Anish Kapoor — the Indian-born, British sculptor responsible for the work colloquially known as The Bean — said the 2017 ad titled “The Clenched Fist of Truth” and starring NRA spokeswoman Dana Loesch used footage of the sculpture without his consent “by the NRA to promote their vile message.”Here's “The Clenched Fist of Truth” — which I'd never have noticed without Kapoor's complaint:
The sculpture was used as a stand-in for former President Barack Obama in the ad, which was widely criticized at the time of its release in April. The ad paints a nightmarish vision of modern city life and states that “the only way to save our country, the only way to fight this violence of lies is with the clenched fist of truth.”
In a statement issued by a New York gallery that represents him, Kapoor also said that his sculpture and other works of iconic modern architecture were used by the NRA in the ad to represent a hidden and threatening “other,” or a version of “Liberal America” against which NRA members need to arm themselves....
I was going to say Streisand effect, but I don't think Kapoor's speaking out hurts the very interest he is trying to promote. He's getting a platform for expressing his anti-NRA beliefs, and he's calling attention to his artwork, which appears in so much photography that he can't possibly control. You can't dominate a public square with a stationary piece of personal expression and then limit the speech of everyone who uses the square. You can only keep talking, contributing more speech, and that's what Kapoor is doing.
Like the Statue of Liberty in NYC, the "bean" — officially, "Cloud Gate" — irretrievably merges with popular culture:
The sculpture has been used as a backdrop in commercial films, notably in the 2006 Hollywood film The Break-Up... the ending scene of Source Code... The Vow when the lead characters share a kiss under it. It also appears in the video to "Homecoming", a song by Chicago native Kanye West... The sculpture is also featured in the 2008 mumblecore film Nights and Weekends. It was also featured in the Bollywood film Dhoom 3 and the 2014 movie, Transformers: Age of Extinction... A modified reproduction of Cloud Gate is also included in Watch Dogs....There is a copyright issue here, but I'm not going to explain it.
ADDED: When you're pushing a minimal version of the Second Amendment, you're helping the other side if you simultaneously push a minimal version of the First Amendment. The NRA (in that very video) warns that our freedom is at stake. Don't threaten non-gun freedoms or you enhance the NRA's message! And that advice applies even though — or especially because — Kapoor is not an American.
Posts
58 comments:
Hubcap art
The ad paints a nightmarish vision of modern city life
Yeah, actual footage of liberal anti-Trump protesters, brownshirts, if you will, who ironically call themselves anti fascist, and victims of their violence does create a "nightmarish vision of modern city life."
lucky thing for him that his artwork wasn't a cake,
or he'd have obsoletely no say on what happens with it
Bean on screen for 1/3 of a second. Mr Bean and LL Bean say tough beans.
I'm a little surprised the Bean doesn't have any bullet holes in it.
Screw him. It's also a possession issue. The city owns that piece of crap, not the muppet that made it.
Incidentally - for those of you with shitlib leftists and wankers in your family... A membership in the NRA makes a great gift. :)
Minimal sculpture for a minimal freedom.
Watching the video with sound off, Dana Loesch looks angry throughout. Her happy warrior approach is better.
"Clenched fist of truth?"
Like This?
I've always thought of that fist as a syndicalist image picked up by the black power movement. Apparently there's an aryan version as well, and many other offshoots.
Kapoor retains no ownership of the sculpture. It was a work for hire paid for out of private funds donated to the park for this purpose. It is a public landmark. Neither his permission nor the City of Chicago's permission is required for it's inclusion in an add of this sort.
“Without his consent.”
He doesn’t have a say over who is allowed to film, photograph or otherwise use the sculpture. It’s not his.
The NRA (in that very video) warns that our freedom is at stake. Don't threaten non-gun freedoms or you enhance the NRA's message!
They can't help it. It's really freedom, not guns they're after.
You can tell because there is absolutely no acknowledgement of the rights of people who oppose their message.
The NRA comes out of the essence of the experience of Americans who settled the New World, and will never be held in derision here like it is among English assholes.
