Turning Around

The hegemony of Africa has brought shame upon mankind: as a consequence of sheer greed, maladies have swept our world, engulfing us in the fires of racial contempt. Civil movements insinuate ideas such as ‘democracy’, ‘freedom’ and ‘reform’, but social classes (or castes) are more stratified than ever. To exacerbate this harsh reality, children resort to prostitution and suicide in squalor-ridden countries. Some manage to get into school, but the rest are left with one other alternative: to rummage through heaps of putrid trash--an abject fate, indeed. Liars and hypocrites rule the world, and disillusioned bleeding heart liberals are oblivious to the fact that over twenty-thousand nuclear warheads lay idle in petroleum-drenched storage facilities (as if a putsch was invariably bound to happen). Lucy Lippard, on the other hand, is not a sheep, disregarding the hot air spewing from political puppets. In the mid-1800s, the assimilation of minorities was generally perceived as a good thing (especially to imperial Americans). They claimed to be doing these ‘brutish savages’ (i.e. Indians) a favor by civilizing them--in other words, depriving people of their cultural heritage. Today, values are lost in the melting pot, with the only distinct American attributes being obesity and stupidity. Granted, this is said facetiously, but talking about cultural values is like opening a can of worms--after all, Indians are on the verge of extinction! White men, however, seem to have no qualms with the getting rid of this nuisance: why else would they ease their conscience by letting them run casinos? Utopias are absurd notions, reserved for delusional dreamers (and if the Indian fate is any indication, conflicting interests render universal happiness impossible). Lucy Lippard writes about art because it is a painstaking process: attempting to adequately describe how a composition looks is an impressive feat since words can hardly convey the true semblance of reality. As a champion of art criticism, she sees truth emanating from lush landscapes and vividly painted historical accounts. (As trite as the mantra sounds, a picture truly speaks a thousand words!) Abstract art, surrealism, post-modernism... There is no straightforward solution to the multitude of issues that have emerged in our lifetime, but if any thing is for certain, it is that art reflects the values of our times. by Inessa Kotkov