When I read a text that comes with a picture of a face, I usually read a few lines, then I look at the face. I will for some reason automatically be drawn to the face, as I'm reading, I read and look at the face almost at the same time. It's for me like I want the picture, to confirm what I just read. If it's a positive text, I think I'm easily manipulated into having a good feeling about the face. If it's a negative text, I can decide that I dislike the face. I think I'm a visual person, I read more from peoples faces, especially the eyes, than I do from text and facts.
Everyone, all individuals are at most times, the things that others would say they radiate. People that affect others negatively, people that affect others positively, they cant ever step away from the responsibility to represent these things, they can just try to avoid it for awhile. Everyone are responsible.
Lets take famous people for example, as most people knows their faces. Whatever they do, they either look mean or kind and usually the media puts them into the category, that the person fits in. They probably invent a lot of the bad and good gossip about them, to sell of course, but still I think judging by the person's character, people decide that it's probably true, because it fits the description. They either appear to be the bad or the good guy by impression, so the gossip even if it's lies, will trick you. The Paris Hilton type of celebs bring forth gossip about sex, fashion, party addiction and useless babble. -These characters fill in the role, with the body language and how they appear in general. Mike Tyson type of celebs represent gossip about violence and he fills the role, by his own attitude in the media.
When people are harshly judged, it seems to me, that it's usually their own fault, but of course theres an excuse for everything. People in the entertainment world, constantly abuse ideas that goes around openmindedness and the freedom to express oneselves. They use it as an excuse for their behaviour, trying to escape responsibility. Somehow they want you to believe, that they are above normal moral codes and above the law. It's an artists syndrome and what they ignore and don't want to know; is that the men inside the legal systems usually, very often go by the same ideas. It's very common to feel, that the people that sit and decide how our society should work, they cut down on money for education, they create wars and get people to vote for them; you feel they must think that they are above the law.
I mentioned celebs and artists and I'd like to make some examples, to make you understand what I'm talking about. There was an artist here in Norway, that went to Mexico and made homeless kids get tattoos, so that he could take pictures of them. He published his pictures in his art gallery and earned good and bad critics as you may guess. There was another artist like him, doing something else that were also very shocking to people. A female artist took a black poor immigrant, gave him money to pose for racist photos. These two artists were not looking down on people that were poor. It seems the reasons was not to spit on, their models desperate need and wish for money and attention and they were not racists either. They were simply artists that felt, they were above, the normal moral code of society. One of these artists defended the other one, as maybe lots of artists would do, being artists themselves.
I love art, it's a great way to express, or experience other peoples feelings. We need art and we need to get in touch with our inner selves, sometimes it's sad, sometimes it's angry, sometimes it's pretty, or ugly. But, everyone have a responsibility to respect the lives of others, that should come in front of your selfish wish, to express your feelings. Naturally art as everything else, offends, it shocks, it hurts, that's life, but to seriously abuse people in your work, is not acceptable. What the artist with the tattoo kids did, it was a crime and a very serious one too. He took advantage of kids, who had nobody to protect them. He used them for his own expressional artistic interests. Even if he were kind to them, meant them no harm, even if his photos was taken with a wish, for others to see those poor kids, notice them, make people feel ashamed, about the fact that they had nothing; even then I think his act was a crime. He used those kids and gave them tattoos, because they had no family to protect them, from this. I wonder how he would feel, what he would do, if someone took his kids out of kindergarten (if he have kids) when he wasn't around and gave them tattoos? Just think about it, in my idea poor homeless kids would need care, not art work. When we have something so awful, care should come before anything else and anyone can show care, it doesn't take your money.
