The Right Reverend James W. Bailey, C.S.A. (Contemporary Southern Artist)* Born and Raised in the Great State of Mississippi * Born-again in the City of New Orleans
Thursday, March 29, 2007
Spring & War Vol. 1 & 2
Spring & War Vol. 1 & 2
an Evil Digital Film
produced by Force Majeure Film Studios
(a Holy owned subsidiary of Black Cat Bone Global Media Empire)
written, directed and edited by The Right Reverend James W. Bailey
"I am a strong supporter of the Second Amendment," he announced, wearing the sort of baggy suit that made it hard to tell for sure if he was packing heat. "I have had a permit to carry a weapon in Virginia for a long time, and I believe that it's important for me personally and for a lot of people in the situation that I am in -- to be able to defend myself and my family." - Senator Jim Webb
Amen, brother, that's why I voted for you.
"I sure fixed that stupid liberal macaca's career but good!" - Senator Jim Webb
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Oh yeah. I'm really loving this one. I voted for Jim Webb. Jim Webb is a real man. Jim Webb has two real balls.
I mainly voted for him for two other reasons, however:
1.) He's a member of the National Rifle Association.
2.) He's really a Republican! But you already knew that, didn't you? Sure you did. Thank God for macaca in Virginia.
One can only imagine how the scenario went down:
Senator Jim Webb: Look, son, I can't take my pistolero and clips on board the damn plane. I need you to wrap 'em up and just take the whole damn shootin' match back across the river to the offices...got it?
Pissant Gun-Hating Liberal Senate Staffer Sucking Up For A Big Time Political Career: Uh...Senator, yeah...hmmm....I'm pretty sure it's highly illegal for me to carry or transport a weapon in Washington, D.C., especially a weapon that's not registered in my name in the district, not withstanding even the recent appeals court decision regarding the district's ban on firearms. And I'm more than sure it's way beyond being merely illegal for me to attempt to walk into the Capitol with such a weapon.
Senator Jim Webb: Boy, don't give me your liberal ban-the-2nd-Amendment bullshit speech! This is a perfect example of the problem I have you, son. Every damn time I tell you to do something, you go all Dailyfuckin'Kos looney on me! I'm a goddamn Senator, son! If I tell you to do something, your ass says "Sir, yes sir!" and gets up and gets it done. If the Capitol Police have a problem with you packing my weapon, you just tell them sonsofbitches to call me on my cell phone...understand?! For chrissakes, boy, get a fuckin' backbone! I used to eat pissants like you for breakfast in Vietnam! Do you want a chance to work in the Obama administration, or not?! Now pick up that fuckin' gun and move your ass back across the Potomac River!
Pissant Liberal Gun-Hating Senate Staffer Sucking Up For A Big Time Political Career: Uh...Senator...I've never even handled a firearm before...which end of this gun is the firing end?
The 17th Street Canal Levee Break In New Orleans As Seen From The Metairie Side Of The Canal Looking North East Toward The Lakeview Neighborhood Of New Orleans.
THE U.S. ARMY CORPS OF MASS-MURDERING ENGINEERS: WE DESTROY AMERICAN CITIES AND KILL POOR BLACK FOLKS THE OLD TESTAMENT WAY - WE DROWN THE SHIT OF OF THEM™
The report again concludes that "particularly inadequate" designs of levee walls along the 17th Street and London Avenue drainage canals resulted in their failure, despite storm-surge water not overtopping them.
Had the New Orleans area levees been more formidable, such as with armoring or stronger levee walls, damage from Katrina would have been cut dramatically, the report said. It concludes, for example, that half the direct property losses, and much of the indirect damage to the city's economy from the flood, might have been averted if levees and walls had just been overtopped but not breached.
The report also points out that resilience -- the ability of levees and levee walls to have survived the overtopping -- might have allowed a more rapid and systematic recovery.
There are things that can happen in life that can radically alter the way you will forever see things.
It estimated direct financial losses associated with the flooding at $20 billion, with 77 percent in residential areas, and an additional $7 billion in losses to public property. The report counted 727 fatalities in the five parishes in and around New Orleans that it attributes directly to the flooding, with more than 70 percent of those victims more than 70 years old.
Every single one of the mass-murdering engineers that has his/her fingerprints on the design of this man-made diaster, as well as every single poltician that has his/her fingerprints on the funding appropriations bills passed by the Congress over many many years that paid for this clusterfuck of a levee system that didn't perform as a system ought to perform should be arrested, moved in the middle of the night to a secret C.I.A. prison in Pakistan, waterboarded (we start with the waterboarding - we then work our way down to the type of serious torture shit mentioned in Dante's 9th Circle of Hell ) into signing all the requsite confessions, then handed over to my new best friend, The Shiite Cleric, to be relieved of their heads with the Golden Sword.
The more things change the more things don't change. The same mass-murdering incompetent federal agency that killed with impunity in New Orleans through its admitted failed design of a protective levee system is the same mass-murdering incompetent federal agency that supposedly "fixed" the problems with the levees after Katrina only to later admit that they didn't actually fix the problem is the same mass-murdering incompetent federal agency that has again promised to "refix" the fucked-up "fix" is the same mass-murdering incompetent federal agency that is currently being funded by the current Iraq-obsessed Congress.
Where's the timeline from the Congress to kick these mass-murdering Army Corps sonsofbitches out of New Orleans and bring some professionals into town that know how to build the damn levee system right...for once? Well, Nancy Pelosi, I'm still waiting for my answer.
We New Orleanians don't want a damn thing more from the federal government than what the federal government took from us. You bastards broke it and you current bastards in the Congress have the money to fix it.
Photograph of a performance from the modernist exhibition Reliable Replacement Warhead Program.A technician services a modernist nuclear weapon component sculpture in support of the National Nuclear Security Administration's mission to maintain the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile.
Is Blake Gopnik on the Corcoran Gallery of Art's payroll?
Is it possible that Gopnik's art critic skills -however lame they might be - are being co-opted in support of a Corcoran Gallery of Art-approved propoganda definition of Modernism through an employment contract with the Corcoran that is being funded by a secret foundation supported by the C.I.A.?
I ask these questions with a sarcastic, but serious, face. Just how is it that an exhibition that hilariously attempts to sweep every product produced since the Cubist days of Picassco into one conveniently explainable art theory dustbin go so unchallenged by the senior art critic for the Washington Post?
How can it be that the Corcoran's exhibition, as well as Gopnik's review of it, does not seriously raise the question of the influence of Modernism and its philosophy with respect to the design of and use of modern weapons of war?
Modernist artists and designers were frequently driven by a Utopian belief in the power of their creations. They believed artists and designers could apply new technology, combined with a single, all-embracing methodology, to every part of the manufactured environment—including buildings, furnishings, products, interiors, signage, posters, and clothing—to significantly improve people’s physical and psychological conditions. This passion, together with political transformations taking place throughout the world, gave the Modernists powerful motivation. They believed in a “total art”; the idea that all art should work in unison to transform the environment. How their work looked was just one of their concerns; what it meant and how it was used were equally important.
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With respect to the modern artist, the ultimate "'Uptoian' belief in the power of their creations" was realized at Los Alamos. The modernist obession with applying new technology to transform the world - especially the local environment - reached its zenith in an American desert. The modern artists of Los Alamos were also concerned with how their work looked, as well as with what their work meant and how their work was to be used. And as is the proven case with most "utopian" white male Western artists who are obessed with their modernist dreams, the disturbing fact that one cold metal design may prove to be more harmful than helpful simply means that you apologize (or not) for your contribution to inhumanity, if, and only if, you feel so guilt-inclined to do so.
"There is no group of people in this country whose record over the last 20 years has been more pre-eminent in the service of their country than all of you here in this small community in New Mexico. We want to express our thanks to you. It is not merely what was done during the days of the second war, but what has been done since then, not only in developing weapons of destruction which, by irony of fate, help maintain the peace and freedom but also in medicine and space and all other related fields which can mean so much to mankind if we can maintain the peace and protect our freedom." - President John F. Kennedy (1962)
Modernism is the most powerful art form that has ever been employed by the United States to serve it's war agenda.
They could inform the curved bumpers of a Nazi car such as the "Strength Through Joy" (later dubbed the "Volkswagen," the "people's car") but also the decadent pleasures of a handmade sterling silver teapot with an ebony handle, designed by Marianne Brandt at the Bauhaus -- a school closed down by the Nazis. - Blake Gopnik
Strangely, Gopnik fails to mention in his propoganda hymn to Modernism how this school of thought informed the design of Nazi-constructed gas chambers.
The hand-carving of the Arts and Crafts movement was built on the same utopian ideals as machine-age modernism. - Blake Gopnik
Wrong, Blake. The difference between the utopian ideals of the Arts and Crafts movement and Modernism is that the gentle folks working in the Arts and Crafts movement would never have conceived of, let along built, weapons of mass destruction. Only the sadistic mind that is the white male Western artistic ego and arrogance that could imagine such a thing as Modernism in the first place could possibly conceive of deploying such inhuman design qualities in the service of building such little boy toys as intercontinental ballistic missiles.
It is absolutely amazing to me that Blake Gopnik fails to critically attack the base level fraudulent premise of "Modernism: Designing a New World, 1914-1939", that fraudulent premise being that the white Western male artist majority that conceived and created Modernism were ever capable of truly envisioning a real Utopia.
The greatest scam ever sold in the art world is the idea that white male artists from Europe and the United States have the ability to generate original thought with regard to making the world a safer and more peaceful place for all to live. If 100 years plus of Modernism has taught humankind anything, then surely it is the tragic lesson that when white people deploy art in the service of the state what you will inevitably wind up with is something akin to Nazi Germany.
It's no accident that no other art system of thought has so informed the design of weapons of mass destruction than Modernism. Nuclear weapons are the ultimate modernist expression of the uptonian dreams conceived by white male Western artists.
The legacy of Modernism is this: The most powerfully destructive weapons ever designed were built during the modernist era by the most powerful group of people on Earth.
Modernism's Real Meanings by Blake Gopnik, official modernist flack art critic for the Corcoran Gallery of Art
Interpolated below for your intellectual edification.
