become a thing of the past.
© 1999, GENERATOR 21.
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