In the USA there was a similar case, although this one is rather violent, it was featured on 60 Minutes. A guy gave beer to alcoholic homeless people, in exchange for having them beat up each other and attack others that were homeless. They named this after a nasty slang word, that was commonly used against alcoholic street people. This was filmed and the guy doing it, sold the films and made money out of it. The videos were inspired, by the male teen targeted show called Jackass. Most of the buyers were young boys. Some of those having bough the films, started a trend out of it and went to attack homeless people, as was done in the videos. In one case a homeless person got killed from the violence, the person behind the videos claimed no responsibility of course. It was not like he told people to kill, same as rap song lyrics featuring violence, but the makers obviously thinking that in our corrupt world, our dysfunctional societies, that how they affect people doesn't matter. In all these cases I mentioned here, I heard nothing of that the money that was brought in, from the artwork and films, was donated to those homeless being used in the work. In all cases it was not done as a respectful artwork, or films about homeless people, showing reality. In all cases, it was about taking advantage of people, that had nothing, or very little to say and no ability to protect themselves. It was done because homeless people have less rights and are viewed as garbage, by a lot of people. It was very sad to see. The guy with his violent videos about homeless people, was sued by some of those featured in it, when it got out in the media. One of the alcoholic homeless men involved in this, had tattooed the nasty title of the films, all across his forehead. I'm not sure if they sued, for the right reasons, it seems to me, although they talked about feeling very abused, that maybe they were still people that were pushed around; in this case maybe by the media or legal system, telling them to sue, for economic reasons, but not trying to help them.
What I'm talking about here, is snobbery in snobby people. Folks that think they are so great, their work and ideas are holy and totally above everything else. It's about people that take what they can get, without concern for anyone else. Having no public care in them too see the importance of having a loving society, having that above, a society that give an artist, the free right, to burst about as it wants. The artist that took racist photos and defended the homeless tattoo kids artists, said something like this; -"Art should be outside the law and if it cant be nasty, if it cant attack, then it's not real..." In my thought I think, if you cant be creative without seriously abuse and harm people, if you create racist art, simply because you want to shock, because you think that's what art is about, then maybe you are not very creative in the first place. There's a lot of artists I feel, that wouldn't get all the attention they did get, if their work was not shocking. If over half of your works meaning, leads towards shock and the rest is your creativity, then most people will see the work, only for it's shocking point (with this example you can think of musicians or artists, that always seem to create something shocking). It makes me surprised when I see artists, trying to defend their art when it's criticised, as if they imagine everyone should feel as they do. Unless they have a criminal mind, shouldn't it be interesting, to get different peoples views on their work? A poem or an artwork of any kind, can be very personal to the artist, but people can also react to it, feeling very personally hurt by it. You should I think, be able to express yourself by happy or angry feelings, rage or sadness, without too much abuse. Is it too much to ask?
Another example is a case, that was going on in the media nowadays. The radio host called Imus in USA, got kicked off the air, because of saying something, that leaned toward racism on his show. Apparently his programs were popular and well liked, but his comment stirred up a angry witch hunt and he had to go. The media manipulates people in extreme ways, everyone can make a mistake, I don't know if this guy is bad or good, if he is a racist or not, but to me the way i read it, he was treated very harshly. The rapper Snoop Doggy Dog was interviewed about this issue. Rappers tend to use racists words and nasty language about women, in their music. Snoop Doggy Dog being well known for his awful lyrics, bad attitude and gossip about criminal behaviour, as you may know. He said from what I read, that artists express themselves trough the heart and soul. Those women they talk bad about, calling whores and bitches in their songs, were in fact also whores, women that lived in the ghetto, doing nothing good with their lives. Yeah, it's easy to imagine that the world can get better, by Snoop Doggy Dog's way of thinking. If in fact, black people in America have been suppressed, for as long as they were there and the current legal systems have racism in the agenda. If the American class and race differences has a long way to go, it's obvious to me, that it takes everyones effort. You cant just go about calling prostitutes whores and make them feel less and also wish that the society was better. How you treat people, is how the society is like.