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The United States continues a fundamental shift in national security strategy to address the realities of the 21st Century. The Administration’s Nuclear Posture Review (NPR), completed in December 2001, presents a national security environment in which threats may evolve more quickly and be less predictable and more variable than in the past. The NPR recognizes the need to transition from a threat-based nuclear deterrent with large numbers of deployed and reserve weapons to a deterrent consisting of a smaller nuclear weapons stockpile with greater reliance on the capability and responsiveness of the Department of Defense (DOD) and NNSA infrastructure to respond to threats.
And still the show isn't anything like comprehensive. Especially in the fine arts, there's more great modernism out there than any single exhibition could present. In all areas of modernism, there are more important, complex arguments to make than can be touched on in the wall texts of a single survey show. You could argue that "Modernism: Designing a New World" may be big, but it's not particularly clever.
The NNSA infrastructure must be able to meet new requirements in a timely and agile manner while also becoming more sustainable and affordable. Such actions as consolidating the nuclear weapons complex and placing an emphasis on practical and streamlined business practices are critical to this transformation. Efforts are underway, for example, to consolidate the facilities and infrastructure currently supporting the stockpile stewardship program. This program is the critical, science-based effort to provide confidence in the safety, reliability, and effectiveness of U.S. nuclear weapons, but it is supported by a Cold War infrastructure in need of transformation.
Yet the failures of this show are what make it such a success.
A technician services a nuclear weapon component in support of the NNSA’s mission to maintain the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile.
The exhibition makes the standard argument that modernism is really about imagining utopia, then using new design to get us there. That's got some problems. There's the fact that cubism, the home ground of modernism, was hardly a utopian movement -- or no more than any artistic movement that believes it has advanced from what was done before. And that some of Europe's very first minimal, modern abstractions were by dadaists Sophie Taeuber and Jean Arp, who were more interested in anarchy and the absurd than in forging a promising future for mankind.
The 2007 Budget proposal of $6.4 billion for Weapons Activities strongly supports the implementation of the responsive infrastructure and the ongoing program of work that forms the backbone of the nuclear weapons deterrent. Key programs funded in this area include Directed Stockpile Work, Science and Engineering, Readiness in Technical Base and Facilities, and Security.
More crucially, it's not clear that such social and political ideas are enough to cause any particular kind of art or design. After all, is bent chrome more inherently utopian than a bunch of floral decoration, straight out of the Garden of Eden? The hand-carving of the Arts and Crafts movement was built on the same utopian ideals as machine-age modernism.
Directed Stockpile Work (DSW) ensures the viability of the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile by maintaining and refurbishing warheads to ensure their safety, reliability, and effectiveness. The 2007 Budget provides a total of $1.4 billion, which will sustain DSW work while accelerating materials consolidation and weapons dismantlement.
A cause that can have almost any outcome doesn't explain much.
A total of $426 million in 2007 supports the Science and Engineering programs that develop the tools and capabilities needed to certify the continued effectiveness of the nuclear stockpile well into the future. This work will remain critical as the United States reduces the number of operationally deployed warheads to between 1,700 and 2,200 over the next 10 years. Readiness in Technical Base and Facilities underpins the stockpile work by providing $1.7 billion for the operation and maintenance of existing facilities and construction of new facilities that have continued to decay since the end of the Cold War. The 2007 Budget accelerates construction projects supporting the development of a responsive infrastructure. Security Programs protect the nuclear weapons complex, nuclear weapons and their components, and transportation of material between facilities. The 2007 Budget provides $721 million to ensure the security of NNSA facilities and $210 million for secure transportation while consolidation efforts are underway.
The sheer variety of ideas and warring "-isms" on display in this show reveal that modernism can't be tied down to any one or two or 10 of them. In fact the glory of modernism, like the glory of many watersheds in art, is that it produced a single set of potent forms that could be used to do so very many different things.
Preventing Nuclear Terrorism
That's what this show proves.
Preventing weapons of mass destruction from falling into the hands of terrorists is a top national security priority. The 2007 Budget proposal of $1.7 billion strongly supports the international programs that deny terrorists materials, technology, and expertise needed to develop or acquire nuclear weapons.
Just as the lifelike figures of Renaissance art could happily inhabit both a sternly religious altarpiece and the naughty pictures of a sybarite -- as well as gracing the walls of a modern museum -- while serving all those functions brilliantly, so the new, pared-down forms of modernism could be employed to all sorts of ends. They could inform the curved bumpers of a Nazi car such as the "Strength Through Joy" (later dubbed the "Volkswagen," the "people's car") but also the decadent pleasures of a handmade sterling silver teapot with an ebony handle, designed by Marianne Brandt at the Bauhaus -- a school closed down by the Nazis.
The sprawling nuclear complex of the former Soviet Union remains a focal point of U.S. nonproliferation efforts. At the Bratislava meetings in February 2005, Presidents Bush and Putin agreed to a number of nuclear security initiatives to accelerate Russian-U.S. cooperative efforts. The Budget proposal of $129 million for these activities supports completing security upgrades at Russian nuclear warhead storage sites by 2008.
The point isn't -- and this is crucial -- that modernist forms are really without meaning, or that all you need to do is look at them to get what they might mean. It's that, like most great art, modernism provides a hugely powerful toolbox of possibilities, helping us say and mean a thousand different things. Modernism is full of meanings, which often stretch beyond the abstruse words some artists found to talk about the novel forms they had invented.
Following Libya’s strategic decision in December 2003 to dismantle its nuclear program, NNSA provided critical technical expertise in support of the dismantlement effort. The photo shows a Libyan centrifuge casing.
We shouldn't expect that visiting even the largest show about a movement such as modernism, or studying its history, will tell us some single thing it is "really" about. Even reading what its founders said will not do that. Its history, and their words, merely expand our understanding of the movement's range and power.
Unsecured nuclear materials throughout the world, and their attendant technology and expertise, pose a significant threat to U.S. national security. In the 2007 Budget, the Administration proposes $107 million, an increase of $10 million over 2006, for expanded and accelerated efforts to secure and/or remove at-risk nuclear and radioactive material worldwide through the Global Threat Reduction Initiative. Another $84 million, an increase of $60 million over 2006, is requested for the core program within the Second Line of Defense program, which deploys radiation detection equipment at key border security crossings overseas. NNSA implements a number of additional critical programs that support the overall effort to deny terrorists nuclear weapons, materials, technology, and expertise. The 2007 Budget provides:
The Swiss architect Le Corbusier once said that a great modern house ought to be considered a "machine for living." The modernism that informs it should be thought of as a great "machine for thinking" -- one of the greatest that we've ever built.
$269 million for cutting-edge nonproliferation R&D for improved technologies to detect and monitor nuclear proliferation and nuclear explosions worldwide; $207 million for shutting down three Russian nuclear reactors still producing 1.2 metric tons of plutonium per year and replacing them with conventional fossil fuel power plants; and $290 million for construction of the U.S. Mixed Oxide fuel fabrication plant in Savannah River, South Carolina. The facility will dispose of 34 metric tons of U.S. surplus plutonium. Cooperating foreign countries continue to participate in these activities through the G-8 Global Partnership against the Spread of Weapons of Mass Destruction, which was established in 2002. G-8 countries have committed $20 billion over 10 years to nonproliferation programs in Russia and other Newly Independent States. The United States intends to provide half of the $20 billion of G-8 funding, including over $1 billion in the 2007 Budget in the combined nonproliferation programs of NNSA, DOD, and the Department of State.
The Corcoran's new show lets us hear it whir.
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Modernism Is The Greatest Cultural Scam Ever Perpetrated By The White Man
Modernism's Goal Is To Get You The Art Viewer To Concentrate On Walking In Endless Circles In The White Cube Space
While Ignoring The Very Real Possibility Of This Playing Out Again In The Real World
Tsar Bomba was the largest nuclear weapon ever constructed or detonated. It was detonated at 4000 m altitude the 30th of October 1961 at Mityushikha Bay test range, Novaya Zemlya Island. It had a yield of 50 Megatons. Click here for more information.
TMZ.com, Lawrence M. Small, Inc., and the Smithsonian Institution/Showtime LLC Introduce The D.C. Porn Star Celebrity Photography Initiative.
I for one am really looking forward to TMZ.com's arrival in D.C. Anything that increases the heat on the scumbags that control D.C. is a good thing as far as I'm concernd.
I'm frankly suprised, however, that there has been little mention of TMZ.com's D.C. debut among the art blogs. Obviously, TMZ.com's D.C. site has the great potential to radically impact the debate about the arts in the City of War.
For example:
How will TMZ.com's coverage of scandals among the leading art personalities of D.C. affect the suicide rate of adulterous artists and married galleries owners whose sweetheart representation deals are revealed to the public?
Just what kind of parties were really being thrown on the taxpayer's dime in the dungeon of Lawrence M. Small's mansion?!
What hot male D.C. artists are the hot female D.C. curators sleeping with?!
Holy Shit! Can you believe that drunken racist anti-Semitic rant from that Washington Post art critic when he lectured on the joke that is African Art to that third grade public school art class of aspiring artist black kids in D.C.?!
Man! What about that erotic D.C.-based photographer that sold $20,000 worth of her work to her pimp daddy congressman that was paid for by the taxpayers of Utah?!
Hey, did you hear about that crazy Black Cat Bone photographer from Mississippi that lives in Virginia?! It turns out he's a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans?!!! Isn't the SCV just a heritage front organization for Klan?!
TMZ.com - Poop scooping the dirt on the D.C. artworld because the D.C. dirt is always more interesting than the D.C. art!™
Yeah...TMZ.com has the potential to really elevate the arts dialogue in D.C.! Forget being reviewed by Blake Gopnik - in the 15 minutes of your fame future, you ain't much of a D.C. artist unless you get dinged by a cell phone camera with your pants down at a gallery opening on TMZ.com!
However, TMZ.com has crossed the line when they dare to question the truthfullness of the bosom of my favorite actress and the most beautiful woman in the world. Don't mess with the fantasy love of my life, Salma!
