The black vinyl letters in the artwork “Truth Be Told” measure 21 feet high and stretch some 160 feet across the facade of the 1929 red brick building that now serves as the School, a branch of Manhattan’s Jack Shainman Gallery.
“I naïvely thought I could just explain it and they’d agree,” said Mr. Shainman, who is liable for a $200 fine for each day the work remains in place after the order to remove it was issued. “They were saying it’s a sign, and it isn’t.”
He put it up anyway and said, “We’re good people, doing something we’re allowed to do.” I love the "good people" argument. That's not how freedom of speech works! The "good people" get extra leeway. Is the argument that they have special rights because it's art or because they're the "good people"?
I love that the "good people" are represented by a lawyer named "Better" — William J. Better. He says the law defines a sign as “an announcement, direction or advertisement” and the "Truth Be Told" banner does none of those things.
But Better isn't taking the elitist position and saying the law does't apply because it's art. He's talking viewpoint discrimination: “If someone puts up ‘Seasons Greetings’ on their door for Christmas, would the village tell them to take it down? I think not.” What about a 21'x160' "Seasons Greetings"? You have to say that wouldn't be regarded as a "sign" within the meaning of the code.
But if there were an "art" exception... would there be a bad art/good art distinction? Because, truth be told, the letters fit so awkwardly on the building!
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"When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.” “The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.” “The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master – – that's all.”
When I actually saw the sign/art, I was startled because it was a bit pedestrian for Nick Cave.
I guess the world needs all kinds of Nick Caves. Or at least two.
This "conversation" is just all going on in elites' heads. Blacks are just there for the loot.
Good, Better, Best. Best being the judge in this case.
I'm *pretty sure* that people who talk about having a "conversation" about Saint Floyd can't handle the truth.
No one on the left wants a conversation about Floyd's death. They demand you accept what they tell you.
Floyd was a violent domestic abuser who had lungs that were 3 times their normal weight and died of an overdose.
It’s technically a sign, with an attempt to hide it as art.
Let me know if you have any other questions.
Oh, and I’m sure that most of those advocating for a ‘conversation’ on this topic really could not accept the whole truth about it if it were allowed to be aired.
I saw the sign
Isn't a conversation when two or more people discuss and exchange ideas? Somehow I don't think the left knows what a conversation is.
Is it really fair to compare a Season's Greetings sign on someone's house to this giant lettering on a school where the artist was explicitly told: "Don't do that."
Also: If this lawyer is going to argue that Truth Be Told is not announcing something or advertising something, that's going to require us breaking out some legal codes to find out what this means. Because, from a plain meaning, even the artist is quoted as saying that he was trying to inspire a conversation. That's a direction or call to action.
I think that, after removing the obvious fire hazard parts that if they are combustible and getting in the way of doors/windows, it probably could stay up, but that's because I think the local code is probably stupid in the first place. But, let's not pretend this is not a violation. If they didn't think it was a violation, they would never have gone to get a permit for it in the first place.
[Note: I know that it isn't a school like a school, but they call it the School in the article. The point is: Comparing this to holiday decorations is a clearly bad faith comparison. Because no one thinks Season's Greetings or even Merry Christmas, or even a more directly religious message like The Lord is Come, is trying to start a conversation or a call to action.]
Well he's certainly started a conversation in my house. Unfortunately for him, it's about how boring and derivative his "art" is.
Truth be told? Fentenyl is a helluva bad drug to take for a high, it can kill you dead. The country should unite in pushing for anti-fentanyl opiate addiction treatment centers nationwide, where addicts go when convicted of being addicts. Or is the whole BLM organization just a front for the election, like antiwar protesters were for anti-Bush electioneering?
This conversation works just fine if you use your PC Decoder Ring. That way, "Truth Be Told" is translated into its English form, which is "Bend Over."
I live about an hour away from this guy in hipster Hudson Valley.
The atmosphere in the region, as I can best say it in a nice way is: “How can we adequately kiss black ass today?”
The butt smooching, begging for forgiveness and pledging to purge one’s self of the vile sin of racism among whites is a daily assault on my sanity.
This kind of oppressive hectoring by the left is what cost them Congress and probably the honest vote int the presidential election. Just because they call it rain doesn’t mean that they aren’t pissing on you.
" live about an hour away from this guy in hipster Hudson Valley.”
Maybe that could move it to Stom King with all of the other misfit giant sculptures.
Everybody wants to start a 'conversation.'
In reality, that means they want to lecture you about what a terrible person you are.
Them: "George Floyd was oppressed."
You: "But..."
Them: "Racist asshole."
