In a slightly off-topic veer to the economy of images, ANZ Australia has drawn on the aesthetics of Liberace-styled abundance in their ode to Sydney's famous Gay Mardigras. I find it amazing to see such a stylistically cohesive presentation of the fame&opulence thread of gay culture. Cannonically Iconographic. Woah.
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wow, thanks liz for spotting this, its amazing… that drag queen glass portrait is amazing!
ReplyDeleteInteresting... there has been a lot of critical conversation around sponsorship at this years Auckland Pride festival, which includes the seeming passiveness of the Pride board to address or make visible the political or conversational compromises that are being made each year in order to secure funding or please funders that want to fund a good good old gay time, rather than an event where protest and discussion of issues effecting the lgbt community can be public and vocal. One question is how to remain true to a kaupapa of queer difference, political agency and resistance to various cultural and institutional normative pressures/policies through a festival funded by corporates who don't really want to engage in deeper discussions of our issues or work proactively with us to right lgbt inequalities. This also ties into the presence and activism of No Pride in Prisons at Auckland Pride this year (and last) after the Pride Board allowed Corrections staff to march in the parade - personally I feel like the Board failed to take a leadership role on this really important issue - one that covers how transgender women prisoners continue to be housed in male prisons, even when there have been allegations of rape. I understand that it may seem difficult to ban individuals from a parade just because of where they happen to work in terms of democratic principles of presence and involvement - and corrections staff would all have different reasons and needs to work where they do. However the Board failed to take any kind of stand against the abuse of transgender prisoners in New Zealand prisons, and that is really unacceptable. Instead they attempted to step back from the issue and the urgency of addressing it. Here we have an example of a not-for-profit body stepping back from political involvement to realise an event (Pride) that is itself political. What happens when we are isolated from our own community because there is pressure on us to only be political or raise issues in certain ways and certain contexts, especially so as not to offend sponsors such as ANZ?
ReplyDelete-From Citizen RO, not laughing all the way to the bank
p.s. I think it's pretty problematic and illuminating the way ANZ mobilise a queer aesthetic in this way (at the same time that I admire the bank transformation - Queer eye for the straight bank!). ANZ aligns itself with so-called lgbt 'taste' as you put it Liz in the above image - so they become an 'ally' through celebrating and giving space to 'queer' aesthetics. But by incorporating queer difference itself into the raw pool of commercial energy it can be inferred that difference can't innately resist becoming Liberace-flavoured economic lubricant - which is true. Becoming Liberace-flavoured economic lubricant isn't necessarily always a bad thing - it could be positively problematic in the hands of queer resisters, however it can be deeply problematic in the hands of corporate greed machines... I guess it just makes me think about how AtCS likes to infuse images with reminders to be vigilant in reading images - what are we assuming? What are we repressing? Whose tune are we dancing to? Is there a sponsor on my queer shoulder? Can a bank really be an lgbt ally if we can't use their resources in exactly the way we want to help ourselves? what ya think about AtCS role in image-reading vigilance? How do you articulate it?
ReplyDeletepps. I don't actually believe difference is at risk in situations of genuine human connection, in fact I think being who we are to each other strengthens us and means difference stands stronger because connection happens and we realise that difference isn't threatened by connection. I think difference is at risk when greed and exploitation underpin the 'connection. Slightly ad-hoc philosophising here but I'm interested in this murky terrain...
ReplyDeletead-hoc philosophising is the stuff of the blogosphere RO, and murky terrain it is! Genuine human connection. Thank the mercurial spirits that bind us that you pps'd that. Pink dollar is revenue. It is also visibility. It reminds me of the moment when the people who are near and dear to me but very different from me go, oh I secretly/not so secretly never understood the value of what you do/accepted who you are until I saw someone else/that bank/friend/institution award you with the status of your value/acceptance/image. I guess it's great that mostly I don't have to rely on that kind of affirmation to determine my own worth (but srsly it eases the burden, no?). And that's why the fight for Trans rights is so important! Liberace. Did you see the movie? The quality of human relationships wasn't exactly central to the plot! But I guess that's your point? But lush imagery is great, help me if I start suggesting some kind of modernist monochromes! I think, to get back to the point, that I could bring a more vigilant to the reading and making of Stunt imagery, I think I'm trying to figure out how to do that every time I make an image! My question is HOW? XX
ReplyDeleteThanks Liz! Yes, I too want to be more vigilant to the reading and making of stunts imagery at the same time as holding on to the pleasure of imaginative risk don't-know-what-I'm-feeling-is-it-a-family-glitter-pet-or-a-brindled-ATM unfolding over time and the power of non-resolution to get me out of bed in the morning. And I read this quote in the interview with Emma Watson and Bell Hooks, which puts 'alternatives' as much vigilance into the mix. What's an alternative? Whoa! Is it pure, or dirty?
ReplyDelete"Watson: Yes, yes. In Feminism is for Everybody, I found a reminder of just what you were saying, "To critique sexist images without offering alternatives is an incomplete intervention. Critique in and of itself does not lead to change.""
Also, often there is a tension for me in being an artist and being an activist. Sometimes these roles are sympathetic to each other, other times not! Or maybe sometimes the language and actions of one don't easily flow/translate into the language and demands of the other... would like to get better at articulating myself in the midst of this in real-time role-er-coaster...
ReplyDelete... you're already amazing at it! Constructive criticism flows from you like surrealist honey from a carefully constructed spoon onto the crown of a collaged print model :) More more more!!
ReplyDelete