"Condo Noir 1-7" by The Right Reverend James W. Bailey
"Rough Edge Photography"
"Condo Noir examines the tensions of over-development in the suburban community of Reston, Virginia, as well as the explosion of a myriad of vaunted progressive myths about diversity and multiculturalism in this oft-lauded planned community (a place that was conceived in the idealism of the early 1960s) during a present-day time of radical demographic change. Underneath the self-satisfied suburban veneer of progressive success in places like Reston is the reality of what is truly happening in American communities across the country – the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. In Condo Noir one sees no images of the true face of abject American poverty." - The Right Reverend James W. Bailey
Encore at the University of Phoenix Northern Virginia Campus
Encore is an Exhibition of Award Winners from the League of Reston Artists-sponsored Exhibitions During 2006
Condo Noir, James W. Bailey’s Seven Image Series of “Rough Edge Photography” Images that Explore the Tensions of Race, Class and Over-Development in the Suburban Community of Reston, Will Make Its Debut In Reston At Encore
--- Condo Noir in the News! ---
Washington Post - Thursday, March 1 print edition and online
Reston Connection - Thursday, March 1 print edition
WHO: League of Reston Artists (LRA) and the University of Phoenix Northern Virginia Campus.
WHAT: The League of Reston Artists and the University of Phoenix Northern Virginia Campus present Encore, a contemporary art exhibition of award winning artists from 10 exhibitions sponsored by the League of Reston Artists during its 2006 exhibition season.
WHEN: The exhibition opens Friday, March 02, and runs through Saturday, March 31. Exhibit is free and open to the public during regular business hours Monday - Friday 9:00 am - 5:00 pm. An opening reception will take place on Friday, March 02 from 6:00 – 8:00 pm.
WHERE: University of Phoenix Northern Virginia Campus, 11730 Plaza America Drive, Suite 200, Reston, Virginia. For directions, see the LRA’s web site
CONDO NOIR by JAMES W. BAILEY MAKES ITS RESTON DEBUT:
Reston-based photographer James W. Bailey will present at Encore his new collection of seven images, titled Condo Noir, that were created through his unique “Rough Edge Photography” process. Condo Noir premiered in January to critical acclaim in Bethesda, Maryland, in an Artomatic-related exhibition sponsored by Creative Partners Gallery.
Bailey’s award-winning and critically acclaimed photographic process of “Rough Edge Photography” incorporates the violent scratching, slashing and burning of his prints and negatives. The images that comprise the Condo Noir series are the first publicly exhibited body of Bailey’s “Rough Edge Photography” work that focus on the suburban imagery of Northern Virginia.
Bailey offers the following background on the Condo Noir series:
Every photograph is said to have a backstory. The backstory of Condo Noir is this:
All of the images in the marketing banner presented an almost ridiculously fake plastic scene of elevated racial and cultural consciousness among what were obviously supposed to be successful suburban upper class, high-end market condo owners in Reston Town Center.
At the time that I shot the original digital images of the marketing banners for this condo development, the banner was in pristine condition. The large black and white images were dramatically framed by expansive black borders. When the winds blew through Reston Town Center, the massive banners fluttered and the images seemed to move in a manner that evoked a documentary film. Over time, naturally, the elements began to extract their toll on the banners as these manipulative images faded and became ripped in sections because of the high winds that blow through Reston Town Center, which sits on a high ridge of land.
The Reston of today, for example, has a large number of poor immigrant families who live in rented, decaying townhouses or apartments they cannot afford to buy. Reston, like many communities, also has an increasing crime and gang problem. The various entities that control Reston, such as the Board of the Reston Association, one of the largest homeowners associations in the country, hardly represents the true demographic face of this fast-evolving community. And, of course, the pressure to continue high-end development in Reston means that fewer affordable housing solutions will be offered to a growing population of poor people who are forced to rent.
Over time, many of the original founders of Reston bought into a philosophical view of their community that emphasized the importance (and superiority) of their supposed progressive values and virtues in a part of the country (Virginia) that at the time (the 1960s) was anything but progressive. Unfortunately, this philosophical arrogance has led Reston down a path of political indifference to the problems of its growing underclass, with many residents of the community being virtually nameless and faceless when it comes to their participation in the governance of the community.
In the images of the original marketing banners for the condo development at Reston Town Center, one could read a mythic narrative of the progressive success of diversity and multiculturalism as conceived by the master plan for Reston. In these images all who are pictured (whether they are white, black or brown) are rich, happy, and pleased as punch with having obtained “The American Dream.” Over time, however, those marketing images began to degrade and fade away, just as the illusion of a never-ending real estate boom market for high-end condos did.
Condo Noir is about the explosion of many myths in the community that I now call home. Underneath the self-satisfied progressive suburban myths in places like Reston is the reality of what is truly happening in American communities across the country — the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. In Condo Noir one sees no images of the true face of abject American poverty.
ARTIST BIO: JAMES W. BAILEY Born in Columbus, Mississippi, Bailey is a self-taught artist/photographer and an experimental imagist writer. His art focus also includes Littoral Art projects that explore the fleeting moments of cross-cultural communicative intersections; film projects, including the short film, Talking Smack; “Wind Painting”, a unique naturalistic art practice inspired by the vanishing Southern African-American cultural tradition of the Bottle Tree; and street photography centered on the hidden cultural edges of inner city New Orleans life.
Bailey’s experimental imagist literary works include, The Black Velvet Smash and the Missing Gospel of William S. Burroughs, Cold Dark Matters, Eastern 304, Killing Film Noir, and, two books of poetry, The Despised American Edition and Southern Standard Time, all published by Force Majeure Press. He has also written a full-length feature film screenplay, The Cold, a crime drama based on a true story set in New Orleans, which is currently in pre-production development.
“Rough Edge Photography” – About Bailey’s Method of Photography
Bailey’s experimental “Rough Edge Photography” technique involves exploring the “death of chemically developed negatives and prints” through the use of found 35mm source cameras he purchases in thrift stores.
His process incorporates the violent manipulation of unexposed film, developed negatives and prints. Undeveloped film may be subjected to intense heat or pin pricks through the film canister. Developed negatives are burned, scratched, slashed or cut, as are the prints. In some cases, the original negative is melted onto the final print. The found camera that is used to shoot a particular narrative series of photographs is frequently smashed upon completion of the series.The subjection of Bailey’s film negatives and prints to his process, combined with the destruction of the source camera, results in a unique image that can not be duplicated: each “Rough Edge Photography” piece is an original work of art. The artist does not produce prints or authorized reproductions of his images.
An Open Letter To The American Taxpayers Calling For The Immediate Firing Of Lawrence M. Small, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution
UPDATE:
My letter was published on Friday.
On that same day my letter was emailed to more than 1,000 power brokers in Washington, D.C., including President Bush, Vice President Cheney, all members of the Congress, all members of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution, Bill O'Reilly and, the most powerful enemy one can possibly have once she gets wind of your taxpayer funded fraud and corruption, my mom.
Of course, if the liberal Democratic Party members of the Congress are put in charge of Small's future, then we know what will happen: They will angrily demand that he immediately withdraw from his office, then turn face and cut a timetable deal that allows him to stay on to August of 2008 so that he continue to wreck havoc.
Sorry for the late breaking news rant, but you screaming liberal anti-Iraq War jerks in the artworld that renlentless pushed the idea that if only America would do the right thing and give the Democrats control of the Congress that these anti-Iraq War politicians would actually make ending the war a top priority deserve the lesser of two evil realities you're getting right now. I truly hope you're enjoying it.
As I've said before: I abandoned the American left because the American left abandoned the definitions of words. Truly being against the war in Iraq ain't rocket science, folks. If you're truly against the war, then you don't vote to fund the war...period...no argument...case closed.
And the more I read it, the angrier I get. There's so much I want to comment on with respect to some of the more illuminating statements contained in the report. This one, however, really floored me: The definition of art has been broadening. Museums have acquired and exhibited workds in media that were formerly excluded or ignored (such as photography, film, and video), adopted new categories of artists (self-taught, "outsider"), and become more inclusive in their global reach (for exmaple, by featuring contemporary art from Africa and Asia).
Jesus Christ. What have I been preaching here at Black Cat Bone. That's mighty white of the overwhelming majority white curatorial staff of the Smithsonian Institution to have so generously "adopted" us self-taught and "outsider" artists and to have placed our adopted sorry pathetic asses in a separate but equal art category. I guess the fact that S.I. still classifies us as outsiders placed between quote marks means we still haven't quite yet been fully emancipated.
This elitist statement is repulsive and should be repudiated by the Smithsonian Institution. The false barriers that have been created by a white-centric curatorial view of modern art (barriers that were purposely created so as to manipulate the elevation of a class of preferred white "educated" artists, most of whom are white males, over so-called self-taught and outsider artists, most of whom are/were poor, black and uneducated, is a disgusting form of cultural segregation that played the major role in creating a false sense of supremacy of one form of art over another in this country.
After firing Lawrence M. Small, the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution should agressively take the lead in demanding that the next Secretary address the sorry legacy of cultural and aesthetic segregation that it the Smithsonian Insitution itself has historically played in perpetrating and validating false divisions within the arts.
Lawrence M. Small, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. The building pictured in the background of the above photograph is being renovated by Small on the taxpayer's dime as his private bathroom/spa.
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An Open Letter To The American Taxpayers Calling For The Immediate Firing Of Lawrence M. Small, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution
It is incredible to me that the taxpayers of this nation have been paying a king ’s ransom salary to Small - apparently to embellish his home and office with seriously overpriced ego-building furniture - while the very man in charge of the Smithsonian Institution has allowed some of its key infrastructure to seriously deteriorate to the point of being a national embarrassment.
Perhaps the greatest outrage is what Small has allowed to happen at the National Museum of African Art, as detailed in the a 51 page report that examines the near none existent management practices of Small:
It’s bad enough for the serious appreciation of African Art when the chief art critic for the Washington Post, Blake Gopnik - when recently writing about African Art, Gopnik demonstrated an unbelievable condescending arrogance that attempted to mask his profound lack of understanding and appreciation of the importance of African Art – pens a critique that almost bordered on being xenophobic.
Now, on top of that serious art critical injury, we understand some additional reasons why the National Museum of African Art, while under the missing leadership of Small, has been allowed to slide down the high art cultural ladder to such a low level of appreciation and importance.
It is outrageous that in the nation’s capital, a place that is 62% African-American, that the richest country in the world has allowed such an important museum to falter. If for no other reason, Lawrence M. Small should be immediately fired for what he has allowed to happen to the National Museum of African Art.
Unfortunately, all of the museums and galleries under the umbrella of the Smithsonian Institution are subject to being painted by the same brush of scandal that has come to light over the self-serving actions of its leader. Just like one rotten apple cop on a police force taints all the good cops as well, so it has come to this for many within the organization of the Smithsonian Institution.
That’s a shame.