"conversation" - sit down for this lecture
The country should unite in pushing for anti-fentanyl opiate addiction treatment centers nationwide
I know that's the Accepted Standard Solution to this problem, but to be honest you'll have to add involuntary commitment because plenty of these dopes have been there done that with rehab programs already.
What if a guy just happens to like fent and doesn't want to be treated?
This discussion is so dishonest.
If there's going to be an art exception, then I want a bad art exception to the art exception. This sign is exactly what's wrong with political art--it's crappy art used as a vehicle for half-assed politics.
Does anyone really believe we haven't been talking enough about George Floyd?
That's hideous and a good example of the reason that there are laws about signage.
Funny how the lawyer’s definition of a ‘sign’ doesn’t include political messaging, for some reason.
Truth Be Told....
Our truth. Our telling.
Sit there. Shut up. Nod frequently. Still racist.
The George Floyd riots and other efforts to foment social unrest are amusing to Althouse; I hate it.
Is there some kind of "right to art” that overcomes local laws, because just because it may be ‘art’ doesn’t mean it’s not a sign.
"When is a sign not a sign? When it's art?"
All of the rules on signs and public art revolve around whether or not it supports the goals of the current ruling class.
All of the BLM street painting and erasing of counter messages is a perfect illustration of a common pattern.
First person to stop clapping will be shot.
Carol said...
I know that's the Accepted Standard Solution to this problem, but to be honest you'll have to add involuntary commitment because plenty of these dopes have been there done that with rehab programs already.
What if a guy just happens to like fent and doesn't want to be treated?
This discussion is so dishonest.
Exile should be the standard solution. Jails are designed to fail at their stated goals and are a drain on resources. Forced treatment never works for obvious reasons.
We should offer a choice between a somewhat voluntarily joined treatment program and exile. An Island somewhere would be the best. Implanted chips with geo-fences would work as well.
I guess we haven’t gotten there yet, this is just a stop on the way though.
“We’re good people, doing something we’re allowed to do.”
So, truth be told, he's a liar.
And truth be told, Floyd killed himself.
If the artist had posted "The Truth will set you free" (from John 8:32) he could have argued freedom of religion as well as freedom of speech. Now we'll never know.
If you are going to keep reading this tendentious rag, you should at least learn how to understand what an article is about. The article you quoted has nothing to do with art, signs, or the Cave person. The topic sentence fragment is;
"... the killing of George Floyd, the Black man who died in May in police custody after Minneapolis officers pinned him to the ground for more than eight minutes, one of them with a knee on Mr. Floyd’s neck."
The text preceding and following that is what is known as "pretext" (not posttext, for some reason). It provides a plausible excuse for reprinting what is otherwise old, local news. At least they have backed off claiming the police killed "George Floyd, a black criminal convicted of threatening a pregnant Hispanic woman during a home invasion robbery by holding a gun against her belly. In May, Floyd died of a self-administered fentanyl overdose while police and ambulance personnel watched helplessly".
There. The Truth has been Told, once again.
I'm not a big fan of government regulations that prevent people from putting up political signs (or art) on their own property. Free speech cuts both ways. Remember when that group put up those big "TRUMP" letters on private property that could be seen from the 405 freeway? CalTrans immediately sent a crew there (onto private property) to take those letters down citing them as a "safety hazard." People need to be consistent, and politically neutral, when it comes to supporting or not supporting this kind of activity.
"What if a guy just happens to like fent and doesn't want to be treated?"
A couple of points;
a) People who buy street drugs don't know what they're getting. I suppose there are people who seek out fentanyl, but far more common are those who take it thinking it is heroin.
b) The fentanyl with which the country is lately awash is produced in China, with the approval of the CCP, and shipped here, usually through Mexico. Mexico also has a growing meth and fentanyl problem, although those drugs do not circulate much in China. The counterfeit currency Floyd was trying to pass at the time of his death is also produced in China, but for some reason is mostly shipped in through Canada.
Oh yes, almost forgot. The Democratic Presidential candidate, Joe Biden, was not produced in China, but should he be fraudulently elected, his administration will be run from there, using a combination of bribes and blackmail.
because Shainman was denied a permit for a 21'x160' sign.
Protip: don't apply for something that you want to deny you are applying for
examples:
After applying for a strip club permit; my attempt for a 'dance studies studio' was denied
After applying for a brothel permit; my attempt for a 'film class studio' was denied
After applying for a sign permit; my attempt for an 'art studies studio' was denied
see?
Sign, sign, everywhere a sign
Blockin' out the scenery, breakin' my mind
Do this, don't do that, can't you read the sign?
