Our Goblin Market

Maybe, It’s not as wonderful as we thought.

2011-10-14T12:18:00.015-04:00

Maybe, It’s not as wonderful as we thought.

By Vaughn Whitney Garland

The recent video of Wall Street revelers overlooking the mass of people marching by, as they themselves were perched above, holding champagne and taking pictures, is a perfect example of what the Occupy Wall Street protesters are standing up against. It is not difficult to understand, but the complexities of it will take some time to talk about. The point is that our system of government and livelihood is not equal, it is not supportive of our people and our communities. That system needs to change. It needs to allow for the individual voice.

Respect should be America’s slogan, not greed.

In place of our American communities we find corporations. Unlike the scenes from Hollywood that showed us how to cheer on the American who overcame injustice, we now find culture being wooed by big businesses that put profit before people. Our communities witnesses daily the lengths corporations go to in order to game the system in their favor. Instead of looking to the American people, large corporations direct their energies toward money. They ship jobs overseas, finds loopholes to pay less in taxes, and persuade the courts and politicians to rule in their favor. Political parties try to put blame on the other side of the aisle, distracting us from our own creation of a covetous financial system and a system of weights that posit people last.

Over the past fifty years America has seen its small towns dry up. The small grocery stores, pharmacies, clothing stores, and banks were replaced with large corporate box chains that mistreated its employees and product producers in the quest for profit. I will never forget the day my grandmother came home and told our family that she could not make a living anymore doing what she loved. Large corporations had made their way through the hills of southwest Virginia pushing the small farmers out of business by raising seed prices while lowering the price of crops. Now, we see a resurgence of small farmers trying to rework the soil, not because of the great wealth they enjoy but because they are called to a way of life many Americans once knew. Every week the farmer’s markets are filled with people yearning for that small town feeling. This rediscovery is still not easy. Farmers, like anyone that tries to start a business in today’s market, must face a wide range of oppressions and resistances from the corporation culture.

Corporations are not people, even if the courts deem them so. Unlike communities that care for the success of its people, corporations, in the capitalist’s enterprise, exploits a weakness in people. Corporations are about making money, not empathetic for the individual voice. The selfish corporate autocracy is not the America that is thought of as a golden empire. What is so distressing about the image of the Wall Street reveler is that while the world watches in fear of an economic decay of our financial system Wall Street still does not get it.

The protesters who are standing up for the 99 percent get what the Wall Street doesn’t. These protesters understand that corporations should not govern. In essence, Corporations should not determine human livelihood. The ninety-nine percent see a world turned upside down, where the worth of the individual is nothing more than a consumer. "You sit around here and you spin your little webs and you think the whole world revolves around you and your money. Well, it doesn't, Mr. Potter. In the whole vast configuration of things, I'd say you were nothing but a scurvy little spider!" (James Stewart in It’s a wonderful Life) Yet, even when corporations seem so dictatorial the Occupy Wall Street protesters are not against corporate ingenuity and prosperity. The protesters standing up for the ninety-nine percent are for a system of equality that gives everyone a chance at a good life.

Critics of the Occupy Wall Street protesters have used every rule in the book to discount OWS, calling the protesters lazy, filthy, criminals. Yet, the protests get larger and larger. People from all walks of life and from all over the country are joining in on the movement. Why? Because we are suffering and we want our voice back. The people who call themselves the ninety-nine percent are the new day for our country. They are self-mobilized and dependent on each other. They do not need corporations to survive, just the knowledge that they stand beside a brother and sister who share in their suffering. Here, the community is important.

In Zuccotti park Americans are reawakening the country we somehow forgot about. These Americans are standing to reclaim the American spirit, by protesting that corporations have stepped too far. Under the complexity of all the issues one thing is loud and clear, we want our country back from corporate influence and we will work as a community in order to show the one percent that people still have the power.