Actually, it’s worse than a shame. It’s a national tragedy. The so-called nation’s attic is supposed to represent something more than being a mere slush fund to realize one man’s conceited, arrogant and shallow vision of Home Improvement.
Since the American taxpayers are the ones who have been paying for Lawrence W. Small to dither away our cultural patrimony, the American taxpayers should be the ones to have the right to immediately fire Small for his outrageous actions and inactions.
"The Raft Of The Drag Queen George W. Bush And His Liberal Faggot Ship Of Fools" is a contemporary "Ship of Fools" which has as its pictorial basis, the "Medusa" by Gericault. Bush, played by John Edwards, whose portrayal of Bush was inspired by a clean shaven version of Andrew Sullivan, sits lost in his grand ideas, shown as small electric lights flickering in the darkness of the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans, signifying the launch of his campaign for president. His left hand rests on the large, perfect breast of "Condi" Rice, played by C. Ray "Chocolate City" Nagin. Who, the most powerful woman on earth, is merely a mouthpiece, a token blackie who dresses in haute couture and spouts racist conspiracy theories. Above Bush is his mother, Barbara, played by Rosie O'Donnell, basking in the light, the myth of the neo-conservatism that informs Donald Trump's comb-over. At her feet is Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, played by Bill Clinton, crushed by the disaster of the loss of life of so many young female potential interns in Iraq who might have one day sat on his lap in the Lincoln bedroom at the White House should Hillary become president. Colin Powell, played by John Kerry, wears the wreath of militarism and the dollar sign vision he now lives for, after lying to the world at the United Nations about how much he enjoys exchanging white wedding sex for financial comfort in the bosom of his Heinz fortune wife. Powell taps Bush on the shoulder to make him aware of the rescue. Vice President Cheney and his wife, played by Brad Pitt and the underground Italian porn/art star Angelheart Slopjarjalopy (who filled in at the last minute for Brad's wife, Angelina Jolie, due to an illegal adoption paperwork emergency that compelled her immediate personal appearance in Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso), express joyful rapture in their perceived deliverance from having to pay U.S. dollars for another politically correct designer edition foreign orphan, now that the third world governments of the world are more than happy to pawn their unwanted children off to them for mere pennies and nickles. Dick Cheney, a "whatever it takes to succeed" type, is dressed in a gown and bra reminiscent of the cowardly men on the sinking Titanic who dressed as women in order to save themselves, the same Titanic men who inspire the so-called rabidly anti-war Democratic Party men who sit in Congress who threaten to cut off all war funding, but who at the end of the day hide like cowardly little bitches behind the compromising leather pants of Nancy Pelosi. Below the mast is a religious figure representing Theocracy and Priest-pederasts, played by Jeff Koons. Has the young man below him, played by Damien Hirst, received spiritual comfort or oral sex or another record auction sale? The angry angel, Matthew Barney, wearing a bra of tea cups, holds a large bone signifying cannibalistic contemporary art capitalism that consumed both he and his wife Björk in the white cube space, that charnel house of our dismal social progress. All the other models in this tableaux are posed as characters in the Gericault painting and are played by boy-toy wannabe designer models failed by Tim Gunn. With the exception of the black African immigre named Cyril, played by Barack Hussein Obama, who waves to the ship, all other men are examples of over educated, vegan prodigals, a result of this misdirected country under the imagined leadership of men (until I see a picture of Rosie with her pants and burlap underwear down, I have to assume she's a man), some of whom are married, all of whom who are faggots in hiding. - Joel-Peter Witkin (played by the liberal drag queen, The Right Reverend James W. Bailey)
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No. It was just a dream. Liberal poltical art never converts me, but it sure does mesmerize the hell out of me with an imagined fantasy. No. It turns out that The Right Reverend James W. Bailey is still the nation's only Holy Ghost filled slain in the spirit hard-core right wing conservative Republican NRA gun-toting experimental cutting-edge artist member of the American avant-gard!
Of course, in all honesty, I wasn't the first. No. Being from New Orleans, my artistic inspiration was the greatest conservative performance artist that ever lived: Lee Harvey Oswald!
WELL, THEY SOLVED THE PROBLEM OF RACE IN AMERICA BY JUST IGNORING IT!
IT TURNS OUT THAT GENERATION MILLENIAL KNEW SOMETHING ABOUT RACE RELATIONS IN AMERICA THAT THE REST OF US OLD SCHOOL FOLKS DIDN'T KNOW: FOR EXAMPLE, HOW SHOULD THE NATION RESPOND TO BLACK MEN GETTING THEIR HEADS CRACKED OPEN IN THE SOUTH DURING THE YEAR OF OUR LORD 2007 FOR DATING WHITE WOMEN?
JUST SMILE AND SAY "IT'S NO BIG DEAL."
---
Who's the black private dick that's a sex machine to all the chicks?
-Shaft!
Damn right.
Who is the man that would risk his neck for his brother man?
-Shaft!
Can you dig it? Who's the cat that won't cop out when there's danger all about?
-Shaft!
Right on. They say this cat Shaft is a bad mutha...
-Shut yo' mouth!
But I'm talkin' about Shaft...
-And we can dig it.
He's a complicated man, but no one understands him but his woman.
-John Shaft
-from "Theme from 'Shaft'"
John Shaft - America's first multicultural sex machine mutha...
Shut yo' mouth!
But I'm talkin' about the Godfather of Generation Millenial!
---
Ya gotta admire the drive of these young upper class rich black spoiled millennial assholes that have some how found the time - between bangin' Korean girls-gone-wild poontang, mixin' it up on the hip hop dance floor with easy drunk white chicks and pickin' up fly black girls on MySpace - to have figured out how to solve the most serious problem that has confronted America since the days when whitey master plantation man from Europe decided he needed some extra strong and sensitive black field hands from Africa to massage his poor overworked wife's back while he Mr. Leading Public Citizen Plantation Man busied himself with the task of raping the female slaves.
Of course, I'm not sure if good ol' Justin should be nominated as chief spokespersonofnocolorcode for the millennials, or as chief pimp daddy talking prick for the National Association of Condom Manufacturers of Race Blasé America: For the record, I've dated black women and expect to date more of them. My high school sweetheart happened to be Korean; I don't recall ever being criticized for our relationship, perhaps because so many other kids had similar ones.
You "EXPECT to date more of them"? Wow. I guess "they" will simply have no choice about it since you're the hottest black millenial superstud to ever walk the planet - except for the real deal Shaft, of course. Why waste your time dating? Why not just order "them" black sisters to get down on their knees and be done with it, Justin?
"My nigh school sweetheart happened to be Korean..."
Oh, dear. The old standby line of every racist desperate to prove they’re not a racist: My best friend just happens to be, My first girlfriend just happened to be, My last boyfriend just happened to be, (you fill in the blanks: "My ___________just happened to be _________.”
Uh, Justin, just for the record, how many frigid white psycho Jewish girls with red hair and green eyes have you dated? My high school sweetheart “just happened” to have been a frigid white Jewish girl with red hair and green eyes, which is why I'm asking. You see, I understand she’s still single and available, so, seeing how I often think about my first failed conquest, I’m wondering if you have some multicultural sex secrets you’re free to share so I can reconnect with her finally close the deal so to speak.
And, also for the record, I guess you millennial assholes still feel the need to substitute the word "date" for the work fuck when you talk about your relations with women. When I substitute the F-word at the appropriate points in your lame article, I seem to get a better sense of where your mojo is coming from with respect to the disrespect you have for women. Maybe one day this sorry country will see a generation come forward that just says what in the hell it really means when it uses the word date. Obviously, it’s ain't Generation Millennial.
A former college roommate of mine dated white women exclusively. His rationale: Because of the stereotype that black women are too strong, difficult and self-righteous, he perceived white women as an easier option. His skewed perception is very un-Millennial. Brothers who reject black women -- or any group of women -- are as foolish and repugnant as the white racists whom they despise. As Majeedah put it, "They're the ones missing out."
White women ARE easier targets, Justin! A white woman will do some seriously fucked-up shit in bed that a black woman would commit suicide before even dreaming about! Seriously, what kind of a dipshit brother are you, man?! You and your millennial friends should watch more contemporary porn (and Chris Rock) and get with it!
Yeah, you millennial assholes have come a long way, Justin. I also notice you refer to black women as "sisters", while calling out white women as, well, white women. How very retro of you, dude. You sound like you’ve been transported by a Hollywood time machine from a Shaft movie to the 21st century cool time of MySpace, my brotha.
Perhaps it seems that Millennials like me are deaf, dumb and blind to the continuing injustices that people of color face. Racism isn't extinct; its effects are ongoing. Earlier this month in East Texas, Chris Wright, a 26-year-old African American, was hospitalized in critical condition after being dragged by a truck driven by a 24-year-old white man who turned himself in and faces assault charges. Wright's girlfriend is white, and according to his family, the incident marked the brutal conclusion of racial taunts the couple has endured for months. The NAACP is pushing to have the assault classified as a hate crime.
As horrific as that incident was, it's important to acknowledge progress and to keep fighting for an even more tolerant society. Although popular, multiethnic TV shows such as "Grey's Anatomy," "Heroes" and "Lost" reflect our nation's and world's ever-increasing diversity, the most powerful force for bringing diversity into American homes is the Internet. Web sites such as MySpace, Friendster and Facebook have created multicultural and ethnic social networks that have made it possible to connect with and befriend people from a universe of cultures just a click away.
Shit, Justin, I didn't realize that having your brain plugged into MySpace, Friendstar and Facebook all day could reduce something like a black man being dragged behind a truck driven by whites down to nothing more than a "horrific incident." I guess such "incidents" fall into the Generation Millenial category of Shit Happens, So Deal With It! Hey, maybe if you and all your millennial asshole friends could convince the rest of America to plug their brains into MySpace, Frienstar and Facebook, we could overnight reduce the genocide in Darfur down to a mere horrific blip on the United Nation's broker radar.
In Mecklenburg County, N.C., where Canty grew up in a diverse middle-class neighborhood, the lower you were on the economic totem pole, the more segregated your neighborhood was. "In high school, many of the poorer blacks were shocked at how easy it was for me to interact with people of other races," he said. "I think their point of view was affected by their economic status."
Wow! Justin, you and your millennial asshole friends are some real fucking geniuses. Y'all figured out this economic status thing all by yourselves?! With no help whatsoever from Karl Marx?! Imfuckingpressive. You'll probably win the Nobel Prize in Economics one day.
