Kara Walker is one of our countries most provocative and insightful artists working today. She is most famous for her cut-out silhouettes, which can strike the casual viewer as "pretty" and "child-like", but her subject matter is anything but.
She challenges the view to think and process so much of what we assume within our white, patriarchal society and, hopefully, can leave you feeling a little broken. Great art can do that.
Learn more about her at https://www.artsy.net/artist/kara-walker.
Monday, September 10, 2018
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Valley Forge NHS
My trip to D.C. didn't work out for this week (soon! soon!), so I decided to go to another one of our nation's capitals. I live by the first one, New York City, which was the capital for a year. This weekend, I headed down to Philadelphia, our country's second capital (from about 1790 to 1800). First stop, though, was Valley Forge, just northwest of Philly.
BubbleShare: Share photos - Easy Photo Sharing
BubbleShare: Share photos - Easy Photo Sharing
Saturday, June 13, 2009
"We Hold These Truths..."
On my last full day in Boston, I headed into the center of town, Boston Common. I gave in and took a tour with someone dressed in period clothing. During this whole trip, the only re-enactors I came across were at the DeCordova Museum (ironic, right?!), so I thought this wouldn't brand me as too geeky. I'm totally fooling myself, right? Well, I took a two-hour walking tour nonetheless. It lead us through the Granery Burying Ground, north of the Common, over to the Old State House (site of the Boston Massacre), finally over to Faneuil Hall, where colonials like Sam Adams whipped up public sentiment against the Crown.
As with so many things in life, the roots and the history of the American Revolution are complex and not nearly as succinct as our national mythology would lead us to believe. For instance, the notion that it was a struggle between slow, Old-World military tactics and the rag-tag, go-for-broke rebels with an unheard-of guerrilla fighting style is not true. There's lots of evidence that we not-so-much won the conflict, as Britain gave up because of the incredible fiscal and political pressures it was finding itself in Europe.
Another myth is that the American colonists were fighting to combat 'taxation without representation'. Again, evidence is very much against this. In fact, there were overtures to having the colonies send Parliamentary representatives. This would be very bad though, as they would constantly be out-voted and not able to used the 'taxation without representation' line. A great deal of the colonists, some of them we come to call our Founding Fathers, wanted to be seen as English gentlemen, something that would never happen due to to class and geographical distances.
A good example of the myth-making we engaged in (and still do) is evident in
the fact that in the Granary Burying Ground has two headstones next to each other. Actually, the headstones do not correspond with the actual graves, as everything had been moved from different places. However, these two particular markers are for Paul Revere, a silversmith (and occasional dentist - what?!). In the photo here, the right shows the original tombstone. On the left, there's another marker for Paul Revere, this one conspiciously added after the publication of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's 'Paul Revere's Ride', a case of myth-making at its purest. Here are the opening lines:
None of this, absolutely none, makes me less awestruck at what 'we' accomplished. More to the point, it doesn't make me any less proud to be an American. This country is made by war and suffering and slavery and oppression, no doubt. But it's also made by an idea, a myth. As we continue to evolve, that myth grows to include women, African-Americans, the destitute, the marginalized. It's being done unbelievably slowly, criminally so, but it is being done. Indeed, myth doesn't mean lies, not when you have knowledge. My favorite writer, Joseph Campbell said that myths are 'transcendent truths'.
Like the truths we hold self-evident.
As with so many things in life, the roots and the history of the American Revolution are complex and not nearly as succinct as our national mythology would lead us to believe. For instance, the notion that it was a struggle between slow, Old-World military tactics and the rag-tag, go-for-broke rebels with an unheard-of guerrilla fighting style is not true. There's lots of evidence that we not-so-much won the conflict, as Britain gave up because of the incredible fiscal and political pressures it was finding itself in Europe.
Another myth is that the American colonists were fighting to combat 'taxation without representation'. Again, evidence is very much against this. In fact, there were overtures to having the colonies send Parliamentary representatives. This would be very bad though, as they would constantly be out-voted and not able to used the 'taxation without representation' line. A great deal of the colonists, some of them we come to call our Founding Fathers, wanted to be seen as English gentlemen, something that would never happen due to to class and geographical distances.
A good example of the myth-making we engaged in (and still do) is evident in
the fact that in the Granary Burying Ground has two headstones next to each other. Actually, the headstones do not correspond with the actual graves, as everything had been moved from different places. However, these two particular markers are for Paul Revere, a silversmith (and occasional dentist - what?!). In the photo here, the right shows the original tombstone. On the left, there's another marker for Paul Revere, this one conspiciously added after the publication of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's 'Paul Revere's Ride', a case of myth-making at its purest. Here are the opening lines:Listen, my children, and you shall hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,
On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-Five;
Hardly a man is now alive
Who remembers that famous day and year
None of this, absolutely none, makes me less awestruck at what 'we' accomplished. More to the point, it doesn't make me any less proud to be an American. This country is made by war and suffering and slavery and oppression, no doubt. But it's also made by an idea, a myth. As we continue to evolve, that myth grows to include women, African-Americans, the destitute, the marginalized. It's being done unbelievably slowly, criminally so, but it is being done. Indeed, myth doesn't mean lies, not when you have knowledge. My favorite writer, Joseph Campbell said that myths are 'transcendent truths'.
Like the truths we hold self-evident.
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