“The American people will never knowingly adopt Socialism. But under the name of ‘liberalism’ they will adopt every fragment of the Socialist program, until one day America will be a Socialist nation, without knowing how it happened.”

Socialist Party presidential candidate Norman Thomas


Monday, November 25, 2013

Russian-style performance/statement art is not for me


Regular reader Dave sent this in over the weekend. Crazy Russians are, well, crazy! This guy nailed his scrotum to the cobblestones at a......actually, where does it matter? He nailed his scrotum to the street. 
Pyotr Pavlensky said the protest was his response to Russia's descent into a "police state" and was timed to coincide with Police Day, which Russia's law enforcement officials celebrated on Sunday.
"The performance can be seen as a metaphor for the apathy, political indifference and fatalism of contemporary Russian society," Pavlensky said in a statement. "As the government turns the country into one big prison, stealing from the people and using the money to grow and enrich the police apparatus and other repressive structures, society is allowing this, and forgetting its numerical advantage, is bringing the triumph of the police state closer by its inaction."
If there's a better reason to stay away from performance/statement art, I haven't seen one. Yikes!

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