Millennials' cross-cultural tastes don't just affect how we dress or wear our hair; they influence our romantic choices. In my case, it isn't about seeking the most exotic woman. It's about liking whom I like -- black, brown, white or yellow. Dating outside the bounds of our own ethnicity is fairly common among people my age, as indicated by a 2005 Gallup poll finding that about 60 percent of 18- to 29-year-olds say they have dated outside their race. The general consensus among my diverse body of friends is: Who cares?
Who cares?! Son, try these dating choices in some part of modern day Mississippi, Alabama or Louisiana for starters - we'll see who cares. And, hey, for real sport, try date-fucking black, brown, white or yellow girls in Iran and see how the fathers, brothers and uncles of those women react to your multicultural mercyfuckolopolooza world tour, code named Operation Condom Hookup For A Better World Of Free Style Sexual Relations For Rich Black Spoiled American Race Deniars. (Or even worse, how the government of Iran will respond: See below.)
Justin, you and your millennial assholes friends have convinced me of what I would have thought just a week ago to have been damn near impossible to believe: that Laura Sessions Stepp is right!!!
You see, Justin, maybe I’m just too old school for you. I’ve been around the block way too many fucking times and I recognize bullshit when I hear it and son your "We millennials are above the race thing" bullshit is just another reinvention of an old school Hollywood script Shaft-line for sticking your dick into every piece of poontang that crosses your barfly path.
Justin, the next time you and your millennial asshole friends feel the need to express your enlightened desires to get your groove on with every women that walks the planet on the pages of the Washington Post newspaper, at least try to do so with a little bit of soulful poetry. Try taking some lessons on multicultural sex and poetry from Charles Bukowski. Bukowski would screw any woman that had a pulse and not worry about justifying it. Life, sex and race was really not a big deal to a poet like Charles Bukowski, unlike you Generation Millenial idiots that have the need to make an international newspaper big deal out of bragging about what a non big deal it is. You feel me, my man?!
---
No doubt when progressive millenials like Justin are planning their MySpace multicultural rainbow parties, there's little time or inclination to discuss the Islamic Sharia Law implications of such hookups that are scheduled to take place in Iran.
Women in Iran are subject to the death penalty under Islamic Sharia Law for violating "crimes against chasity." It's no big deal to the millenials; it's also no big deal to contemporary artists like Shirin Neshat who don't do the political thing with their art.
Filmed on location at Safeway in Reston, Virginia.
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i address this letter to you hoping that it will help you select among the variety of pharmacy stores that seem to be everywhere
as you know
there are a lot of pharmacies not only here in the u.s.a.
but all over the world as well
and
between just us
we both know that you cannot trust any of those outside the u.s.a.
we are smart and trust american professionals only
right
sure we do
i did some national research and am pleased to recommend to you the #1 consumer rated american pharmacy store with guaranteed delivery and high-quality medications
this is what we americans worry about
men's health
anti-depressants
pain relief
weight loss
just like me
you too are a busy american
you do not have any time to lose when it come to getting your health act together
you will find any high-quality u.s. medication you need at good prices here
do not waste your time shopping the foreign market
Ask a sarcastic question, get a sarcastic answer, so here it is:
Well, I guess we could throw some American-style minimalist bullshit their way, uh, you know, the type of unoffensive art that's designed to take your mind off the conflicts of the world, the type of art that sits quietly in a corner of a gallery and doesn't address the fire that raging outside on the streets, the type of art that even the most fundamentalist of American art haters would be hesitant to criticize, you know, something just plainly beautiful.
Oh...yeah...the how of it all...hmmm...maybe we could stack some Donald Judd boxes on top of each other in a mosque in Iran and have Osama bin Laden climb up on top of them and illuminate the Koran with a Dan Flavin light bulb.
Also, why are you and your American left cohorts so incredibly reluctant to comment on the murder of artists by Islamofacists?
Mohammed Bouyeri assassinated van Gogh in the early morning of Tuesday November 2, 2004, in Amsterdam in front of the Amsterdam East borough office (stadsdeelkantoor) on the corner of the Linnaeusstraat and Tweede Oosterparkstraat. He shot him with eight bullets from a HS 2000 (a handgun produced in 2000 in Croatia), and Van Gogh died on the spot. Bouyeri slit van Gogh's throat and then stabbed him in the chest. Two knives were left implanted in his torso, one pinning a five-page note to his body. The note (Text) threatened Western governments, Jews and Hirsi Ali (who went into hiding). The note also contains references to the ideologies of the Egyptian organization Takfir wal-Hijra.
---
'When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty said, in a rather scornful tone,' it means just what I choose it to mean, neither more nor less.'
'The question is,' said Alice, 'whether you can make words mean so many different things.' 'The question is,' said Humpty Dumpty, 'which is to be master - that's all.'
Alice was too much puzzled to say anything; so after a minute Humpty Dumpty began again. 'They've a temper, some of them - particularly verbs: they're the proudest - adjectives you can do anything with, but not verbs - however, I can manage the whole lot of them! Impenetrability! That's what I say!'
'Would you tell me, please,' said Alice, 'what that means?'
'Now you talk like a reasonable child,' said Humpty Dumpty, looking very much pleased. 'I meant by "impenetrability" that we've had enough of that subject, and it would be just as well if you'd mention what you mean to do next, as I suppose you don't mean to stop here all the rest of your life.'
'That's a great deal to make one word mean,' Alice said in a thoughtful tone.
'When I make a word do a lot of work like that,' said Humpty Dumpty, 'I always pay it extra.'
---
Mr. Kennicott,
Just exactly what is your American left definition of the word "torture"?
Problem: Hundreds of thousands of black Africans have been (and continue to be) killed by Islamofacists in a genocidal campaign of terror being waged in Darfur. The American left is reluctant to admit what is really happening in Darfur because to do so would give the false impression that, by condeming the actions of the Islamofacists in Darfur, they are giving unintended support to George W. Bush's view of the world.
As an artist who loves books - and a former liberal artist at that, I might add, who long ago abandoned American-style liberalism because American-style liberalism abandoned the definitions of words - I read your latest blame-America-first-for-all-the-evil-in-the-world article with great interest. Indeed, given the rich abandonment of the definitions of certain words in this piece I actually thought I was reading a plagazied version of the reputed lost chapter from Alice in Wonderland.
Important words have been turned into corn flakes by you and the American left, Mr. Kennicott. That’s a real shame because important words like torture, murder and genocide as once spoken by liberals used to mean something. Today, and unfortunately, such words - words that have been stripped of importance and redefined into nothing more than meaningless political conceits - are a joke, and a cruel joke at that.
Let’s be honest with each other: The words you use in your article are simplistically defined by your rabid opposition to the perceived power and faults of the Bush administration. Since Bush & Company assumed control of the White House, you and the American left have recklessly sought to define yourselves not by what you believe in, but by what you believe you are against. You have sacrificed the definitions of words (and their meanings) to justify and rationalize a singular hatred – a hatred of President George W. Bush.
For example, let’s examine what you and the American left have done with respect to redefining the word “genocide”. This word once had meaning to the American left. But the word genocide, as written and spoken today by the American left, means virtually nothing. Seriously, and I ask you with great concern, just what is your definition of the word genocide? To you and the American left the definition of that word seems to depend on whether or not a man named William Jefferson Clinton or George W. Bush is sits in the Oval Office.
There was a time when all people of conscience understood that the stuffing of Jews, Gypsies and homosexuals into gas chambers were acts of genocide. But along comes a little thing called Rwanda and suddenly you and the American left are in the business of literally parsing the definition of the word genocide to death. Hundreds of thousands of black Africans were hacked, butchered and raped to death in Rwanda while the liberal establishment sat on their hands debating the definition of the word genocide. I’ll at least give you and the American left credit for retaining the word genocide in your dictionary following the horrors of Rwanda. I suppose that having a Democratic Party administration in power during the genocidal campaign waged in that country compelled the decision to continue to pay fake tribute to such an unsettling word. And, out of polite deference, I won’t be so rude as to suggest that perhaps since the hundreds of thousands who were killed in Rwanda just happen to have been black, that maybe their lives, from the point of view of the American left, just didn’t amount to as much as the lives of the thousands of whites that were killed in Kosovo, a place where the U.S. government, as lead by a President who was a member of the Democratic Party, was more than happy to intervene militarily.
But as political administrations change, so it seems that the change in the reality, definitions and even existence of uncomfortable words must be brought to a challenge by those who are more interested in proving what is wrong than in pursuing what is right..
Mr. Kennicott, there is a genocide campaign of terror raging again against black Africans in a place called Darfur. Yet you and the liberal establishment seem almost reluctant to admit what’s really going on with respect to this tragedy. Why are you and so many others on the American left so silent about Darfur?
Of course, I’m asking you a question I already know the answer to. To say something, write something, or, God forbid, actually do something to end the genocide being waged in Darfur by the Islamofacists that seek to control the lives and fate of the people who are being tortured, butchered and raped to death would be to fall into the “trap” of being identified too closely with George W. Bush’s so-called War on Terror, a war that we all understand is consequentially about the clash of “liberal” Western values against the reactionary values of fundamentalist Islam.
Let us agree to stipulate to the obvious facts: The world at large seems to hate George W. Bush. It certainly goes without saying that vast majority of American liberals hate Bush. Of course, most other Americans at this point can’t stand Bush either. And so what? Are people of conscience supposed to abandon the grand liberal view that all human beings deserve freedom and liberty to live their lives as they see fit, as well as to have the freedom to creatively express themselves as they choose, because America, just one country of many, has an unpopular and widely despised President?
Seriously, Mr. Kennicott, why is the American left allowing its hatred of Bush to drive it to abandon the definitions of words? Is your leftist philosophy that insecure? In Rwanda the America left redefined the word genocide to ease its conscience over its failure to prevent crimes against humanity the likes of which have not been seen since Third Reich and the Killing Fields of Cambodia. In Darfur, however, the American left has simply cut out and permanently removed the word genocide from the dictionary. This is apparently an easy thing for the American left to do: it eliminates any complicity of the American left in these wretched crimes against humanity, plus it keeps the American left’s false sense of morality in place so that it can continue to condemn Bush while feverishly working to redefine words like “torture” so that this new definition of the word torture is focused on the false application of American power, rather than on the brutal realities of bodies and souls ripped to shreds by maniacal governments and religious zealots who hold human liberty and creativity in contempt.
