The Museum of Censored Art Grand Opening

Censorship Does Not Work in Today's Culture

Spurned by the Smithsonian's most recent act of removing a David Wojnarowicz video from a National Portrait Gallery exhibit in November, the video has received a lot of attention and screenings (see previous posts on Wojnarowicz’ video: click here) .

The Museum of Censored Art Opens its Doors

Now, visitors of the Smithsonian's Hide/Seek exhibit will also get to see the video "Fire In My Belly," by David Wojnarowicz without traveling too far: 
The Museum of Censored Art : Showing Art the Smithsonian Won't  has just opened an exhibit just steps from the National Portrait Gallery. 


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Censorship Not Effective

Video about AIDS Suffering and Oppression Gets Airplay

"A Fire in My Belly," the Wojnarowicz video censored by the Smithsonian in November, has received more screenings since it's 'banning.'  From Washington D.C. to New York to Chicago to Los Angeles to You Tube. See previous post here: Censorship of the Arts.

"A Fire in My Belly" was shown at:

• Transformer Gallery December 3rd through December 4, 2010 as continuous screening for 48 hours in storefront window.
• CB1 Gallery  December 9th through December 19, 2010.  During LA Art Walk the 9th, over 700 people saw the piece.

Wojnarowicz' video can still be seen here:

• Hammer Museum through January 30, 2011
• New Museum through January 23, 2011
• Smart Museum through February 6, 2011

Online viewing of "A Fire in My Belly:"

• Fire in My Belly by David Wojnarowicz 

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Censorship of the Arts

Historically censorship vs. freedom of expression has been a central theme of debate in the United States of America.  It seems to me that censorship as a "solution" to the "problem" of controversy is occurring with greater and greater frequency.

Most recently, a four-minute edited version of  A Fire in My Belly, a 1987 video by the late David Wojnarowicz,  being shown at the National Portrait Gallery  as part of the Hide/Seek, Difference and Desire in American Portraiture³ exhibit was the object of controversy.⁸    

According to a statement published by the Smithsonian, a "short segment" in the A Fire in My Belly video- "...created as a complex metaphor for AIDS—was perceived by some to be anti-Christian." ⁵  According to a Washington Post Article, U.S. House Rep. James P. Moran  believes that 11 seconds of video is being used by right wing critics for political gain.²  Thirty days after the exhibition opening and after threats of loss of funding from congress persons, the piece was removed from the exhibit on November 30, 2010.⁴  A silent protest march, organized by the Washington D.C. based non-profit, Transformer, was called for December 2nd in which protesters displayed 'masks' taken from the film, Silence = Death; ⁶ a still from that Wojnarowicz film can be seen on the blog BmoreArt.¹  

Transformer's official response also included publicly screening the Wojnarowicz' video removed from the Hide/Seek exhibit.⁷  The end result was that instead of the video being "optionally accessed by visitors on a small touch screen in the exhibition"⁴ (per a Smithsonian Q&A Regarding the "Hide/Seek" Exhibition document) inside the National Portrait Gallery, it was played in a continuous loop in a storefront window at the Transformer project space in Washington, DC.  Additionally, the 4-minute segment, containing the 11-second controversy from the 30-minute video A Fire in My Belly, can now be seen freely on the Internet: A Fire in My Belly on YouTube.⁹ 

The obvious question: what is the goal of censorship in general and in this instance was that goal achieved?

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References

"Censor." Def. 1., Def. 2. Websters Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language. 1996. Print.
1. Bmoreart. “Join Transformer tonight in a silent protest!” Web. 2 Dec. 2010. < http://www.bmoreart.com//?s=join+transformer+tonight+in+silent >

2. Dawson, Jessica. “Transformer letter to Smithsonian decries artwork's removal.” The Washington Post. 3 December 2010: n. pag. Web. 5 Dec. 2010. < http://voices.washingtonpost.com/arts-post/2010/12/transformer_letter_to_smithson.html >

3. National Portrait Gallery. Smithsonian Institution. Home page. Web. 14 Dec. 2010. < http: www.npg.si.edu/ >

4. National Portrait Gallery. “Smithsonian Q&A Regarding the "Hide/Seek" Exhibition.” Smithsonian Institution, 2010. Web. 14 Dec. 2010. < http://www.npg.si.edu/docs/SIQ&A.pdf >

5. National Portrait Gallery. “Smithsonian Stands Firmly Behind "Hide/Seek" Exhibition.” Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery. Smithsonian Institution, 2010. Web. 14 Dec. 2010. < http://www.npg.si.edu/docs/SIstand.pdf >

6. Transformer. Home page. Web. 5 Dec. 2010. < http: www.transformergallery.org/ >

7. Transformer. “Transformer Provides Immediate Response to Recent Censorship.” Web. 2 Dec. 2010. < http://transformerdc.yolasite.com/resources/Transformer%20responds%20to%20censorship.pdf >

8. Wojnarowicz, David.“ Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 2010. Web. 15 Dec 2010. < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Wojnarowicz >

9. Youtube. Fire in My Belly by David Wojnarowicz, Diamanda Galas. Web. 15 Dec. 2010. < http: verify_age?next_url="http%3A//www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3D0fC3sUDtR7U >

The Miserable New York Film Festival

According to A.O. Scott of the New York Times, the New York Film Festival is a miserable place to be this year. That is, of course, unless you enjoy, as Scott puts it, "sadism, guilt, violence and despair, a panorama of pessimism notable for its exhausting rigor and relentless consistency." See complete 10/6/09 article at nytimes-wallowinginmisery.

This is no surprise for followers of Socionomics. The basic premise is that populations have a mass psychology. They herd and move from mass optimism to mass pessimism and back again in general unison. It is posited that the financial markets record this objectively with the buying and selling of financial wares. That is, the financial markets are determined by social mood. Not that social mood is determined by the financial markets.

The theory can be put to practical use:  if one can gauge what the herd is doing, one can plan what to do next in relation to it.  For example, my daughter is reading "Twilight," novel series by Stephenie Meyer.  When she told me it is about vampires, I said, "This author will do very well if she continues to write along this theme," based on my belief that humankind has entered a phase of mass pessimism. In my opinion, there is some validity to the mass psychology argument and I have seen, first hand, its predictive value in the stock market. For more on this see Elliott Wave International. 
The New York Film Festival should do very well.

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