marshallastor.com » politics

Shepard Fairey x Westboro Baptist Church

marshall — Tue, 31 May 2011 04:10:04 +0000

Apparently this image is of Shirley Phelps-Roper, of the Westboro Baptist Church, from a protest back in March. It’s not just impressionistic tweens, Democrat soccer moms and McGraffiti wannabees that are sporting Shepard Fairey’s brand these days, it’s also subhuman media children in the name of omnidirectional hatred who have joined his posse. Who knew helvetica could look so ugly?

Glenn Beck on Art

marshall — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 19:35:35 +0000

Over at Huffington Post, ARTINFO has a fun breakdown of Glenn Beck’s four “most outstanding moments” as an “art critic”. I fell in love with Beck, as a kind of “straight man to David Icke” while in a dentist’s chair once, and I for one would love to hear him opine more about art, at such great length that all sense unravels from his spiel. Or even more awesome, a show co-hosted by Glenn Beck and Sister Wendy that comes with an optional Ambien and Percocet subscription. If I could come home to that mindwiper at the end of my day…

By Part 3 of the Interview, Meese Manages to Jump from Beuys to How We Don’t Know What Whales Want to Hitler, Oh and Then the Smell of Scarlett Johannson Comes Up…

marshall — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 16:49:46 +0000

And that’s just the approach to the conclusion of the interview. I think this is actually one of his more focused interviews/rants, and his general notions are more clear/less distracted here than anywhere else I can think of. There’s a whole performance after the interview… Jonathan Messe is a spellcaster, a contemporary art conjurer and he should be cloned into an army of elementary school civics teachers, their pedagogy dial with “mutate!” set to 11. He should be an airborne virus, not a person. For best results, play all videos simultaneously or don’t even play them and just imagine them while walking in a field of black roses. It’s your choice.

Artist talk at Lilith Studio. October 16, 2008.

Snippets from Meese’s performance at Lilith Studio the following day.

“You Win Every World War, No Problem!”

Four Lions Returns to Cinefamily, March 3-5

marshall — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 04:30:58 +0000

If you only see one comedy this year about Islamic terrorists in Britain, make it Four Lions, Chris Morris’ debut feature and the first release from Drafthouse Films, of Alamo Drafthouse fame. I saw this in a showing a few months back, also at Cinefamily, and for every minute I was totally engaged, interested and cattle-prodded to hysterical laughter. All of these showings are going to be accompanied by special presentations of Morris’ other works. If you’re not familiar with Morris, here’s some Brass Eye for you.

If I were in LA I’d probably go to all four showings, just to see the extra bits, so you should make at least one. Do it for me. Go here for more clips and to buy tickets. Or just become a Cinefamily member. They give a free haircut and identifying facial tattoo to new cultists.

Here’s the schedule:

Four Lions w/ The Day Today (complete series!) – March 3rd, 7:30pm
Four Lions w/ Brass Eye (complete series!) – March 4th, 7:30pm
Four Lions w/ Jam (complete series!) – March 5th, 7:30pm
Nathan Barley Saturday matinee (complete series!) – March 5th, 3:30pm

The CIA Infiltrates Flickr

marshall — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 15:43:11 +0000

The CIA has a photostream. There are no grainy surveillance shots of square jawed agents using George Forman Grills to assassinate diplomats or pallets of US currency being handed over to various shady operators, but a boy can hope… There are 67 photos from the CIA Museum, which includes such awesomeness as “Charlie” the robot catfish and a Dragonfly Insectothpoter (which is, almost impossibly, is exactly what it sounds like). You can’t trust the government, and apparently, you can’t trust nature, either.

via Slashdot.

More Fire in My Belly: Warhol Foundation vs. Smithsonian

marshall — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 19:32:26 +0000

Former Los Angeles City Councilperson and current Warhol Foundation President Joel Wachs has written a letter condemning the Smithsonian’s censoring of Wojnarowicz’s Fire in My Belly, threatening to stop financing exhibitions at the Smithsonian if the work is not reinstalled. The Warhol Foundation supported Hide/Seek to the tune of $100,000, and has given $375,000 to the Smithsonian in the past four years.

Washington City Paper has the Smithsonian’s response to the threat, that being “the Smithsonian’s decision to remove the video was a difficult one and we stand by it”.

Hide/Seek Momentum Keeps Growing

marshall — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 16:01:53 +0000

Hideseek.org is up, a clearinghouse of Hide/Seek & Fire in My Belly information, including a listing of all screenings. The Hammer Museum in LA, Yerba Buena in SF, Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, The Wexner in Ohio, SFMOMA , Boston ICA, Contemporay Arts Museum Houston, Stanford and many others are now showing Wojnarowicz’s work in response to the Smithsonian’s censorship of Fire in My Belly.