The settler's Militia Captains were elected by the militia volunteers for their warrior leadership skill.That was how Democracy started in New England. Able bodied settler men were expected to volunteer for the militia and each one had to own his own gun and ammunition. If you want to know why, read Wiki's section on the basics of King Philip's War. For 150 years the settlers had only their Militia to defend themselves from raids by savages.
That militia tradition was exactly what the British Monarchy's Army and Navy, along with their Hessian German, hired hitmen, were sent over here to stop in the Colonies in the 1770s so they could be enslave the settlers and sell off their stolen Real Estate for bribe loot. The Militia at Lexington and Concord said NO. That NO became the Second Amendment so hated by the British till this day.
"Dana Loesch looks angry throughout. "
I agree. That was not her best effort.
The left does not understand the NRA at all.
"The Militia," which they try to use to limit or ban guns, was restricted to white males between 17 and 35.
But is was ALL white males that age.
Blacks were not included. They don't get it. Condaleeza Rice did but she does not speak out.
It's not her issue.
He also hates the nickname "The Bean" and wanted it to be in Lurie Gardens.
"Indian-born, British sculptor"
Not an American. Fuck you.
Kapoor also said that his sculpture and other works of iconic modern architecture were used by the NRA in the ad to represent a hidden and threatening “other,” or a version of “Liberal America” against which NRA members need to arm themselves....
He's probably right about that.
And yet some people stereotype gun nuts as philistines.
Go figure.
Condaleeza Rice did but she does not speak out.
It's not her issue.
She just spoke out about it on The View
I'm reminded of the Bull and that silly girl statue that is in front of it.
Artists: Once you release your art to the world, other people can appropriate it -- or its message, if any -- in any way they see fit. If you want control of your work for all time, then pay for that priviledge.
Kapoor also said that his sculpture and other works of iconic modern architecture were used by the NRA in the ad to represent a hidden and threatening “other,” or a version of “Liberal America” against which NRA members need to arm themselves....
He's welcome to go to the South Side and express his views any time.
While correlation is not causation, I've always found it interesting once Daley left, there was an uptick in violence.
There was some artist guy who claimed that he ran out of black and had to use blue and impressionism was born.
I'll look it up.
Monet, apparently. If he actually said it, he was being facetious, probably.
Thornton wants his Capitol out of it, too.
On TBBT, there was a bit where Schrödinger's cat was used to represent some sort of brilliant insight. I thought Schrödinger intended the metaphor as a criticism, an absurdity. But those guys get the big money and I don't so I must have been wrong about that.
Schroedinger's Cat isn't a metaphor. It's a meditation upon the concepts of "observer" and "observation. It does appear to be an absurdity, but nonetheless also appears to be the reality.
"She just spoke out about it on The View"
I know. That was what I referred to but that has been the only time I know of.
Another lefty whining. Yawn.
-sw
"Kapoor also said that his sculpture and other works of iconic modern architecture were used by the NRA in the ad to represent a hidden and threatening “other,” or a version of “Liberal America” against which NRA members need to arm themselves...."
Not hidden enough. I think I feel my xenophobia kicking in.
Minimal Version isn't quite right. cherry picked or à la carte is more like it.
Always with a side of hypocrisy.
Kapoor chooses to live in a country where you practically need a personally-signed note from Her Majesty the Queen to fight back when attacked. I choose to live in a country where the natural right of self-defense in unalienable and my right to firearms to support that natural right of self-defense "shall not be infringed."
There was some artist guy who claimed that he ran out of black and had to use blue and impressionism was born.
Monet had cataracts and had a "blue period" when he saw everything with a blueish tint.
Then he had one cataract removed, a crude procedure at the time.
It improved his color vision but he refused to have the other done.
That said, I think Dana is too intense in this advert. She's correct in every particular, but too intense.
Blogger Curious George said...
"Indian-born, British sculptor"
Not an American. Fuck you.
Is he trying to interfere in our elections. Maybe we need to get Mueller to indict his ass.
Meanwhile, the descendants of several long dead architects threaten to sue the NRA for showing pictures of buildings designed by their forbears in the nineteenth century.
