Tayari's Blog: This is Not "Cool"

Posted by TayariJones on March 29, 2009 05:38 PM
Filed under Current Events

There is always a lot of chatter about whether political art is still art. Shelley E. at Read Red offers many posts on the subject earlier this year. As you can imagine, I completely believe that art can be political. I don't go so far as to say that all art should be political, although much of my favorite art is.

Since I have been on bed rest the last couple of days, I have even more time that usual to search the internet. I ran across the illustration on the left. I assumed that this artistic rendering of Rhianna's police photos were a piece of political art. I thought that this was somehow to make a point about domestic violence. Maybe the high-contrast colors are to bring attention to her disfigurement? However, the accompanying article quotes the artist as saying that he just thought the shapes of her bruises were cool. No political message intended.

I think ail the NyQuil has sort of fried my brain because I am having trouble expressing what I find so obscene about this work. Maybe I am just appalled by someone who could not see what is human about Rhianna and her suffering. Or maybe it's that I am disgusted by anyone who is not enraged by the prevalence of domestic violence. Or maybe my feelings are loftier. Maybe at the end of the day I am repelled by someone who goes out of his way to make art that doesn't matter.

[divider]

There are 2 comments on "This is Not "Cool"". If you'd like to leave a comment, click here to jump down to the comments entry form.

Comment #1, by Incertus [TypeKey Profile Page]

He's not much of an artist, either, if he considers taking a photo and running it through a Mac's Photo Booth program art. That's beyond derivative, though he acknowledges that he's not in it for anything other than the money he can make. To which I say, fine--if you want to be mercenary, go ahead and be mercenary. But expect not just a public backlash, but also a refusal by serious artists to get your back when you do something like this.

March 29, 2009 06:50 PM

Comment #2, by Shelley [TypeKey Profile Page]

It looks like misogyny to me. Which to me makes it not art. I think you've nailed it when you call it obscene. It's like a snuff film.

March 29, 2009 07:19 PM

Your Comments

You are signed in as (sign out)

Please keep comments relevant to the topic. Inappropriate and offensive comments may be edited and/or removed without warning. Comments found on this site don't necessarily reflect the views of Tayari Jones.

(optional)

(required)