Mr. Kennicott, important words have meaning. Yes, even in an era when the majority of the free and enslaved world believes that one American president is a bad man, words still have meaning. People of conscience don’t change the meanings of words, or worse, rip important words like genocide from the dictionary of humankind, because you object to a distorted political leader and their warped political philosophy.
Genocide is a word that means something.
And words that mean something lead to actions.
The genocide of blacks Africans in Darfur is an action that should be unequivocally condemned by those who believe in human rights.
The hanging of homosexual teenagers in any country is an action that ought to be loudly condemned by voices that truly believe in human rights.
The murder of an artist like Theo van Gogh who is killed by radical religious fascists is an action that ought to be loudly condemned by voices that truly believe in artistic freedom of expression.
People of conscience don’t seek for short-term political gain to redefine the words that describe the above actions because it’s politically expedient to do so in conformity with a collective motivated hate and contempt of a politician. There are bigger concerns in this world than one miserable man who temporarily occupies a throne of power.
In your article you lament the corrupted culture of America, a corrupted culture that you blame on America’s supposed violation of your politically expedient redefinition of the word torture, a redefinition that just happens to dovetail perfectly with the contemporary political values held by you and many other leftist critics – a contemporary political value that dictates that one condemn what is easy and popular to condemn, while completely ignoring, or worse, excusing what is difficult to admit.
I lament the fact that the American left has abandoned the definitions of words in support of a universal declaration of human rights and universal freedom of artistic expression in favor of a futile self-centered pursuit of a demonized American politician.
In 500 years the world will have no memory of George W. Bush.
And so, the question that we ought to be asking is this: Just what will the world look like 500 years from now? Will it be a world where people will have more freedom, or less? A world where artists are free to create and express themselves without fear of being murdered by their government, or not? A world where homosexuals are free to live and love as they please, or not? A world where people are targeted by race, creed or religion for extermination, or not?
If the American left is going to permanently abandon the definitions of words, Mr. Kennicott, then who among us do you propose will take up the torch that will inspire us to realize a better world? Who will be the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., for world-wide human rights and freedom of artistic expression.
A philosophical tragedy has taken place in the United States of America. The left abandoned its loftiest ideals and beliefs. The right moved in and filled the vacuum. I truly lament the corrupted soul of the American left. It’s just possible that what the left abandoned can never be restored.
You cynically suggest in your article that America needs to heal itself before lecturing the rest of the world about freedom and liberty. I suggest to you that the hundreds of millions around the world that live under the boot of maniacal rulers and thuggish governments don’t have the luxury of waiting it out in ivory tower penthouses dreaming for the day when freedom and liberty finally touches their lips. The thirst for freedom does not die because one country full of faults has a terrible leader.
With great regard for human freedom and liberty for all, and for the right of artists from around the world to freely create and express themselves without fear of being imprisoned, tortured and killed for doing do, I remain respectfully yours,
"The only way I can lose is if I'm found in bed with a dead woman or a live boy." - Edwin Washington Edwards
Former Democratic governor of Louisiana Edwin Washington Edwards photographed in prison.
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I don't even begin to expect you normal people of America to understand the rich complexities of Louisiana politics.
When the Republican NaziKlanster David Duke challenged Edwin Edwards for governor of Louisiana in the infamous 1991 election, the rallying cries for sanity between these two slimy choices were:
Vote For The Crook, It's Important!
and
Better A Lizard Than A Wizard!
At the end of the day, although 67 per cent of the educated Whitey/uneducated Cracker vote when to Duke, miraculously Edwin emerged as the winner. Of course, by Edwin winning under such circumstances (the circumstances being the very real possibility that gas chamber genocide festivals would have replaced Cajun heritage festivals as Louisiana's leading tourist draw) he was free to do whatever the hell he wanted to do (his level of governing arrogance by moral virtue of defeating Duke was probably unsurpassed in American political history - try imagining how a Republican Jerry Falwell would rule if he defeated a Democratic Party nominated and funded Osama in Laden for President) and so he did do what he implicitly promised the voters he would do, which was to do whatever the hell he wanted to do, which resulted in him being indicted, tried, convicted and imprisoned.
There's nothing more in life that I enjoy than watching a corrupt Democratic Party politician twisting in prison, but even I have to admit that I'm with the England-born I-wear-my-superior-European-liberal-America-hating-heart-on-my-sleeve James Gill of the Times Picayune newspaper on this one.
There's no doubt in my mind that New Orleans would not be in the post-Katrina shithole it finds itself mired in - a shithole that was greatly putrified by the absurdly comical inactions and stupid false steps of such Democratic Party luminary assholes as Kathleen Babineaux "Deer in the headlights" Blanco and C. Ray "Chocolate City" Nagin - were Edwin Edwards still governor.
Yes, it humbles me as a lone wolf practising Littoral Art project artist (I Shot Chris Burden is one of my favorite projects) to admit that Haliburton is without a doubt the greatest Littoral Art project collective ever conceived. If you're serious about engaging the power of art to change the world, then do what I have done and closely study the world-wide conceptual art projects executed by this company, projects that have greatly contributed to dating the white cube space as irrelevant for "political" art that preaches to the left side of the choir.
You've probably noticed that we conservative Republicans don't fret much over 9/11 art that's supposedly missing from the corporate art structure. You've also probably noticed in the last few years that we conservative Republicans aren't bitching that much either about the "Piss Christ Cow Dung Mary" art that ain't hangin' in our big museums. Uh...the reason for that lack of bitching is because we freakin' own the mutherfuckers!
Don't believe me? Well try this, my dear liberal/progressive art friends who are searching for the missing 9/11 art beef:
1.) Go to Guidestar.org and do a search for the latest published IRS Form 990 for your favorite art museum(s) and/or not for profit arts institution(s).
2. Flip to the page that lists the Board of Directors or Trustees.
3. Run every single damn one of those names through a site like Opensecrets.org.
Wow! Can you believe that ________ who's on the Board of ________ is an active member of the Republican Party and a big time contributor to Republican Party candidates?!
Sucker.
The lawyer who wrote the following article should be encouraged to start his own art blog.
At National Gallery, Art Show Feels a Lot Like Advertising
Sunday, March 11, 2007; Page B08
Currently hanging outside the East Wing of the National Gallery is a large banner of Jasper Johns's 1955 "Target With Four Faces," advertising a show celebrating the first decade of his work. The painting is dominated by the title motif: a blue dot surrounded by four concentric circles of alternating yellow and blue. Walking in recently, I joked to my companion that I was surprised that Target wasn't sponsoring the show.
Out of the mouths of babes . . .
It turns out Target is sponsoring it, "proudly," in fact.
Offering financial backing to the exhibition was undoubtedly a savvy move for Target. After all, the show is filled with paintings that, though they aren't red and white, evoke Target's corporate logo. Johns's targets also appear on the exhibition catalogue and posters for sale in the gift shop. On the busy Sunday I was there, hundreds of people were strolling through, staring intently at various depictions of an image that has been engrained in our heads as standing for one of America's most powerful and successful companies.
As a groundbreaker for the Pop Art movement, Johns was very much interested in symbols, everyday household objects and popular culture, so perhaps the exhibition ought not to trouble me as much as it does. But I left that day feeling rather sick to my stomach.
The corporation as art critic may be inevitable. The wealthy members of society, in their role as patrons, have always had a profound influence on the course of art. But the current trend does not sit well with me. If financial realities force museums to cede control to corporate America, art may lose its magic. The artists and works to be celebrated will not be those that inspire, explain or expose, but those that get people to buy more Taco Bell burritos, iPods and Michelin radials. The very definition of art will be that which maximizes shareholder profit.
While the Johns show, which runs through April 29, presents a particularly strong example of rising corporate influence over the art world, it is not an isolated instance. Last summer I was wandering through "Bellini, Giorgione, Titian, and the Renaissance of Venetian Painting" in the West Wing, wondering why the curators had devoted so much space in the exhibition to how x-radiographs and infrared images could be used to reveal insights into the creative process. Perhaps it arose from a genuine sense that the public needed to be educated on important technological innovations in the world of curatorship, but then -- call me cynical -- perhaps it was because the exhibition was made possible by Bracco, an international leader in diagnostic imaging.
So, what is to be done?
First, if we care about art -- if we value it as a social good -- we must increase public funding so that museum directors and artists can remain independent. While the United States is unlikely to shift to the centralized European model of art sponsorship, the federal government's stingy arts budget could be increased without any of us feeling much of a bite in our pocketbooks. Second, we should demand that corporations give money to art galleries without sponsoring particular shows. If Target is really committed to "arts and education," as it says in the Johns show brochure, then it should be just as satisfied with its donation going to support the excellent exhibit on Rembrandt's prints and drawings in the adjoining building.
-- Adam Benforado
Falls Church
The writer is a lawyer and art history buff.
"Target 1979 - How To Get The National Gallery of Art To Jack Itself Off In A Frenzy Of Corporate Support For Jasper Johns"
That atumn night by the edge of the Tombigbee River?
The back seat of my Dad's '65 convertible Mustang?
We were that young and crazy in love once.
"More Than A Feeling" by Boston
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To love someone is to isolate him from the world, wipe out every trace of him, dispossess him of his shadow, drag him into a murderous future. It is to circle around the other like a dead star and absorb him into a black light. Jean Baudrillard
You didn't know Amanda, Jean, you were never loved by Amanda.
We have dreamt of every woman there is, and dreamt too of the miracle that would bring us the pleasure of being a woman, for women have all the qualities - courage, passion, the capacity to love, cunning - whereas all our imagination can do is naively pile up the illusion of courage. Jean Baudrillard
Then again, maybe you did know her. Perhaps you knew me as well.
Hey, I might seriously consider moving to D.C. now! But it will take a fleet of Humvees to transport my Southern weapons cache across the Potomac River! I sure hope the American Legion Bridge can support the full weight of American Freedom's long-delayed entry into the Nation's Capital!
Glock 17 - The Must Have Firearm For Every Rich White Global Warming-Obsessed Art-Loving Liberal Who Needs To Protect Their Multi-Million Dollar Art Collection Stuffed In Their Georgetown Mansion From The Waco Division of the BATF, D.C. Police Officers, D.C. Parking Officers, Overpaid Staff Members Of The Smithsonian Institution And Other Violent Criminals!
