Protest Poster

Artist Statement

            As I prepared to create a protest poster, I found it difficult to determine exactly what I wished to portray. I knew that I wanted to portray something to do with capitalism. Unfortunately, capitalism has been portrayed in many different ways and part of the assignment was to present a social issue in a less-conventional manner. It was then that I came across the musical machinations of Sun Rise Above, in particular the album “Every Day I Wake Up on the Wrong Side of Capitalism” and the title track (includes strong language) from said album.

            As I listened to this rapper and considered the implications and messages presented, I realized how I wanted to portray capitalism and its negative consequences. I realized that capitalism is almost never presented from the perspective of those on the “wrong side” of it: the oppressed, working and impoverished classes. An article from the New YorkTimes pointed out that in France, most members of the socialist party are in fact products of “elite schools and careers.” Chimamanda Adichie represented the dangers of such one-sided viewpoints in a TED talk in which she spoke of different stereotypes that she had been exposed to, from the westernized books that she would read as a child, to the views she had when visiting Mexico. With all this in mind, I began to produce my piece.

            I wanted to be able to understand and present poverty from the viewpoint of those in poverty and I used a collection of photographs from various photographers to try to comprehend the various aspects of poverty. Those in poverty are often objectified or presented as less than human even in the artistic pieces that are attempting to draw attention to the problem. I found it refreshing to look at some of the photographs of children smiling and happy, despite living in poverty. I realized that in order to avoid dehumanization, I would have to draw attention to those not in poverty rather than trying to portray poverty. I chose an image that would commonly be found on a poster fighting poverty, but chose to draw attention to the reader and point out both the similarities and the differences between the reader and the people portrayed in the poster. I feel that I was able to avoid dehumanization and still draw attention to the subject through the line I put on the poster; a line which I had drawn from Sun Rise Above’s album, and which I felt accurately portrayed my response to many capitalists.

            Response to this poster on Facebook was very intriguing. I found it especially interesting that not a single person liked the poster who was a student at BYU. Thinking deeper on this, I realized that even though I have met several socially liberal students at BYU, I haven’t really met many economically liberal students. I was also able to have a very engaging discussion with one of my roommates about the poster in which we discussed poverty, socialism, and capitalism. I personally believe that a socialist or communist society could not exist in the US due to the rampant individualism, so common in our country today. We do not care about the common good, except as it directly affects us. If we were to change our perspective and realize that those around us were humans and part of our society, our motivations and desires would change.

            In conclusion, this is an issue that I feel particularly strong about, but I was able to realize through this project how important it is to avoid dehumanization when poverty is portrayed.

Webspinna Artist Statement

            As we considered this project, we found it difficult to come up with a topic for our Webspinna battle. It wasn’t until we discussed different personas in class that we arrived at a solution. We realized that we would be more effective if we focused our theme on our personas and not vice versa. Through this focus, we were able to discover and play with the question of why personas are created and maintained.

            Our personas for the Webspinna battle were Richard Simmons and Robin Sparkles. We found this particularly applicable as both are technically created personas themselves; Richard Simmons was originally named Milton and Robin Sparkles is the stage name of a fictional character in the television series How I Met Your Mother. We also wanted personas that were very different from our normal selves. With these personas in mind, we began choosing our clips and links.

            We chose links that were iconic of our personas. We wanted our personas to shine through and not necessarily our song or clip choices.

            Much like DJ Spooky’s Rhythm Text we didn’t want our performance to be dictated and controlled by the order of our pieces. Rather, we chose a beginning and an end, and let the rest happen spontaneously. This created some confusion and discord, but the project seemed to call for it. This contrasted with our personas, people who meticulously controlled their public appearance and identity.

            The performer Lady Gaga is a master of creating a persona. Her stage name is based on the Queen song “Radio Gaga” which Brian May wrote to illustrate the “messagelessness” of their songs. In much the same way, Lady Gaga has created a persona which mocks fame and the purpose that we tend to put behind music and art in general. Although our personas did not go this far, we did mock the idea of personas with our over-the-top outfits, which were so different from our normal selves.

            Through this, we discovered at least partially why personas are created. Through our taking on the personas of Richard Simmons and Robin Sparkles, we were able to be people, do things, and wear clothing that we normally wouldn’t.

            In conclusion, although we both were fairly hesitant to begin with when we read the description of this project, we were able to discover at least to some extent why and how people create personas for themselves. We also were able to develop personas and use this to perform in ways we wouldn’t if we were acting as ourselves.