Fire in My Belly has also made a brief reappearance at the National Portrait Gallery, projected on the exterior of the building, as seen at top.

Stephen Colbert on A Fire in My Belly

marshall — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 19:36:25 +0000

The Colbert Report

Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Tip/Wag – Art Edition – Brent Glass

www.colbertnation.com

Colbert Report Full Episodes

Political Humor & Satire Blog

March to Keep Fear Alive

Fire in My Belly bit starts at about 2:50. Stephen Colbert (who it’s worth noting, is a devout Catholic), mocks representative Congressman Eric Cantor’s criticism of Fire in My Belly as an attack on Christians at Christmastime in a beautiful display of pretentious artspeak that accomplishes a nice looping logic connecting the current crisis to the Helms era de-funding of the NEA and Andres Serrano’s Piss Christ. Colbert points out that Eric Cantor is the only Republican Jew in Congress. Oy vey…

Almost to drive home the point further, Stephen follows up his commentary on the censorship of Fire in My Belly by having on Smithsonian National Museum of American History Director Brent Glass, who announces that Stephen’s portrait is going back on display at the Museum of American History. Make of that what you will.

Hide/Seek & Fire In My Belly Update

marshall — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 16:05:54 +0000

The Smithsonian has released a wimpy statement that indicates that they “Stand Firmly Behind “Hide/Seek” Exhibition”. Which is total bullshit. If they’re was anything firm about their stance, David Wojnarowicz’ video would still be on display. If we are going to have to fight another culture war to defend the rights of free expression in the arts in America, it doesn’t bode well that a huge institution like the Smithsonian goes down, glass jawed on the first jab.

Diamanda Galás has responded to the removal of Fire in My Belly. Unlike the Smithsonian’s glass jawed response to pressure, Diamanda counter punches with argument that “Fire in My Belly is a holy film”. Someone give her a regular New York Times editorial column.

Brian Logan of The Guardian has an interview with Hide/Seek curator Johnathan Katz, who was not consulted prior to the work being pulled. That is a low-class maneuver, that stinks of weakness on the part of the institution.

Museums and galleries are responding by showing work by Wojnarowicz. The Indianapolis Museum of Art is mounting (Untitled) One day this kid… and the New York New Museum of Contemporary Art and Transformer Gallery in Washington D.C. are showing Fire in My Belly. For those of us in L.A., CB1 is showing Fire in My Belly this Thursday night, December 9, 7-10 pm.

Two people who attempted to use iPads to display Fire in My Belly inside of the Smithsonian have been “banned for life from and Smithsonian Institution facility”.

Bonus Activity!

Tyler Green (who has been a clearinghouse for much of this information), has suggested that you go to PPOW Gallery’s site, download your own (Untitled) One day this kid… and put it up anywhere you like. Like, wheat pasted to John Boehner’s front door, for example.

More Fire In My Belly

marshall — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 15:33:58 +0000

For your reference, David Wojnarowicz’ piece, Fire in My Belly (via Carol Cheh of Another Righteous Transfer), in its YouTube incarnation.

The audio is from Diamanda Galas‘ Plague Mass, which in my opinion is one of the most important and moving pieces of music composed in the last 50 years or so. If you don’t own a copy, you should immediately buy/download/steal one.

More coverage of the censorship.

Firstly, there’s a Facebook page, Support Hide/Seek, that you can “like” to get more involved and informed regarding this issue. According to the page, the National Portrait Gallery was acting under the orders of Smithsonian Director C. Wayne Clough when they removed Fire in My Belly from the exhibition. There’s a wealth of contact information to let your voice be known on their sidebar, so join, invite your friends and write/call the people who need to hear how unacceptable this censorship is to you.

Blake Gopnik at the Washington Post has a piece covering the censorship at the National Portrait Gallery, and he rightly compares it to the spineless removal of Robert Mapplethorpe’s work from the Corcoran 21 years ago. He’s also correct that this act of censorship is an attack on the rights of gays to engage in expression in the public sphere. These attacks on the “homoerotic” nature of a tiny minority of pieces in the exhibition would never be applied to the mountain of heteroerotic artworks that practically form the backbone of many museum collections.

The ACLU’s Blog of Rights also has a post about this issue. Again they raise the “non-issue” of the idea that this exhibition is intended to offend Christians, and that the removal of a single artwork from a museum is by no means the end of this, that “who is to say the censors won’t come back for more?”

Tyler Green has a new roundup of links about the censorship of Fire in My Belly. Particularly “anger inducing” is a link to the disgusting Catholic League release which blames David Wojnarowicz’ “self destructive behavior” for his death. I guess it’s easy to kick a man when he’s in the ground if your the Catholic League. Again, this censorship is broader than an attack on “controversial art”, and is being used in an attempt by the right to put LGBT Americans back in their place.