THE CASE AGAINST ‘EXHIBIT B - THE HUMAN ZOO’ PLEASE READ & SIGN The Barbican Centre London is proposing to have an exhibition of live African heritage men in women displayed in cages for those that can afford £20 to gawp at them. This so called piece of art is an exhibition conceived by friend of the Barbican so called artist the South African Brett Bailey. This blatant piece of racism (recently promoted in Edinburgh and Norway) is reminiscent of a similar exhibition that toured Europe in the nineteenth century. So that there is no misunderstanding, let me begin by saying this. The putting of human beings in zoo cages so that people can pay twenty pounds to gawk at them should to my mind not be seen as art in any circumstances. It is denigration and exploitation and serves only to expose wounds long created and not yet healed. Whilst I do not necessarily agree with the principle of censorship per se, I subscribe to very few absolutes. Before deciding whether or not I would be inclined to censure something, I would first need to know what that something was - not of course that my censorship would mean very much in the real world. Furthermore, if people have the right to decide for themselves what art is, surely by extension I (and others) also have the right to decide what is not art, or at least what is an unacceptable expression of art. Those that say that one could only come to a rational view about whether or not the zoo exhibition is a valid piece of art is after having seen it are misguided. The person promoting the exhibition implies that the benefits of viewing this exhibition to the descendants of those human beings that were paraded in cages throughout Europe a century ago will perhaps be even greater than to the descendants of those that paraded them. He seems the exhibition will help people to understand why there is racism and so help to eradicate it. He is of the opinion that as many of both groups as possible see the exhibition. I have absolutely no doubt his bank manager would agree. There are also others that suggest that it is in the interest of the people displayed in these cases to be so displayed. This will apparently enable those displaying them to see the error of any racist activity they might be inclined to engage in and desist from doing so forthwith. The line of reasoning seems to be that by doing as their ancestors did when they put people in cages in the 19th century will deter them from doing so again. I am truly baffled by this line of reasoning. Sadly those supporting the exhibition include misguided and/or confused members of the objectified community. To them I would point out that it is not everything you have to experience to know that it’s not a desirable experience. To me a person of African going to see this exhibition to see if it’s a bad idea is almost comparable to them putting a noose round their neck and hanging from a tree before agreeing that it’s a stupid idea. We can only but speculate as to why the Barbican would be promoting putting black men and women in cages, particularly in light of the massive reaction against what is at best an ill thought out psychological experiment. Surely it would make sense to protect their reputation from further damage by suspending it, participating in a debate about the nature of, reasons for and potential consequences of promoting such a distasteful exhibition and only proceeding with it if proves to have significant backing of the objectified community? I would be amazed to find that there were members of the Jewish community prepared to argue against the banning of an exhibition involving members of their community being gassed. Especially if it was on the grounds that it would somehow assist the healing process with regards to the decedents of those that gassed Jews. In fact I would be surprised if someone were to propose such a thing and if that person came from other than the Jewish community. There is no chance of me being surprised if the state was to fund it and a major arts centre facilitated it because that simply would not happen. The probability is that the law would make damn sure that anyone complicit in even attempting to make such a thing happen would find themselves in a prison cage not dissimilar to that of the racist South African ‘Artist’. Unfortunately even having a discussion about whether or not the installation is a good idea must necessarily result in publicity for the exhibition. That is why I have been against intellectualizing the debate and thus giving the Barbican and the so called artist, the ability to promote a discussion about whether or not this piece of nonsense is art. We just invite people to argue that it is and accuse us censure. Oh well, the genie is now well and out of the bottle and is steadfastly refusing to go back in. I think that the tendency towards ‘anything goes’ as long as we describe it as art, has created and is still creating more problems in society than I will attempt to list here. These problems generally impact disproportionally on those with the least power to either commission or censure works of arts, or foolishness described as such. For instance, and I fully expect some to make use of their right to disagree with me; to commission someone to exhibit a piece of art’ that consist of a light being switched on and off; an unmade bed; a film that is simply a single shot of a white woman smearing black boot polish on one of her admittedly ample breast; faeces; foetuses; or a pyramid comprising of tins of Cross & Blackwell beans such as could have been seen in any corner shop, passes the line of naivety into the realm of absolute madness. Particular when millions have little or no chance of having their truly creative works of art commissioned, or even partaking of a nutritious meal on a daily basis. In my opinion that situation brings the very concept of art into disrepute I am much saddened and deeply disappointed that many of those democratically elected, selected, appointed or otherwise employed to speak up for ordinary people and for artists in particular, have decided to either actively support the exhibit or else to say as much by virtue of their silence. Your position has been duly noted.
Posted on: Mon, 08 Sep 2014 10:21:42 +0000
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