Janet Kaiser on sun 29 dec 02
I experienced one of those "mile stone moments" today... Like when I was 11
years old, working as a waitress and serving in a caf=E9, a little girl
referred to me as, "that Big Girl". Then, when I was 16, another child said
"that Lady"... Both "personal maturity mile stones", followed by a gap of
decades...
A child referred to me as, "that Old Lady" for the first time ever today
and I came home to find someone who does not know first-hand about Christo!
It is like kids who never heard of the Beatles/Stones/Simon &
Garfunkel/Frank Zappa/Joan Baez et al or my cousin's son who had never seen
a record player in his life before (in 1989, when I had not yet seen a CD
player).
As I have been grey haired since I was in my 30s, I suppose the aches and
pains are now showing in the way a child associates with extreme Old Age.
At age 95, my grandmother said with some disgust, "All this outside",
indicating her frail body, "is not me! The REAL me, is not a day over 21!",
a sentiment I now have reason to understand and sympathise with more!
Nevertheless, today will be another mile stone, especially at the end of a
year and the beginning of the new... Everyone will be a year older and
(hopefully) wiser.
As for our (over)reaction to art in public places... It has taken me to
live to be an "Old Lady" to enjoy a *comprehensible* lawyer's letter, which
I understood at the very first reading! Thank you Dan O'Connell! (BTW have
you any relatives in New Jersey & Georgia? If so, we may be related!) I am
afraid a little was obviously lost on me, because I just thought "O. J.
Simpson" and "G. W. Bush" at one point, but I was relieved to understand
that the work of the Boxer (nice name :-) would be considered to be "free
speech" under US law.
The ability of such an "installation" to evoke such an emotive reaction is
quite awesome. The only real worry I personally have is in the long-term...
Yes, like our acceptance of a mutilated and tortured human being becoming a
mere religious icon which has lost its literal meaning, except to young
children and a few sensitive adults.
Will the whole Black Box escapade reduce levels of vigilance in public
places? Will "suspicious packages" be disregarded as a result? Any
law-enforcement officer worth their salt, will say it is better to be
called out 99 times only to find packages are harmless, rather than not be
called out that one time...
We have been living with bombs in our cities for many years. The last in
the UK were deadly nail bombs planted in gay pubs in London. It is a public
duty to report anything suspicious, even if we do "feel silly" when it
turns out to be someone's uneaten fish supper... There are all sorts of nut
cases out there, but it is not in anyone's interest to become paranoid or
over-react to "simple situations".
Maybe now some of the New Yorkers who remember the IRA openly collecting
money at all the exits to the bus & train terminal at Grand Central Station
(presumably with permission off the Port Authorities) may begin to
understand why I was shocked and outraged back in the 1970s? Heart attack?
I almost got arrested for causing a disturbance and it took me days to calm
down... Clean, legally collected US money for terrorist bombs back home...
I do not recall any moral outrage, scandalized reporting or political
soul-searching about that situation, so why should a few labelled black
boxes cause any now? I guess New Yorkers are not as phlegmatic as they used
to be? They now realise they also have a back yard?
Even so, I bet those boxes were there some time before anyone even noticed
them..? Probably the reason the artist wrote "fear" on each one... So that
on-lookers would know how to react... The programming of a reaction through
the sub-liminal suggestion of written words repeated several times... Yes,
simple words... Repeated... Simple speech. Very powerful. Makes one think
about all those repeated words in other places... Free speech. Say stuff
often enough and everyone believes what is being said... Powerful and
potentially very dangerous.
A very happy and peaceful New Year everyone. May we all keep our fears in
little black boxes or lidded black pots. We just have to lock up Pandora,
not the artists who make them...
Sincerely
Janet Kaiser
>>Hey, Mel, this Christo sounds cool. I will have to read up on him.<<
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