"Faceoff at 55 Wall St," Uploaded by strugglevideomedia on Sep 18, 2011, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rfuvDr2wJQ

It's a Wonderful Life. Dir. Frank Capra. Perf. James Stewart, Donna Reed, Lionel Barrymore, and Thomas Mitchell. RKO, 1946. Film

Media X at 1708

2008-11-14T11:43:00.005-05:00

Chris Barr
Veronique Cote
Althea Georrgelas
Michael Takeo Magruder
Rachele Riley
Matthew Kenyon
Kalika Gorski
Patrick Gregory
Bob Paris

Media outlets frequently mislead the public by failling to provide important facts and information in their coverage of current events and news. 1708 Gallery’s election year exhibition Media X, curated by Vaughn Whitney Garland, cuts through the absence of the real story and exposes what many media agencies refuse to cover completely or not at all. Media X opens on October 17th and will be on view until November 22nd. The nine international artists in this exhibition seek to build awareness to the normality of our present day fears and blindness toward conditions left unanswered by using the vocabulary and the spectacle of the media to talk about the media itself. Either commenting on the media’s manipulation of news or documenting the media’s placement of importance on information, the Media X artists expose a visual crossover between what we see and what we don’t. In doing so the Media X artists turn the tables on the media machine in hopes of a mirrored documentation which represents an individual presence in our fast paced media driven world.

Media X artists include Matt Kenyon, Chris Barr, Véronique Côté, Patrick Gregory, Kalika Gorski, Rachele Riley, Michael Takeo Magruder, Bob Paris and Althea Georgelas. The artists tell the story of our present situations across the world with a focus on the Iraq War, by rearranging, uncovering, and manipulating the streaming information acquired through news sources to bring about awareness to our daily consciousness. Media X, which will include drawings, photography, multi and interactive media, presents a fresh perspective on the importance visual language plays in today’s media.

About the artists’ work:

Chris Barr andVéronique Côté will produce a daily “news cast,” which will be streamed to the Gallery interviewing friends, gallery visitors and strangers about current events. Rather than covering the daily political events, the piece operates under the feminist mantra of “the personal is political.”

Althea Georgelas’ work focuses on the need for social freedom and expression and criticizes the political and cultural ideology of current times.

Michael Takeo Magruder’s video work considers the evolution of our collective history through the real-time analysis of global news information networks.

Rachele Riley’s prints from web-based imagery investigate the visual representation of violence in our everyday existence.

Matthew Kenyon’s installation Puddle, consists of motor-oil like material displaying text that comments on the current US energy policy.

Kalika Gorski’s drawings are a direct reflection of the tension resulting from a prolonged war in Iraq, coupled with the recent possibility of invading Iran, and the building tension between Muslim and non-Muslim communities worldwide. Her work focuses on the role that international women revolutionaries and female paramilitaries play within the global, socio-political economy of violence.

Patrick Gregory is creating a new film exploring how media has changed, how and what he sees as well as how it continues to shape the opinions and perspectives of many people- not only exploring content but also the volume of media. Consciously or unconsciously, the ideas portrayed by media are influencing our world and in this case, his sensibilities.

Bob Paris uses news media as the subject in his multi-media installation.

About the Curator:

Vaughn Whitney Garland, Chair of the Exhibitions Committee and on the Board of Directors of 1708 Gallery, has been studying the daily internet news streams of various news agencies. Over several years Mr. Garland began to evaluate the visual communication of opinions and positions used by the media to determine information directed toward a mass audience. The starting point of the Media X exhibition came when Mr. Garland recognized the placement of topics within the visual streaming news formats.

About 1708 Gallery:

1708 Gallery is one of the oldest artist run galleries in the country committed to expanding the understanding, development, and appreciation of contemporary art. Through diverse exhibitions, educational programs and services for artists and the community, the Gallery provides a forum for dialogue that contributes to the development and creation of culture

Media X panel discussion and Opening Night.

Justin Lincoln opens the panel.

Panelists included Media X artists Matt Kenyon, Rachele Riley, Bob Paris, Chris Barr, Veronique Cote, Althea Georgelas and Patrick Gregory as well as Media X curator Vaughn Whitney Garland. Special guests included Robert Hodierne, Associate Professor of Journalism at the University of Richmond and 1708 Gallery's Education and Outreach Chair, Justin Lincoln.

Visitors watch the daily feed Everyone That We Know News Network by Chris Barr and Veronique Cote.

Visitors examine Rachele Riley's Once a Day series.

Visitors listen to Althea Georgelas' She Soldier.

Visitors mingle in the front of the Gallery.

The wall of drawings belongs to artist, Kalika Gorski.

Across from Gorski's drawings, a visitor takes in Patrick Gregory's installation Untitled.

Visitors examine Matt Kenyon's Puddle.

A visitor takes a closer look at Matt Kenyon's Notepad.

Vvisitors watch Our Clean Battlefield by Bob Paris.

A visitor reads about Michael Takeo Magruder's piece Fallujah Iraq 31/03/2004.

Crowd shot of Media X opening!