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Showing posts from March, 2009

Talk About Race

Art and politics don’t always converge neatly, unless of course the art is intended to symbolize the embodiment of power and ideology. Take the Statue of Liberty for example. The first Iron Lady, a gift to the U.S. from France as a symbol of independence, stands tall in New York harbor where all who see her can marvel not merely at her majesty, but at the liberty and democracy that she represents. Or take the picture of the shroud-draped Iraqi prisoner at Abu Ghraib prison, standing on a box, arms outstretched with wires hanging from his hands. A work of art, yes. But one much more repugnant than imaginable because embedded in that work of art is an ideology of unmitigated power, arrogance and superiority. Or take the picture of a young family, a two-income family with two professionals, raising a couple of teenagers who are adolescently crafty and creative, both excited about their future and exhausted at the thought of how much work they will have to put in to achieve it. Here i