They just showed this cartoon
on the "now" show on PBS. I thought it was good so maybe you will to.
Haha, That A person is pretty funny but so is Paul. All I know is that I don't want to visit the speak up sight. It seems like in must be politically based and I don't know if I give a shit about western New York. I don't think I do, I mean I live here but only for a few years, hopefully I can find a satisfying way to get out of this country at some point. I'm not to into American values and lately it's to easy to feel threatened by the government even when you're not doing anything dangerous. There is to much hostility in this country! I wanna run away with my tail between my legs and raise my own animals to butcher and eat.
Down here you'll find some stuff off the Atlanta Artist list serve thing.
Subj: Re: [ARTNEWS] Art and Politics
Date: 5/30/04 2:15:10 PM Eastern Daylight Time
From:
carrlevy@bellsouth.net
To:
artnews@pd.org
What's interesting about this is that the pictures appeared in every
newspaper around the world. When it enters a gallery and becomes "art"
then the direct assaults begin. Chilling wrap up- now we have a 12 yr
old investigated by the secret service, a teacher fired because of a
poem, an artist/ prof having things seized by the FBI and a gallery
owner threatened. These are indicators of a broader, scarier than ever
New American Fascism. The NAF is disguised in the Patriot Act. This
type of incremental creep allows for greater injustices in the future.
Unfortunately the list I mentioned above will grow and grow and grow
SF gallery owner becomes target after showcasing painting of Iraqi
prisoner abuse
- LISA LEFF, Associated Press Writer
Saturday, May 29, 2004
(05-29) 17:10 PDT SAN FRANCISCO (AP) --
After displaying a painting of U.S. soldiers torturing Iraqi
prisoners, a San Francisco gallery owner bears a painful reminder of
the nation's unresolved anguish over the incidents at Abu Ghraib -- a
black eye and bloodied brow delivered by an unknown assailant who
apparently objected to the art work.
The assault outside the Capobianco gallery in the city's North Beach
district Thursday night was the worst, but only the latest in a string
of verbal and physical attacks that have been directed at owner Lori
Haigh since the painting, titled "Abuse," was installed there on May
16.
Last Wednesday, concerned for the safety of her two children, ages 14
and 4, who often accompanied her to work, Haigh decided to close the
gallery indefinitely.
Painted by Berkeley artist Guy Colwell, "Abuse," the painting at the
center of the controversy, depicts three U.S. soldiers leering at a
group of naked men in hoods with wires connected to their bodies. The
one in the foreground has a blood-spattered American flag patch on his
uniform. In the background, a soldier in sunglasses guards a
blindfolded woman.
The painting was part of a larger show of Colwell's work that mostly
featured pastel-colored abstracts.
Two days after the painting went up in a front window, someone threw
eggs and dumped trash on the doorstep. Haigh said she didn't think to
connect it to the black-and-white interpretation of the events at
Baghdad's notorious prison until people started leaving nasty messages
and threats on her business answering machine.
"I think you need to get your gallery out of this neighborhood before
you get hurt," one caller said.
Even after she removed the painting from the window, the criticism
continued thanks to news coverage about the gallery's troubles. The
answering machine recorded new calls from people accusing her of being
a coward for taking the picture
do
wn. Last weekend, a man walked into
the gallery, pretended to scrutinize the art work for a moment, then
marched up to Haigh's desk and spat directly in her face.
On Thursday, someone knocked on the door of the gallery, then punched
Haigh in the face when she stepped outside.
"This isn't art-politics central here at all," Haigh said. "I'm not
here to make a stand. I never set out to be a crusader or a political
activist."
In closing the gallery, Haigh was forced to cancel an upcoming show
featuring counterculture artist Winston Smith. She covered the windows
of the gallery with old newspapers from Sept. 11, 2003 that included
stories about the war, a statement she insists was coincidental.
For Haigh, who opened Capobianco a year-and-a-half ago, having the
chance to work with prominent artists fulfilled a lifelong dream.
"I kept thinking someday I'll have enough of a reputation where I
could bring in my heroes of the art world, people like Guy Colwell
especially," she said.
The irony of the attacks hasn't been lost on Haigh. Among the
expressions of support she's received since shuttering the gallery, her
favorite is an e-mail whose writer said, "I'm sure that a few and
dangerous minds don't understand that they have only mimicked the same
perversity this painting had expressed."
The abuse also has soured her on North Beach, the Italian-American
neighborhood that spawned the Beat Generation. Long considered a
bastion of free speech, it is also home to many old-time San
Franciscans. Haigh believes "it is the locals" who first took aim at
her gallery since it's on a mostly residential street and she hadn't
advertised Cowell's show when the threats started.
But others in the neighborhood have gone out of their way to offer
encouragement and sympathy, among them poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti,
owner of the famed City Lights bookstore. Outside the gallery on
Friday, someone had left a bouquet of flowers along with a note
reading, "The woman who ran this gallery is a brave and honorable
woman. ... She is a true American and a real patriot."
San Francisco police are investigating the incidents and have stepped
up patrols around the gallery while Haigh finishes closing up shop.
Colwell stopped by on Friday and refused to discuss his work or the
reaction to it, saying only, "I'm sorry if this is putting pressure on
Lori."
URL:
state1749EDT0067.DTL
©2004 Associated Press