I have never been to a ghetto and I grew up in a white community, but I can easily imagine, that a prostitute in the ghetto is also a human being, white or black. I can also try to understand the reasons behind the abusive lyrics in rap songs, the violence that surrounds the gossip of these people. That doesn't mean that I can agree, I think when it comes to it, always; you have people that affect others positive, or people that affect others negative. The negative will have to learn from their own negativity and take education from the positive. Leave pride alone, we live together, there's very little good you can get from being hateful, selfish and prideful.
And nobody, none at all, should be above moral code, or law. Ask an artist that thinks art should have no rules, if a taxidriver can go by the same law? Can a taxidriver be holy in his way of working? Can he wear a selfish pride, that says it should be legal for him to express racism, not because he is a racist, but because he is a taxidriver, which means he is above the moral code of the normal population. He is a little God in his own taxidriver-kingdom, he can say and do as he likes, nobody can stop him and if they try, it just means they have no respect, for his artistic taxidriver expressionism.
Artists, taxidrivers, political leaders and the men in systems, often abuse the position they are in. They can see themselves as better that others, extremely important to the world. But a farmer is just as important, sometimes a simple farmer give the people more, than a snobby artist did, in it's career as the fancy clown, that was suppose to inspire people in good ways. I think a lot of celebs, also the rude taxidriver type of characters, are suffering from low self esteem, feeling a need to be important and great and better than all, because maybe some of them, were raised feeling less...
Saying all this, I also have to say, that I have nothing against rap music, or Snoop Doggy Dog, or any other artist. Although I think there's a lot of negativity coming from those I have mentioned, doesn't mean they don't do anything that's great. I don't think they should be banned and peoples different opinions, are just as good.
Very often you can look away from the media of celebs and find that you can learn more, from the little man. You can learn something good from a random person you meet, be it a floor cleaner, a homeless person, or a farmer. I saw a great documentary not too long ago, about an old farmer in Sweden, he talked about his life as a kid, taken away from his poor dad, having been sold to a farmer, where he worked being a worker, but meaning nothing to the adults he worked for. He built himself up, his only personal belonging was a a watch from his dad. He eventually owned his own farm, living good with his wife and kids. One day someone came and took his farm, the legal systems had papers that said, foreigners could come there and make his farm into a golfing area. He then got himself a new farm, but a few years later, they took that too and made it into a golf field. He lost two farms, that he had worked his whole life to get, he was, should be, a good inspiration to others. The little man is more and more disappearing though it seems, small shops are closed for huge malls, things get more industrialized. This farmer's story represented a change in our society, where people become little factory bricks to move around. It was the end of his time as the farmer in this area, there are no longer any farms there. But his memory is valid, it's important, because I think he was one of those people that still exists, that is easily ignored, but that people could take lesson from. He was a prideful man though, after the documentary was made he killed himself, because he lived after his heart and he didn't want to move to the oldpeoples homes...
I personally dislike most celebs (not all of course), they are usually nauseating characters, obscene and a terrible inspiration to youth (I think I should be able to say that, without too many people thinking, I'm a strict uptight grey bitch. However it's okay really, if most people thought I was). And if you look at the face of some of the famous ones, the attitude, the words, they usually do express a vain, selfish, ugly picture of themselves, even in their beauty. They think they own the world, they seem to be unaware of how the world owns them; how manipulated and used they are, trough their own small characters.
...I have always liked to draw, as a kid I found it a way for me to express myself, as I was very shy. I liked to draw and write. I never wanted to hurt anyone with my little artiness. Of course it can be angry and shocking, but to say it should be, to say it must be offensive, is to say it wouldn't be great if it wasn't so. I have no problem with going by a moral code, in my life. The fact that we have artists finding it difficult, is not really understandable to me. These artists that support abuse in art, makes me not want to call myself a little artist by heart, at all...
In a country where it
Would be nicer to be
Fed intravenously? "
~Kenneth Rexroth~
Ingen kommentarer:
Legg inn en kommentar