take the fight

[harborshore]

This is the post I've been trying to write on why Evelyn Evelyn is fundamentally flawed as an artistic endeavor. ignipes wrote it better than I ever could.

I do have a problem with artists who strive to be and claim to be cutting edge but pay no attention to who they are cutting with their creations. There is a wide gulf of difference between creating a work of art designed to exploit the experiences of persons, ideas or governments in positions of privilege and power, with histories of being oppressive, and creating a work of art designed to exploit the experiences of persons who are continually exploited, or dismissed, or eroticized, or mocked, or ignored on a daily basis already. There is a vast difference between throwing artistic punches at the privileged and oppressive, and throwing artistic punches at the very people those persons, ideas and systems harm.

When a person says, "Art is supposed to be shocking and dangerous!" maybe we should stop to ask the question, "Shocking to whom? Dangerous to whom?" Does anything about the discussion and presentation of the "Evelyn, Evelyn" project - especially the words of its creators in reaction to the criticism they've received - serve to shock an ableist society into recognizing and empathizing with the struggles of disabled women and artists?

I don't need to add anything to that.

Comments

[harborshore.livejournal.com]

Leaving aside the Kennedy picture for a moment, the reason I object to Evelyn Evelyn (as someone who does like Amanda Palmer and does think that some of her aforementioned dark humor is right on the mark) is that I can't see how we're not meant to be laughing AT the conjoined twins. I can't see how they're not being ridiculed. And I don't understand what the point of that is--like, for a crowd of able-bodied people to laugh at this? The only analogy that I can come up with is blackface. And that's not funny. It's just not.

I do think art can be uncomfortable, I do think art can be edgy and sharp (Palmer's "Oasis" actually works like this, for me), but this project isn't sharp, it's kicking people who are already often and repeatedly ridiculed and marginalized. You have to know what the hell you're doing, when you're an artist. This recalls freakshows, which is to say, shows in which they showed off people who are 'freakish and different', and I get that they're doing it on purpose, but I don't see what's different about it to make it okay.

[turlough]

can't see how we're not meant to be laughing AT the conjoined twins |...] This recalls freakshows

Yeah, I've seen many persons I respect for their intellectual integrity make the same point as you are and despite my initial misgivings about the motives of some of the early protests it's probably the conclusion I'm going to end up with myself. ARE we supposed to laugh and at WHAT are we supposed to laugh at is the crucial point of this.

[harborshore.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it really is the crucial point. That's where I ended up after wincing at comments about Palmer's other stage performances or clothing choices or appeals to her boyfriend to reign her in--all of those things are dumb and sometimes downright offensive, but Evelyn Evelyn is STILL a fundamentally flawed artistic project.