WHY HAVE I NEVER SEEN THIS?!

And soon life begins...

Beginning to have a Point

I am an anxious person; very critical and pessimistic. I am frustrated with the cyclical nature of history and society. I see patterns repeating themselves under new guises and newer executions. Technology and language have changed, but have not (up until now) brought progress within a social context. Rather, technology and language (the way we call things) have only worked to exaggerate exponentially innate and instinctual human characteristics. We are a tribal species that seeks to compete and dominate for the sake of genetic isolation and specific species propagation. We have broken humanity into a blocking of biological sub-categories (races), but even more disquieting is our creation of species based on the arbitrary construct of economics (upper, middle, and lower class. Aka, The rich, The merchants, and the poor/ slaves). We live in a world that says, “If you can gain wealth, your kind will continue. If can not gain wealth, your life is expendable and your genes don’t matter.” The opportunity for wealth is promised to us, but those who are already in that 2% species protect their kind from the threat of watered down genetics by constructing social and political barricades around their territories. It is this 2% that I fear and at once accept. It is human function to be subservient. We function like a virus or bee colony, in that, all our life’s toil (or not) is done for the sake of propagating the wealthy. These are the issues I’m concerned with. This is an emotional and intellectual duality that has plagued me since I first noticed that something wasn’t right. My heart tells me that we should fight and storm the institutions with rifles. Yet my brain reminds me that that has happened all too many times before and that the end result is never any different than the way it all started before. So rather than take a stand, or have an opinion, I do what I have always done… isolate myself, work alone, and reject institutions; yet I do know how to exploit them. My work is intended to be open ended and at the same time point at the audience and say “Your misery is your own fault, if your aren’t happy, than fucking change it!” My only concrete opinion is that things should always be talked about, never repressed and never censored.

Militant Documentary

"For those who call for a new militant documentary practice cognizant of both representation of politics and the politics of representation, a thorough awareness of what traditional documentary modes put in place is a prerequisite to any practice that attempts to go beyond it" (Solomon-Godeau), Who Is Speaking Thus?

Bored over Holiday

Must See!

http://www.sarahmaple.com/artpage.htm

classic

REMAIN CALM!

So the show is officially over! It went amazingly, and just want to thank everyone and anyone that helped make this happen, special props to Chris Lawrence, Hersh Singh, Joe Ovelman, and of course, Gabe Martinez.
Oh and just as a reminder, as the new year approaches, and the new world changes, for better or for worse, just.... Remain Calm!

Exit Strategy

More Collage

Just trying to work as fast as possible and as instinctually as possible on these. Hopefully they'll become more than just New Yorker cover illustrations.

Deadpan? Not so much

Photographer Unknown

Here's a twist on a Joan Crawford and Franchot Tone portrait I just did.

Cautiously Optimistic Leaning Towards Pessimistic

I'm feeling mixed emotions about what happened today, that is, Barrack Obama wining the presidency. I walked out of my studio at 1 am and was escorted home by the sounds of jubilant Obama fan blasting their car horns. I passed high fives and cheers amongst african-americans who didn't even know each-other. I even saw heard conversations between the static residents of West Philadelphia and the transient students of U Penn and Drexel; something that never happens. It was beautiful to see how meaningful this event was for the African American community. I overheard a girl crying with joy, and a security guard say that for the first time he was voting for someone and not against someone. What Obama has done is an obvious milestone in African-American, American, and 21st Century History.
I got home to find my living room and kitchen filled with the remnants of a fraternity-esque party conducted by my other college age roommates. Even the upper-middle class white people were happy to see a milestone of their own. For the first time they felt their vote count, like a child who has spent his whole life not getting any attention or being given any familial role has all of a sudden been asked to choose this year's family vacation. Not only that, but young people have begun to realize just how much of an impact what happens in DC affects them. Who knew that the collapse of an economy, the threat of war or the upset of a world order would actually have any bearing on my life?
Some other nice things happened today, like republicans voting outside the party line or the elderly and middle aged being in sync with the youth. Thats all well and fine.
I'm concerned though with a fundamental flaw that Americans (and perhaps humans in general) seem to inherent generation after generation. We are at once short-sighted and forgetful. Our perception of the world only exceeds a year or so in to the future and a year or two in to the past. We jump on big ideas which don't bode very well for the future. Industrialization is a great example. But what happened after the first cities were ransacked with ebola and children were losing their hands to giant mechanical monsters by the hour didn't teach us much, only, if you were going to keep up such a tribal existence, you were going to need more slaves aka, the poor.
It is this principle of humanity, the doubly lacking foresight and hindsight, that has us so worked up about Obama. He may ver well be the man for the job, but i've yet to see him action. Sure he may have tossed around a few votes in a couple senate meetings, but who hasn't these days? Although he was bred for greatness in halls covered with ivy vines, but then again, I can't remember the last president who wasn't. So how this different from anything we've seen before? Because he's black? That may be so, but he's also a man, not a God. We've gotten so caught up in this year-long mythological chronicle of the best warriors battling their way to the top wielding money for spears and slogans for flags that we've forgotten about the real powers; the cosmos.
I'm keeping one eyebrow cocked and an ear to the ground this year, lest the cosmos reign down their wrath on our new warrior-king.

Anarchy in the USA