Saturday, November 12, 2005
Another Perspective
They are not unaware of what goes on around them and may understand it more than those closer to events.
Purepecho art is distinctive in its bright colors and often exagerated humorous topic. We recently attended an artisan exibit that hosted several tables of Purepecho figurines. One two foot tall piece in particular caused raised eyebrows and frowns from passing gringos but brought approving smiles from Mexicans. As my laughter subsided, I asked if I could return the next day and photograph it. The lady graciously granted permission in what seemed to have been her pleasurable surprise to encounter a gringo who empathized with the outlook of her people.
Pocho,
Call me sick, but I would have bought it.
Actually, I think this piece insightfully points out a large similarity in our cultures and some large differences. The Purapechos surely must of heard of the 9/11 tragedy and in turn created this artwork in order to understand it better. But in our consumeristic culture, we'll explain it away as just a foolish attempt to make a buck.
But consider this. We say we try to wipe bad events out our minds. But then we tune into the TV channel that plays the most images of 9/11 over and over again. With TV we can watch billions of images in just a short time. It has nearly replaced art where the individual creates only a single image at a time. TV is a spectator sprot that has robbed us of our ability to make art to communicate and try to understand horrible events. We as a people no longer communicate, we just watch TV. It's the TV that does the communication to us. ... or you can explain it away in that TV is attempting to make something people talk about and are interested in buying.
Why is this so shocking?
Remember after 9/11 when nearly everyone bought american flag window stickers and support our troups bumperstickers for their cars? What if there were no mass production of anything? What if we lived in a land where people can laugh off catastrophes instead of launching hugely expensive wars against innocent people? What kind of art would we be producing in a peaceful society to react to an event like 9/11. I would suggest in a sane society, we would actually have art that would help us laugh off such a catastrophe and help us change the conditions that led up to that event.
If I understand these people, there will be others such as a modern windmill cutting through a nuclear power station in a Cervantes / Don Quixote depiction, or a hummer eating a gas pump.
p.s. also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pur%C3%A9pecha
Was 9/11 a tragedy, or was it, if not a victory, at least a predictive message of one yet unfolding?
Might depend on who is doing the labelling.
Excellent observations HiTek. And the meaning of this piece of artwork. To make a person think and grow and accept what is. It is to lose the battle to succumb to the horrors America, and it's imitators, constantly rejuvenates and prepetuates and glorifies. Just another form of oppression. One would do best to set their mind free and look at what is, from all sides. Expressing with art the signs of defeat of evil has always existed, and if it hits close to home, it is no less valid.
