Rooting
for the Radical
The
most extreme measures have been, are being, and will continue to be taken by
the powerful, based on their perceived self-interest. The resulting policy decisions, which are responsible for
the US having the worst record among industrial countries by standard social
indicators, to say nothing of the devastating consequences for those abroad,
will only continue to consolidate wealth into ever fewer hands. Complacency with a system, that
redefines genocide for its convenience, that enforces international law with a
deft double standard, and that consciously sets up and maintains the most
violent, repressive and inhumane regimes around the globe while exacerbating
inequity at home, must be
addressed at the most fundamental levels of education. The three pieces displayed are targeted
for infants, pre-school and grade school children, their parents, teachers and
caretakers. While each piece is
hand-made and unique, they are made in multiples to be distributed for the cost
of trinkets. While they function
in the gallery context as caustic social commentary, they just as importantly
are meant to be taken into the home, communities, and schools, as practical,
fun, and educational stimuli for critical dialogue.
Retribution
Stains, 22 hand-painted baby
bibs, dimensions vary, 1998, sold separately (displayed individually or
collectively). This last week of
April, 1998, the first twenty-two Rwandan Hutus, convicted of participating in
the slaughter of 1994, were wearing white bibs with a black square painted to
locate the sternum. They were
executed by firing squad in public at a one meter range. The United Nations, which set up its
own court in Tanzania to judge those suspected of genocide, has yet to deliver
a single verdict.* The minority
Tutsis, backed by the West, led a repressive government for decades before
their overthrow which led to the genocide. The black squared bibs here serve as the remembrance of
myriad moral stains we nightly (take to) table.
*
Alfonso Rojo in Kigali from a Manchester Guardian Weekly article of May 3, 1998
Inflated
Idealism, hand lettered balloon,
dimensions variable, 1998, sold separately (displayed inflated and/or
deflated). The most egregious,
unwarranted, unrealizable, and therefore extreme personal aspiration and social
standard is to demand equal measure.
These colorful balloons are opportune for celebrations and festivities
of all kinds.
Constructs
Learned and Forgotten, Two
written lists on ruled paper 8 1/2Ó x 11Ó each. The prototype lesson plans, written by grade-school students
after class discussion of terminology and concepts listed, accentuate the
difficulties of reconciling our socially and ideologically constructed economic
policies with the words we prefer to associate with our actions. The plans are intensely ironic and
simultaneously utopic in intent.
Elucidating terms such as Òodious debtÓ and such misnomers as Òfree
enterprise capitalismÓ to children is, unfortunately, as necessary as it is
preposterous.