The Militia at Lexington and Concord said NO. That NO became the Second Amendment so hated by the British till this day.
The British marched on Concord in an attempt to seize weapons and ammunition from the colonists. It was the king's attempt to disarm us that was the final straw that kicked off the revolution.
Henry said...
Watching the video with sound off, Dana Loesch looks angry throughout. Her happy warrior approach is better.
True, but I found that severity strangely erotic.
...the Indian-born, British sculptor responsible for the work colloquially known as The Bean... said the 2017 ad... used footage of the sculpture without his consent.
"This is our hill, and these are our beans."
The NRA is a civil rights organization promoting the inherent, inalienable, individual right of self defense, enumerated in the US Constitution as the 2nd Amendment.
So what Kapoor objects to is the right to self defense. Hmm.
Thought experiment: Approach Kapoor. Explain you are going to kick him in the nuts until he stops you. Do so. Does he let you, or does he try to stop you?
I'm suggesting he is against the right of self defense for others, but not for himself, and he would be outraged even beyond his current boilover were you to attack him.
I liked the video. I liked Dana. I thought she was determined, not angry. For me, it was persuasive.
True, but I found that severity strangely erotic.
You should see the version with the riding crop.
You have to admire a conservative group like the NRA hiring a Trans-Woman as a spokes-Xe
"hiring a Trans-Woman as a spokes-Xe"
Is that supposed to be funny ?
Lefty attacks on conservative women.
if you believe the source that wiki uses
"Schrödinger did not wish to promote the idea of dead-and-alive cats as a serious possibility; on the contrary, he intended the example to illustrate the absurdity of the existing view of quantum mechanics"
"When I hear about Schrodinger's cat," the legendary egghead once said, "I reach for my gun."
It's only an attack on the "woman" if you are transphobic. It is just sad, Michael, how the radical right chickencuck is so attracted to manly looking women who tell them how to be a mens.
"It's only an attack on the "woman" if you are transphobic. "
Yes, I confess that I am not attracted to "women" with dicks a foot long.
Are you ?
So it's the specific length of chick-dick you prefer, Mike. Alrightythen. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
Howard, are you trying to say something or just being insulting because that's who you are ?
Are you trying for the Ritmo trophy ?
Let me guess, he's Pro-Choice. How many elective and mass abortions are committed by citizens using legally registered firearms?
He should be rightly concerned about the "fast and furious", Planned Parent, self-abortion, and criminal loopholes; but, there is no basis to believe in a progressive (i.e. monotonic) Pro-Choice religion or tradition among people who possess firearms for self-defense, hunting, or recreational purposes.
Kapoor needs to signal his virtue to keep party invites coming. That's all this is.
It's only insulting if you're transphobic, Mike. Just ask Richard Simmons.
You have to admire a conservative group like the NRA hiring a Trans-Woman as a spokes-Xe
I'd pay good coin to watch you say that to her face.
Blogger Jim at said..."You have to admire a conservative group like the NRA hiring a Trans-Woman as a spokes-Xe"
I'd pay good coin to watch you say that to her face.
Her Adams Apple doesn't intimidate me, although the Man Hands are a bit creepy.
Send it to my Bitcoin account #: 314159265359
Howard is pretending he is a man.
Ouch! That really hurts Doc when you grab me by the pussy.
"hiring a Trans-Woman as a spokes-Xe"
Is that supposed to be funny ?
Lefty attacks on conservative women.
It used to be that the Left would insult the Right by calling them gay. Which always puzzled me, because to the Left being gay is a good thing. It would be like the right calling Lefties 'supply-siders". For Rightwing women, this has shifted to accusing them of being trans.
Loesch isn't the first Rightwing woman they've attacked this way...Ann Coulter has been accused of being a tranny for years.
“Loesch isn't the first Rightwing woman they've attacked this way...”
It’s almost as if leftists are exactly the sexist homophobes they are always accusing rightists of being. (And racist too considering how crudely they will attack any non-white who happens to be to their right.)
I wonder what it will take for them to realize these are losing messages.
Post a Comment