Cold War and Soft Power

“How can you be an artist and not reflect the times?” - Nina Simone 

I’ve just started reading this book by Frances Stonor Saunders in which she looks at how the CIA systematically infiltrated and exploited the arts during the Cold War to combat the soviets and grow America’s geopolitical influence.

The legendary singer and human rights activist Nina Simone was one of the artists manipulated by the Agency for political purposes. In 1961, she was invited to perform at the ‘Festival of Negro Art and Culture in Africa and America’ in Lagos, whose official aim was to explore the ‘relationship between the culture and art of Africa and the Americas‘. But the void left by the British in postcolonial Nigeria opened up irresistible opportunities for the US to provide financial help and build political alliances, so it turns out that the festival was driven by an agenda that went well beyond arts and culture.

The same had happened to Louis Armstrong the year before when he was sent to the Congo. This was when the first post colonial president had just been elected. In reality, the US government wanted to infiltrate and topple Patrick Lumumba’s pro-soviet regime. We all know how that ended. 

I believe Armstrong begrudgingly went along with the propagandistic projecf, but it apoears Nina didn’t know she was being used, and I reckon she would have been fuming if she did.

#ninasimone#legend#activism#humanrights#freedom#rebel#freespirit#softpower#louisarmstrong#tutankhamen#lumumba#music#blackmusic#blackculture#art#allartispolitical#artblog#artblogger#beyondthecanvasblog

Héctor Zamora's Lattice Detour, The Met rooftop

"The wall is a monument to openness over enclosure, lightness over heaviness, transience over permanence — it’s also fraught with political meanings." - Héctor Zamora

Oh the timeliness. Oh the metaphor. Oh the poetry. Oh the delight. Lattice Detour truly has it all. This wall, in fact, may well be the ultimate installation for a social space in 2020 America.

A wall in America - the defining symbol of our (extremely messed up) times. A wall on the Met terrace, one of the most celebrated cultural institutions in the world. A 30-metre long curved wall designed and built by a Mexican artist with humble terracotta bricks made by Mexican labourers with Mexican earth using traditional Mexican processes. With its grid and perforations, this humble Mexican wall redefines the unique experience that is looking out at the breathtaking Manhattan skyline. A Mexican wall towering over Manhattan, not so subtly pointing the finger at the ills of the Western world, but also inviting us to reconsider the way we interact with each other and the environment around us.

New Yorkers, you lucky people, you have until December 7th to go peek through those bricks and tag me.

P.S. Do you think they can see it from 721–725 Fifth Avenue? Has he tweeted about it yet?

#hectorzamora #latticedetour #cantorroof #sitespecific #installation #conceptualart #themet #metropolitanmuseumofart #newyorkcity #IloveNY #vote #art #artblog #artblogger #beyondthecanvasblog

Photos © Scott Lynch, Gothamist

Martha Rosler's iconic photomontages

" I want to open a space in people’s minds where they see that they can be active, intellectually and personally, rather than passive recipients of received ideas and prevailing worldviews." - Martha Rosler

Martha Rosler (b. 1943) is perhaps best known for her seminal 1975 video performance Semiotics of the Kitchen, in which she flicks the finger at the patriarchal system by playing the role of a raging apron-clad housewife who menacingly wields kitchen implements while going through the alphabet. Even after all this time, it makes for rather unsettling viewing.

In the series of photomontages House Beautiful: Bringing the War Home (1967-1972), Rosler articulated her outrage over the Vietnam war by juxtaposing magazine photographs of ideal homes to shocking imagery from the conflict. It's the glossy comforts of the American Dream versus the devastation of war, a distressing contrast between the safety of the domestic sphere and the reality of the outside world. These images were originally made into flyers that she distributed at anti-war demonstrations and also published on underground journals. She returned to the same medium and subject matter in 2004 at the time of the Iraq war.

Rosler's protest brought the war inside the domestic walls in the same way it was done to her when she had to sit through dinner watching footage from Vietnam. The result is a disorientating and quasi voyeuristic experience where the viewer is having to negotiate the contrast between the plush interiors and the violence of the war imagery.

#martharosler #feministart #activism #photomontage #collage #femaleartist #artblog #artblogger #beyondthecanvasblog

Cleaning the drapes

Make up / Hands Up

Patio View

First Lady (Pat Nixon)

Beauty Rest

Tron (Amputee)

All images © Martha Rosler