The Politics of Representation and Art
The Blue Noses, Revolution to be Continued, 2005, Galerie Volker Diehl. Image Via: ArtNexus
In the sense that this election was not a landslide victory for Barack Obama, my Canadian heritage betrays me: I don’t understand Americans. But yesterday night as I listened to the presidential elect give his speech in a room full of people covered in champagne, my own face, like many, glistening with tears, I felt okay with those differences. In fact, Obama’s words, seemed like an answer, or at least a start of an answer, to some of the problems artist Nayland Blake articulated in an interview with me over the summer.
….but ultimately my talk about blurring the boundaries does have do with bisexuality, and with being of mixed raced, and this ties back to art. The big problem this country has with social equity is that it bases itself on a model of representation. It’s a kind of multiculturalism that assumes that the only way you can advance your cause is by making the argument for sameness. It’s that, yes, our skin may be different, but that’s not a real enough difference; underneath we’re the same, so we should have the same rights. Our sexuality is different, but that’s not a real difference. It’s not enough to deny our fundamental sameness, so we should have the same rights.
To me, a progressive idea of a society is one that understands and values difference in and of itself, because what happens otherwise in seeking sameness is that everything gets caught up in a trap of representation. In other words, African Americans are asked to represent African Americanness to the culture as a whole — they’re asked to do the work of discussing race — and the moment they don’t, they become unintelligible. People are like, “Why are you talking about class?” And at the moment the queer people stop talking about sexuality, and start talking about race or about something else, they get pilloried from and within their community for not doing the work of representation.
And that’s the thing that’s valuable about art: It can make representation complex, and it’s the place where we explore ambiguity and complexity within representation. It’s not like people can’t speak, but we have certain ideas, and the moment that’s challenged, people look at [us] like we’re insane. And that’s a really debilitating place because it’s a fixed system representing itself as change.
As if hearing those words, Barack Obama acknowledged and respected these deep differences with grace and humility. “To those Americans whose support I have yet to earn,” he said last night to a massive crowd of people in Grant Park, Chicago IL, “I may not have won your vote, but I hear your voices, I need your help, and I will be your president, too.”
On a lighter note, I am exceptionally happy to hear that the Obama family will be bringing a new puppy to the White House.
I was hoping that Obama would freak out the nation by declaring that he would be bringing the first Communist cat into the White House with him. I guess that goes back to the politics of sameness. What kind of president would he be if he didn’t have a Checkers, Barney, or Buddy? I suppose Clinton did have Socks, of little note. W. also kicked out Ernie for his wild temperament. Cats are an under-represented animal in presidential politics. Along with labor, the trade deficit, sex and gender equality, war, and finance regulation, I’d like to make cats a larger lank of the Democratic program for the next 4 years. Look how happy Nayland Blake is with his cat. We should wish this for the nation. Perhaps a cabinet office should be instituted…
We won!
Thanks for the qoute and the credit. It is indeed a remarkable time and Obama’s willingness to speak complexly about it gives me hope. But the image that you are using isn’t by me, as cute as that guy is.
Sorry about that. I pulled it off a website I got to by plugging your name into google images. I’ve corrected the credit information.
I really loved how you described art as a vechile to explore the ambiguity and complexity within representation. People are complex, yet condensed into a molds of representation that limit their expectations. The rest becomes internalized and art has or can be the opportunity to expose that possibility.
I think Obama has just changed the construction of representation for future generations. Young children growing up in the US during his presidency will obtain a completely different perspective and image of African Americans than those past. Obama has challenged stereotypes and many racist Americans looked past their prejudice of his name and skin to actually vote in his favor. It’s amazing since I have previously seen the “change” as idea in conceptual art and Obama literally unfixed the system in real time!