Fox 5 news, 5/5/06
Fox Five News Report on May 5, 2006 at 10:30pm
Report of the Report by Pamela Gordon
James Ford of Fox Five News was in Downtown Brooklyn today reporting about the closure of Brooklyn College's MFA Thesis Exhibition. He reported that City Officials shutdown the exhibition for the public's own good. The Parks Department calls this exhibition inappropriate for families. He also claimed that the FCC prevented Fox Five from showing some of the works exhibited. Carla Aspenberg's work was shown during the report as interpretations of sex organs. John Avelluto's work was also shown during the report as a representation of shooting at racial stereotypes.
Works by Pamela Gordon, Chris Moss, Susan Dessel, and Sarah Phillips were also presented as examples of work in the exhibition. Marni Kotak represented students of the college and expressed that the artwork was being held hostage. Tamas Veszi also explained that the students were not given guidelines for hanging the exhibition. James Ford continued to report that the show would possibly be relocated on Monday. Kotak stated that the students would have to move the show at their own expense. Kotak later mentioned that she was let into the War Memorial to feed her pet rat. James Ford closed his report by mentioning the protest planned for Saturday, May 6 at noon that will be held in front of the War Memorial.
Report of the Report by Pamela Gordon
James Ford of Fox Five News was in Downtown Brooklyn today reporting about the closure of Brooklyn College's MFA Thesis Exhibition. He reported that City Officials shutdown the exhibition for the public's own good. The Parks Department calls this exhibition inappropriate for families. He also claimed that the FCC prevented Fox Five from showing some of the works exhibited. Carla Aspenberg's work was shown during the report as interpretations of sex organs. John Avelluto's work was also shown during the report as a representation of shooting at racial stereotypes.
Works by Pamela Gordon, Chris Moss, Susan Dessel, and Sarah Phillips were also presented as examples of work in the exhibition. Marni Kotak represented students of the college and expressed that the artwork was being held hostage. Tamas Veszi also explained that the students were not given guidelines for hanging the exhibition. James Ford continued to report that the show would possibly be relocated on Monday. Kotak stated that the students would have to move the show at their own expense. Kotak later mentioned that she was let into the War Memorial to feed her pet rat. James Ford closed his report by mentioning the protest planned for Saturday, May 6 at noon that will be held in front of the War Memorial.
posted by Plan C at 8:48 AM
6 Comments:
Get a grip...from the description, it doesn't even sound like art. It just sounds like a bunch of so-called "artistes" who are trying to do something original whether there is aesthetic value or not. I am more concerned about the rat in the cage (poor thing) than I am about the artist's feelings. I am a leftie and believe that what these students produced sounds like crap. Yeah, a bunch of sycophants will go "ooh" and "ah" over the exhibit, but can you sell it? Is it timeless or just some pathetic attempt to be original? What is sadder is that the artists even conceived of this? What is in their minds? Good luck to them trying to find employment in their fields.
Hey anonymous, how can you make ANY judgement about the work if you never saw the show? Does being able to sell something make it vaulable? Sounds like you're full of crap.
Students: Prepare for attacks like this one "about getting a a grip."
It will get worse. In any culture or space war like this, the kinds of voices who will chime in are almost predictable. Don't let it divert your attention from the fact that this is about freedom of expression.
So what exactly is predictable, given the fact that these public struggles over art and expression follow such a standard script?
1) Pretty soon you'll hear the voices of those who will contort themselves crazy about the importance of the first amndement but who will suggest that the war memorial location is a special case. Well it IS a special sacred place, but THEY were the ones who let you use it. You didn't force your way into the memorial. They just didnt like what you did.
2) Then will come the out and vicious attacks from the right, some of whose nuttier members will claim that putting this at the war memorial is the equivalent of peeing on the grave of a veteran. And they'll play rough. And the penis sculpture will take center stage. Nothing like a penis to scare people, huh?
3) And you'll hear from the so-called lefties like the riotously predictable "anonymous" above. Indeed, I would have given him or her an "A" if he hadn't left out the ultimate and most important trite phrase that is typical of this argument......"navel gazing." If he uses "navel gazing" in his next post, that your art is "navel gazing," Ill submit a grade change from B+ to A-.
To anonymous: Next time you try to post something, add the following phrase taken from my copy of "12 Pre-Written Scripts for Use in a Culture War," and I quote from page 54: "The first amendment is a cornerstone of our society. And I'm sure that (fill in the Brooklyn College students) are well intentioned, if naive and pedestrian about art. But why is it that every time we are asked to defend the first amendment it is about some juvenile art that always has a penis or a breast or feces? Ill stabd with legitimate expression, but for this kind of crap." Yada yada, yada.
4) Then the politicians will sit down with you, maybe just an aide, and go into a speech about free expression that would have Thomas Jefferson stand up and applaud. Smile, be courteous. And don't pay a damn bit of attention. Watch their subsequent actions.
Look for concrete evidence that any Brooklyn council member like Yassky whose district includes those with fundamentalist beliefs ACTUALLY goes out and defends you with concrete actions. Id love to eat my words.
5) Then watch the Brooklyn College administration. They really are in a tough spot. They will not get much if any suppoort for taking a free expression stand from 80th Street. The culture war handbook calls for them to try to play both sides....keep you happy, convince you that they believe in free expression (which THEY actually do!!)but also go into meetings with the officials, close the door and rail against the "kids these days that see a penis sculpture as art."
I am not unsympathetic to their position in a city where the odor of Giuliani repression still wafts over the city.
BUT THEIR JOB IN THIS CASE IS CLEAR: TO DEFEND YOU AND YOUR RIGHTS.
Let them know that you know they are in a tough position but that you insist on their support.
Frightening. The Nazi party used methods such as this to rally support in the 1930's. They closed galleries first; then blacklisted artists and patrons of modern art; then ran exhibitions equating "degenerate art" with mental illness and racial inferiority.
What was the political motive behind the "Plan B" closing, I wonder? A thesis exhibiton would fairly rarely be a place for "family viewing", so to shut one down for this reason seems borderline silly. I can't imagine that any given graduate exhibition would be geared towards children's sensibilities and that anyone with common sense would know that college age students are probably pretty interested in sex, ergo, likely to express/explore that interest in artistic media.
It appears to me that this closing was an attempt to test the waters of intolerance. Who requested it? Who closed it? Why such an overblown response to the art of a bunch of students?
I am an artist. I have seen the work. It's pretty poor "art" for the most part. Most of the "concepts" have been done to death since the 70's or so. Most of these redundant "concepts" are poorly executed. Shame on the professors. Shame on the students. It's lazy and it's insulting to the viewer. This is the reason that very little art from the last fifty years will have real lasting impact.
What do you expect its Fox News. I hope you got some better press coverage from someone else.
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