Recovery, insanity or death. Floyd chose door number three. CHOSE being the operative word here. One has to choose door number one, else number two or number three will result. For certain. Any argument to the contrary willfully ignorant. There is no negotiation.
Refer to Magritte. The solution to the problem is to erect another sign spelling out in rainbow colors that the other sign is not a sign and neither is this sign. That would be true art.
I don't know. I like the ambiguity of Nick Cave's not-a-sign.
Past the square, past the bridge
Past the mills, past the stacks
Past the school with big black letters
On a gathering storm comes
A tall handsome man
In a dusty black coat
With a red right hand
They're speaking truth to facts... a diversitist movement founded on false premises. Floyd died from a drug overdose coupled with comorbidities. Furthermore, as a Covid-19 case, why wasn't his death coded to reflect his status?
For those who want to see the sign, but don't have or don't want access to the NYT, this article has a picture of the sign. Nick Cave’s Truth May Be Writ Large, but Is It a Sign? – Jaweb.
An irony here, as others have pointed out, is that if you try to tell the truth to a lefty about George Floyd/BLM etc, you get branded as a racist. Lefties are not interested in telling or hearing the truth; they are interested in imposing their points of view on others.
"When I actually saw the sign/art ..."
Well, there you go: a resolution. Is it not obvious that a sign might contain art, or that art might be in the form of a sign?
Further, considering that it's been impossible to distinguish between the categories "art" and "not art" ever since Duchamp's urinal, any and every sign may be considered art.
And if any sign may be considered "art" then to declare that governments lack the power to regulate signage.
Even though such regulation would seem to fall within the umbrella "time, place or manner" under which government can regulate speech (or speech equivalents).
So, if this flies get ready for political and commercial sound trucks to broadcast at will under your bedroom window, night after night. For if what comes out of these trucks is declared "art" then you, and the governments that represent you, will have no power to regulate such things as the time, place and manner of permitted speech.
That thing shoulda been banned for its carbon footprint alone.
Think of all the petrochemicals used in the making of it, and how it will spend eternity polluting some landfill.
Floyd was a violent domestic abuser who had lungs that were 3 times their normal weight and died of an overdose.
Here in Minneapolis we know that all four of the cops will be acquitted. That's why gun sales are through the roof.
What if the law said you weren’t allowed to hang a painting above a certain size, and he replied “It’s not a painting, it’s art! I’m a good person!"
What if a guy just happens to like fent and doesn't want to be treated?
This discussion is so dishonest.
Singapore has an answer for that.
Carol et al., I am all in favor of voluntary rehabilitation. And I am also in favor of sending addicts to try rehab upon a drug law conviction, forcibly. If recidivism occurs after an approved course of treatment, I am in favor of giving the drug addict a free lifetime supply of the drug of his choice, at government expense, and an isolated place to live out his life, where he won't bother anyone else. No food or shelter, just the drugs, and no way to get back to a population center. Yes, this is nicer than the way Mao eradicated drug addiction and prostitution and so many other vices in China, with a bullet to the head in the public square for every single person he thought might need it, but then, I'm a nice guy. My family has experienced problems from drug abuse, and while shooting all the addicts is one solution, it fails to allow for a chance at rehabilitation.
I thought Nick was still touring with The Bad Seeds.
All signs lead to Trump (Fred in this case).
"I am all in favor of voluntary rehabilitation. And I am also in favor of sending addicts to try rehab upon a drug law conviction, forcibly."
Well, we're supposedly going to try something like that here in Oregon, although I have my doubts about the "forcibly" part. What credible "force" could there be, in Oregon? The only people who fear the law in Oregon are those who own property, and we fear it in our bones. But I voted for the measure. I believe that my property will be a lot safer when the people who might like to steal it can get all the fentanyl they want, cheap.
“Truth Be Told” is surely a Direction. I’m directing you to tell the truth.
The way to eliminate the scourge of fentanyl (and other drug) addiction is to eliminate the addicts.
That can be done by the the users/addicts, by voluntarily stopping use of the drug. That can be done on their own, by their own volition or with the help of counselors/rehabs centers that they seek out and pay for themselves. No drug use, no addiction.
Or, they can be left to their own devices. Some/many may die, either by the St George pathway, or alone in an alley. Some will get along well enough to survive.
No need to clog up the jails and criminal justice system with them.
If they commit other crimes in pursuit of their addiction, then those crimes should be prosecuted.
Addiction is not a medical diagnosis, no matter what the rent-seeking "addictionologists" say. It is a voluntary behavior, just like shoplifting, arson, or armed robbery. The difference is that it has no external victims, and should be ignored by civil society.
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