As the polar ice caps continue to melt, future criminals in the Nation's Capital will be breaking into the homes of, stealing the cars of and beating, raping and murdering the lives of District residents while wearing suba gear. The smart liberals in Washington, D.C. are strongly advised to purchase a proven firearm that can blow the shit out of a criminal suspect even when fired under water!
For evaluation by the U.S. Navy SEAL Team, a modified firing pin assembly was constructed for the Glock 17, and another test was conducted by firing the gun underwater. Only the Glock 17 was intended to use the modified assembly for aquatic firing, and was explicitly designed to fire while fully submerged underwater.
So while any Glock will fire underwater, doing so improperly can generate excessive internal pressure causing the pistol to, quite literally, explode - taking your hand along with it.
Don't do it unless you have been properly trained by a U.S. Navy SEAL Team member!!!
The only time most liberals ever see a gun is when they're down on their knees doing what they're told to do before have their brains blown out by a thug who doesn't give a rip about their anti-gun and/or postmodern art philosophy.
There Ain't No Way In Hell The Word Nigger Is Ever Gonna Be Banned In Mississippi As Long As Samuel L. Jackson Is Still Alive And Has Anything To Say About It!
These Days In America White People Just Love To Tell Blacks, Especially When Backed Up By A Bill Cosby Political Agenda, What To Perform, What Not To Perform, Where To Perform And When To Perform So As Not To Upset The Genteel Class.
Way Back In The Day In New Orleans Whitey Slave Owner, With The Full Agreement Of Free Blacks In New Orleans Who Also Owned Slaves, Allowed Black Slaves From Africa To Freely Sing And Dance In A Permitted Area Known As Congo Square.
If New York City Is Going To Clamp Down On Black Expression, Then What I Want To Know Is Where Is The Congo Square In New York City Going To Be Located?
Killa Cole of Blackboy Records representing for the South. Puttin' it down for the State of Mississippi and the hometown of Blackboy Records, H-Town (Houston, Tx.)
WHITE ART SNOB WARNING: For many white people - especially for a whole shit load of snobby white folks in the art world who are only comfortable with Southern political imagery that reinforces the myth of the vanishing rural landscape of places like Mississippi, a place where evil KKK whites once ruled over subservient and gentle blacks, yeah, you know what I'm talkin' about, the type of commercially successful easy on the eyes and easy to digest Civil Right Era imagery as executed by white art critic lauded photographers such William Eggleston - it may be shocking to learn that there are actually some young 21st century black people who choose to live out their lives in the Magnolia State and who seem to like it...and beyond that are...uh...even (shock of shocks!) creatively inspired by life in Mississippi.
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Alright, son, here we go. This here be's a pissed off film reivew of Black Snake Moan - yet another in a long line of bullshit myth movies about Mississippi that feature (as always) fake Mississippi accents in service of pleasurable stereotypes.
Bullshit Hollywood Fiction Mississippi Blues Musicians
Now, let me say for the record that there ain't no damn actor in the world that can punch out the words nigger and mutherfucker like Samuel L. Jackson. Just hearing those two words violently drip out of his gaping mouth (especially when used in close combination) scares the shit of me every time. But just because you might happen to be good as using the words nigger and mutherfucker at least fifty times in every sentence damn sure don't make you a good blues muscian. Folks, Samuel L. Jackson is a horrible excuse for a blues musician. I cringed while listening to him perform in Black Snake Moan. I actually felt embarassed for him.
White Trash Girls From Mississippi, White Panties That Never Stain And Confederate T-Shirts
Ok. Christina Ricci looks hot in her white stain-free panties. I admit it. Damn. I really do have to admit it. She looks so hot in those panties that I damn near didn't even notice her fake Mississippi accent. I also very much enjoyed how Christina could be dragged through the dirt, mud, beer, pot, sperm, more STDs than there are mosquitoes in the Delta of Mississippi, endless rows of corn and a tractor-destroyed bed or roses on a farm in her white panties without getting a single stain on them. [Ladies, just so's you know, us men folk in Mississippi hate chicks that wear stained white panties. We can deal with stained bras and socks, but for God's sake please remember what your momma told you and keep your panties clean at all times.] But I do have to take issue with Christina's bi-racial Confederate/Union t-shirt. Ain't no respectable white trash girl I know from the Magnolia State would ever be caught dead wearing an article of clothing that sports both a Confederate flag and a Union flag. Having Christina wear that damn shirt was nothing more than a lame ass political statement in support of identifying her character as being above and beyond the politics of the Civil War. It was fuckin' overkill on the part of the director. He didn't need to do that. The fact that he had her fuckin' a big black drug dealer, while being slapped half to death by every redneck polecat in town, was statement enough on Christina's character's committment to diversity and multiculturalism.
Pissant White Boys And Piss In Your Pants Panic Disorder
Guess what? Justin Timberlake's character was right on the gotdamn money, podnuh! Hell, I thought he was the only real deal in the whole damn movie. Of course, Justin was born in Memphis, so he's pretty much familiar with the way real crackers talk that live just south of the border of Tennessee.
Black Snake Moan - 2 1/2 *
I give Black Snake Moan 2 1/2 stars. I don't think I've ever seen anything sexier in the movies that features hot Southern sex than when Christina wrapped her white stain-free panties up in that sexually agressive chain, with the possible exception, of course, of that time I saw Neve Campbell and Denise Richards get their Florida swamp kiss on in Wild Things. Although Samuel L. Jackson was completely out of water as a blues musician, he did do what he does best in the movies: he used the words nigger and mutherfucker to great effect (in a Blues song this go around) and again scared the shit out of me. Justin Timberlake turns in a suprisingly good peformance as a sensitive but smart Southern dickhead who's found a clever medical excuse to avoid getting his balls shot off in Iraq, but who's life is destined to be ripped apart but good once his vagina mononucleosislogue writhing in sexual agony wife gets tired of his juvenile teeny-weeny limp white dick sans NASCAR-Viagra prattling boo-hoo-I-get-so-nervous-just-lookin'-at-ya-baby-that-I-gotta-go-throw-up-in-the-toilet ass and summons up the desire for another crack party night of full on body contact jungle fever with Tehronne.
But seriously, Hollywood, can I get a real Mississippi accent in the movies...just once...pretty please?
Better yet, can I get a real Mississippi Blues musician to teach all y'all sumpin'?
"Death Letter Blues" by Edward James "Son" House, Jr.
Damn. That was good. How 'bout another one?
"John the Revelator" by Edward James "Son" House, Jr.
Hell yeah! Hit me again!
"Aberdeen Mississippi Blues" by Booker T. Washington "Bukka" White
Hell, son, this is too good! Hit me again!
"Lonsome Valley Blues" by "Mississippi" John Smith Hurt
Jesus Christ, son, I can't take no more! But, what da hell, go on now and hit me one last time!
"Baby, Please Don't Go" by Joseph Lee "Big Joe" Williams
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Mississippi Blues - Sell Your Soul To The Devil And Be A Better Person For It!
30th Artillery Brigade Okinawa 1970-71 Featuring my detailed, personal US Army and Veterans Administration experiences that are published under the title Lieutenant T. Gordon Barber and the Stolen Marine Corps Property—which conforms to the ancient Japanese principle: Proof rather than argument.
Photographs by Spec. 4 David R. Crews
These two photographs were taken right after the previous group photo was taken, and before the kids did the ceremonial dance that is on the photos in the next blog posting below this one.
Those kids in these two photos were having the time of their lives by goofing around with a soldier from a foreign land who had just made their normally solemn faced school officials break out in smiles and laughter along with everybody else. And now the kids were being allowed to act funny too and to thoroughly amuse themselves in a place that was run on ancient, Asian style discipline which requires children to be quiet and polite during most times when they are in the company of their elders. You can see that the goofy kids were imitating a visiting U.S. Army Photographer who was had just acted real goofy himself.
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I am the Right Reverend James W. Bailey and I approve of the following blog for your viewing pleasure and intellectual edification.
"The man who views the world at 50 the same as he did at 20 has wasted 30 years of his life". Muhammad Ali
I am a former US Army photographer, Vietnam era but never went to 'Nam; I’m a former Maine Bear Hunting Guide, but never shot a bear; and I’m a retired Hippy, but damn near a regular citizen now. I have been blogging about my photography, and writings. There is a set of photos on one blog from when I was in the Army and on Okinawa. I have photos and stories on one blog about my time in Maine as a hunting guide and country girl chasing wild and wooly kid. I have a nice portfolio of Baltimore Maryland area photos on my blogs. For most of you, I suggest starting on the blog titled David R. Crews' Ramblings and Photos http://davidrcrews.blogspot.com/
It has the best variety of photos. I custom hand printed most of my photos in a wet lab, and then scanned them onto JPEG files. And I love to burn and dodge (high ho ha deary o I love to burn n' dodge). I tell all about the subjects in my photos all through the blogs and explain how some of those shots were conceived and produced. I believe that each one of you will find something in my blogs to help you improve your own photography, and you'll be entertained and maybe even amazed by what is on my blogs. All of these blogs are linked together and easily found if you simply do a Google search for "ursusdave". Let me know what ya' think and feel about them.
Between cutting, bleeding, binging, purging, uploading a gazillion digital photos of their stupid friends making stupidhumantrick funny faces to their Flickr account, writing on their multiple blogs, posting tons of anonymous comments on blogs published by their political friends and enemies, downloading stolen term papers, mainlining a host of experimental chemicals that are designed to simultaneously improve one's Standards of Learning performance and SAT scores while plugged into an iPod with one free hand always at the ready to receive and respond to critical cell phone text messages about who's shagging whom, chasing off dirty old men (and young nubile hot female teachers gone wild) who stalk the pages of MySpace and Facebook, and, of course, hosting those infamous rainbow parties, the modern American multitasking child of the internets has no time to spare in the collective fruitless effort to save the world from the bullshit created by their wannabe-a-reborn-punk-star reality check Yuppie self-indulged quasi liberal parents and their Haight-Ashbury holdover peace & love 60s porn/pot drenched Bob Dylan-corporate-sellout brain damaged grandparents.
And with all the free market globalized racist problems and wars to eliminate imaginary weapons of mass destruction that weigh down upon the WaMu debit cards of America's youth, along comes another terrible calamity that is certain to destroy the will of our young people to get up off their asses and actually change the world for the better: It seems as though the Cult of Post Secret is infecting the art departments of the suburban realm of Northern Virginia with its Philosophy of the Anonymous Whine! The world is falling apart and these spoiled kids today just want to bitch, moan and complain to each other through an art project about how hard they have it! Where's Nickelodeon Oprah when you need her?!
