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Post by Dan Dare on Jun 5, 2023 9:18:45 GMT
Bexhill-on-Sea seems an unlikely venue for the latest skirmish in the Culture Wars but that’s just what flared up in the quiet and peaceful seaside resort a few days ago. The incident concerned a 3m high sculpture, entitled Seated, created by a New York-based artist . The subject is a black woman seated in a chair, positioned so that her gaze is directed out across the Channel.  Perhaps controversial enough in its own right, one might think, given the time and place and current sensibilities about invasions etc. Joseph Constable, the De La Warr Pavilion’s head of exhibitions, is reported as saying 'It has been a time of heightened tension in the town amid government plans to use a former prison to house asylum seekers'. But what followed next turned up the heat several-fold: ‘Vandals’ attacked the installation with white spray-paint leading to it being covered up. Acording to the Observer, the artist said:
“It’s about one’s right to sit, one’s right to claim space and time for themselves. And it’s really about how even the most quotidian gestures can become politicised in one’s identity politics through one’s Blackness.”
In many ways, the fact that a sculpture of a Black woman sitting on a chair could attract such vitriol demonstrated a lot of the ideas that the work was exploring, she said.
“That something as relatively innocuous as a sculpture of a woman in a sun hat and sundress, sitting on a chair, can provoke this level of rage and animosity is, in my opinion, solely because the woman is Black.”Apparently volunteers arrived in their hundreds to repair the damage, turning the event into an anti-racist celebration. But what about the provocation of installing the monstrosity in the first place? Isn’t that an act of vandalism in itself? |
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Post by Orac on Jun 5, 2023 10:18:29 GMT
I wonder if a social experiment might be performed here.
Somebody should perhaps commission a 3m high statue of a lower middle aged white man, standing, legs astride and arms folded, staring in defiance across the Channel. Perhaps with his children by his side.
When people complain about the inference, they can say -
"even the most quotidian gestures can become politicised in one’s identity politics through one’s Whiteness"
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Post by Dan Dare on Jun 5, 2023 11:01:58 GMT
The 3+ meter Windrush Monument at Waterloo Station might provide a useful template.
I doubt the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities will have much interest in funding it though.
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Post by Bentley on Jun 5, 2023 11:15:42 GMT
Lefties poking and prodding for a reaction then gaslighting and claiming victimhood when they get one .
There seems to be a pattern here 😁
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Post by patman post on Jun 5, 2023 11:40:12 GMT
I wonder if a social experiment might be performed here. Somebody should perhaps commission a 3m high statue of a lower middle aged white man, standing, legs astride and arms folded, staring in defiance across the Channel. Perhaps with his children by his side. When people complain about the inference, they can say - "even the most quotidian gestures can become politicised in one’s identity politics through one’s Whiteness"How would you depict defiance (other than the Agincourt salute of course, but out of sight of the children)?
If Defiance wasn't explicit, it might be interpreted as envy of the greener grass on the other side...
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Post by colbops on Jun 5, 2023 12:22:53 GMT
Bexhill-on-Sea seems an unlikely venue for the latest skirmish in the Culture Wars but that’s just what flared up in the quiet and peaceful seaside resort a few days ago. The incident concerned a 3m high sculpture, entitled Seated, created by a New York-based artist . The subject is a black woman seated in a chair, positioned so that her gaze is directed out across the Channel. Perhaps controversial enough in its own right, one might think, given the time and place and current sensibilities about invasions etc. Joseph Constable, the De La Warr Pavilion’s head of exhibitions, is reported as saying 'It has been a time of heightened tension in the town amid government plans to use a former prison to house asylum seekers'. But what followed next turned up the heat several-fold: ‘Vandals’ attacked the installation with white spray-paint leading to it being covered up. Acording to the Observer, the artist said:
“It’s about one’s right to sit, one’s right to claim space and time for themselves. And it’s really about how even the most quotidian gestures can become politicised in one’s identity politics through one’s Blackness.”
In many ways, the fact that a sculpture of a Black woman sitting on a chair could attract such vitriol demonstrated a lot of the ideas that the work was exploring, she said.
“That something as relatively innocuous as a sculpture of a woman in a sun hat and sundress, sitting on a chair, can provoke this level of rage and animosity is, in my opinion, solely because the woman is Black.”Apparently volunteers arrived in their hundreds to repair the damage, turning the event into an anti-racist celebration. But what about the provocation of installing the monstrosity in the first place? Isn’t that an act of vandalism in itself? I think the artist is being rather presumptuous. Who's to say it wasn't a bunch of black people who decided to vandalise it on account of being offended that the woman looks like a Vegas hooker trying to get the attention of a punter. |
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Post by Dan Dare on Jun 5, 2023 12:29:04 GMT
I suspect actual black people are vanishingly rare in East Sussex unless a boatload has just been dropped off by the RNLI.
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Post by bancroft on Jun 5, 2023 12:30:19 GMT
Seems lack of sensitivity in staging this piece of art in Bexhill-on-Sea unless of course the plan is to cause trouble.
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Post by Baron von Lotsov on Jun 5, 2023 13:55:18 GMT
I wonder if a social experiment might be performed here. Somebody should perhaps commission a 3m high statue of a lower middle aged white man, standing, legs astride and arms folded, staring in defiance across the Channel. Perhaps with his children by his side. When people complain about the inference, they can say - "even the most quotidian gestures can become politicised in one’s identity politics through one’s Whiteness"Find a local quarrying firm to remove it for you. They often have a spare stick of dynamite at 3am in the morning. |
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Post by Dan Dare on Jun 5, 2023 14:07:49 GMT
Seems lack of sensitivity in staging this piece of art in Bexhill-on-Sea unless of course the plan is to cause trouble. The country is littered with these sorts of provocations intended by the identity group concerned to communicate their sense of entitlement. Like this one in Bristol:
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Post by Baron von Lotsov on Jun 5, 2023 14:10:08 GMT
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Post by Bentley on Jun 5, 2023 14:14:42 GMT
Every one is a message .
Jimmy Cliff told us 50 years ago
Well, the oppressors are trying to keep me down
Trying to drive me underground
And they think that they have got the battle won
I say forgive them Lord, they know not what they've done
'Cause, as sure as the sun will shine
I'm gonna get my share now, what's mine
And then the harder they come
The harder they fall, one and all
Ooh, the harder they come
Harder they fall, one and all
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Post by bancroft on Jun 5, 2023 14:40:42 GMT
Seems lack of sensitivity in staging this piece of art in Bexhill-on-Sea unless of course the plan is to cause trouble. The country is littered with these sorts of provocations intended by the identity group concerned to communicate their sense of entitlement. Like this one in Bristol:
I think Bristol is more multi-cultural than Bexhill-on-Sea that looks like a BLM commemorative. |
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Post by Orac on Jun 5, 2023 15:00:22 GMT
Commemorating a scam with statues. It's certainly novel
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Post by bancroft on Jun 5, 2023 15:04:45 GMT
I wonder if a social experiment might be performed here. Somebody should perhaps commission a 3m high statue of a lower middle aged white man, standing, legs astride and arms folded, staring in defiance across the Channel. Perhaps with his children by his side. When people complain about the inference, they can say - "even the most quotidian gestures can become politicised in one’s identity politics through one’s Whiteness"Just noticed your Avatar,it looks like the Liberator, the Spaceship from Blakes 7. |
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