It's so easy to shoot the youth of America, isn't it? American parents specialize in shooting down the dreams of their children - American parents have turned child shooting into an art form in this damn county.
I've written about my 7 Generation Hookup nieces before. They don't cut, bleed (except during the natural course of their time of the month, right ladies?!), binge, purge or host rainbow parties. These young women are living their lives out in Austin, Chicago, New York City and Mississippi and are (like so many others of their generation) actually doing something about changing the world for the better. They are a constant source of inspiration to me.
And others of their generation are inspiring as well: During the past 18 months since Hurricane Katrina destroyed 85 per cent of New Orleans, I have had the wonderful opportunity to have met many AmericCorps volunteers who were assigned to Camp Hope in Violet, Louisiana. These young people are some of the smartest, strongest and most dedicated people I have ever met. When I hear people of my generation and older express fear for the future of our country in the hands of today's youth, I can't help but smile. I've seen first hand the fruits of the labors of Generation Hookup. What these kids have hooked up with is a sincere conscience about actually doing something to help the least among them. I've seen these kids in action in New Orleans and on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. I have no fear for American's future.
I had a chance this past Saturday to visit the current shows on view (see below) at the Greater Reston Arts Center (GRACE). It is an inspiring exhibit. Congratulations to all the Herndon High School art students who are participating in this exhibition. And special congratulations to Frank Warren for continuing to provide a fantastic source of inspiration to many through his Post Secret project.
I will also tell you how moved I was by the Art from Camp Sizanani South Africa that is on view at GRACE. Projects like this reaffirm my belief in the power of art to positively transform.
AmeriCorps Camp Hope worldwide Gulf Coast team from Charlotte, NC in a St. Bernard Neighborhood.
Recent Works from Herndon High School GRACE Main Gallery
March 1 — March 30, 2007
Herndon High School Jazz in the Gallery: Wednesday March 14 6 - 8 pm
During Youth Art Month GRACE is pleased to present art from two distinct parts of the world. In the main gallery Recent Works from Herndon High School will showcase art from the department's advanced placement studio, photography, computer graphics, and 3 - D classes. This thriving art department offers young artists a chance to meet with visiting professionals, participate in an after-school art club, and exhibit their work at various venues. This will be their first exhibition in GRACE's new gallery.
In the media gallery, Art from Camp Sizanani South Africa, will show the work of teen-aged girls who participated in intuitive painting workshops. The camp is dedicated to teaching life and leadership skills to children from poor and AIDS-affected families from Soweto, South Africa.
Condo Noir @ The University of Phoenix Northern Virginia Campus
"Condo Noir 1-7" by The Right Reverend James W. Bailey
"Rough Edge Photography"
"Condo Noir examines the tensions of over-development in the suburban community of Reston, Virginia, as well as the explosion of a myriad of vaunted progressive myths about diversity and multiculturalism in this oft-lauded planned community (a place that was conceived in the idealism of the early 1960s) during a present-day time of radical demographic change. Underneath the self-satisfied suburban veneer of progressive success in places like Reston is the reality of what is truly happening in American communities across the country – the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. In Condo Noir one sees no images of the true face of abject American poverty." - The Right Reverend James W. Bailey
Encore at the University of Phoenix Northern Virginia Campus
Encore is an Exhibition of Award Winners from the League of Reston Artists-sponsored Exhibitions During 2006
Condo Noir, James W. Bailey’s Seven Image Series of “Rough Edge Photography” Images that Explore the Tensions of Race, Class and Over-Development in the Suburban Community of Reston, Will Make Its Debut In Reston At Encore
--- Condo Noir in the News! ---
Washington Post - Thursday, March 1 print edition and online
Reston Connection - Thursday, March 1 print edition
WHO:
League of Reston Artists (LRA) and the University of Phoenix Northern Virginia Campus.
WHAT:
The League of Reston Artists and the University of Phoenix Northern Virginia Campus present Encore, a contemporary art exhibition of award winning artists from 10 exhibitions sponsored by the League of Reston Artists during its 2006 exhibition season.
WHEN:
The exhibition opens Friday, March 02, and runs through Saturday, March 31. Exhibit is free and open to the public during regular business hours Monday - Friday 9:00 am - 5:00 pm. An opening reception will take place on Friday, March 02 from 6:00 – 8:00 pm.
WHERE:
University of Phoenix Northern Virginia Campus, 11730 Plaza America Drive, Suite 200, Reston, Virginia. For directions, see the LRA’s web site
CONDO NOIR by JAMES W. BAILEY MAKES ITS RESTON DEBUT:
Reston-based photographer James W. Bailey will present at Encore his new collection of seven images, titled Condo Noir, that were created through his unique “Rough Edge Photography” process. Condo Noir premiered in January to critical acclaim in Bethesda, Maryland, in an Artomatic-related exhibition sponsored by Creative Partners Gallery.
Bailey’s award-winning and critically acclaimed photographic process of “Rough Edge Photography” incorporates the violent scratching, slashing and burning of his prints and negatives. The images that comprise the Condo Noir series are the first publicly exhibited body of Bailey’s “Rough Edge Photography” work that focus on the suburban imagery of Northern Virginia.
Bailey offers the following background on the Condo Noir series:
Every photograph is said to have a backstory. The backstory of Condo Noir is this:
All of the images in the marketing banner presented an almost ridiculously fake plastic scene of elevated racial and cultural consciousness among what were obviously supposed to be successful suburban upper class, high-end market condo owners in Reston Town Center.
At the time that I shot the original digital images of the marketing banners for this condo development, the banner was in pristine condition. The large black and white images were dramatically framed by expansive black borders. When the winds blew through Reston Town Center, the massive banners fluttered and the images seemed to move in a manner that evoked a documentary film. Over time, naturally, the elements began to extract their toll on the banners as these manipulative images faded and became ripped in sections because of the high winds that blow through Reston Town Center, which sits on a high ridge of land.
The Reston of today, for example, has a large number of poor immigrant families who live in rented, decaying townhouses or apartments they cannot afford to buy. Reston, like many communities, also has an increasing crime and gang problem. The various entities that control Reston, such as the Board of the Reston Association, one of the largest homeowners associations in the country, hardly represents the true demographic face of this fast-evolving community. And, of course, the pressure to continue high-end development in Reston means that fewer affordable housing solutions will be offered to a growing population of poor people who are forced to rent.
Over time, many of the original founders of Reston bought into a philosophical view of their community that emphasized the importance (and superiority) of their supposed progressive values and virtues in a part of the country (Virginia) that at the time (the 1960s) was anything but progressive. Unfortunately, this philosophical arrogance has led Reston down a path of political indifference to the problems of its growing underclass, with many residents of the community being virtually nameless and faceless when it comes to their participation in the governance of the community.
In the images of the original marketing banners for the condo development at Reston Town Center, one could read a mythic narrative of the progressive success of diversity and multiculturalism as conceived by the master plan for Reston. In these images all who are pictured (whether they are white, black or brown) are rich, happy, and pleased as punch with having obtained “The American Dream.” Over time, however, those marketing images began to degrade and fade away, just as the illusion of a never-ending real estate boom market for high-end condos did.
Condo Noir is about the explosion of many myths in the community that I now call home. Underneath the self-satisfied progressive suburban myths in places like Reston is the reality of what is truly happening in American communities across the country — the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. In Condo Noir one sees no images of the true face of abject American poverty.
ARTIST BIO: JAMES W. BAILEY
Born in Columbus, Mississippi, Bailey is a self-taught artist/photographer and an experimental imagist writer. His art focus also includes Littoral Art projects that explore the fleeting moments of cross-cultural communicative intersections; film projects, including the short film, Talking Smack; “Wind Painting”, a unique naturalistic art practice inspired by the vanishing Southern African-American cultural tradition of the Bottle Tree; and street photography centered on the hidden cultural edges of inner city New Orleans life.
Bailey’s experimental imagist literary works include, The Black Velvet Smash and the Missing Gospel of William S. Burroughs, Cold Dark Matters, Eastern 304, Killing Film Noir, and, two books of poetry, The Despised American Edition and Southern Standard Time, all published by Force Majeure Press. He has also written a full-length feature film screenplay, The Cold, a crime drama based on a true story set in New Orleans, which is currently in pre-production development.
“Rough Edge Photography” – About Bailey’s Method of Photography
Bailey’s experimental “Rough Edge Photography” technique involves exploring the “death of chemically developed negatives and prints” through the use of found 35mm source cameras he purchases in thrift stores.
His process incorporates the violent manipulation of unexposed film, developed negatives and prints. Undeveloped film may be subjected to intense heat or pin pricks through the film canister. Developed negatives are burned, scratched, slashed or cut, as are the prints. In some cases, the original negative is melted onto the final print. The found camera that is used to shoot a particular narrative series of photographs is frequently smashed upon completion of the series.The subjection of Bailey’s film negatives and prints to his process, combined with the destruction of the source camera, results in a unique image that can not be duplicated: each “Rough Edge Photography” piece is an original work of art. The artist does not produce prints or authorized reproductions of his images.
The Right Reverend James W. Bailey is an experimental artist, photographer and imagist writer from Mississippi. His art focus includes Littoral Art Projects that explore the fleeting moments of cross-cultural communicative intersections; film projects, including the short film, "Talking Smack"; "Wind Painting", a unique naturalistic art practice inspired by the vanishing Southern African-American cultural tradition of the Bottle Tree; street photography centered on the hidden cultural edges of inner city New Orleans life; and "Rough Edge Photography", a hard-edge non-digital photographic style that celebrates the death of 35mm film through the burning, tearing, slashing and violent manipulation of chemically developed negatives and prints.
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Disclaimer: Can I get a witness?! With my right hand on the original King James Version of the Bible (the same 17th century English language version that Jesus Christ himself used during his ministry on earth in Israel!), I hereby solemnly swear that anything I write and/or say on this site does not reflect the opinion of any organization with which I am affiliated in either a professional or volunteer capacity. I am merely the vessel for what the Lord moves me to say, write or artistically create. Copyright: All original work on this site and in its archives is licensed under a Creative Commons License. Non-original images are reproduced in accordance with fair use practices. Copyright to these items may be held by other individuals and is not covered under this license.
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