Date: Mon, 6 Jul 1998 00:33:50 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: Re:  Politics of Cristo............


John wrote:

> Could not an anony-Christo or a sub-rosa Dada be more influential 
> covertly, unannotated, uncelebrated, without imitating the vainglory
> of see-me, hear-me, buy-me, elect-me, of conventional politics 
> and art, with their pervasive industry of  propounding, publicizing,
> critiquing, of their auto-publico argumento ad absurdum of sapless
> political art and critical aesthetics?

There are several questions here, right?  One can be answered
by saying that there may in fact be many artists who strive for political
goals and who conduct their activities sub-rosa, unsung -- including some
whose goals are perhaps incompatible, at odds with, seeking a fellowship 
in the industry of vainglory.  

Then there is the question of whether, say, Christo could be more influential
without publicity and self-publicity.  "Influential" is a funny word here: 
in what sense can a person that few people know about ever be said to be more 
"influential" than a person whose fame is wide?  I guess "influential" would
refer to the depth of transformation effected upon those who do come in contact 
with the work.  Or perhaps it would refer to some kind of "authenticity" 
of this transformation, which may or may not be the same thing as depth.

So is there in this question a moral core, as in the Christian exhortation 
that the left hand should not know what the right hand is doing?

It seems to me that as far as Christo goes, it is neither his purpose 
nor his strategy to reject or attack or oppose the political establishment. 
So that publicity and self-advertisement are not at odds with what he is
doing artistically.  In fact, to the extent to which his goals can be said
to be pedagogical, as George is suggesting when he says that Christo
teaches new ways of thinking about community, publicity could be regarded
as essential to his effectiveness.  

A different question is whether the _kind_ of publicity that he receives
or encourages in some way belies his goals.  I have only seen Christo
talk about his stuff once, and that particular talk had a very down-to-earth 
tone; it reported on his projects, one by one, without any declaration of
grand aspirations.  

What is the proper relationship between one's art and the way one talks
about one's art?  Between what one does and how one presents it?

Which leads into the next question, about the possibility of a sub-rosa
Dada, which seems to me different than the possibility of an anony-Christo.
The sub-rosa Dada question, I think, is related to such questions as:
What is the role of the Unabomber Manifesto?  How is an unclaimed act of
terrorism different from an act of terrorism that is claimed by some group?
What is the role of this claiming?

It's not like I have an answer to that, but one answer that suggests itself
is that manifestos are important when the actions they accompany are 
in and of themselves condemned to ineffectuality.  They are statements of
intent when the intent cannot be read from the actions themselves.  
Put otherwise, they are at once statements of intent and declarations
of the impossibility of achieving, or even expressing, this intent by
means of appropriate actions.  Sometimes, as in the case of the H&H manifesto
and the Futurist Manifesto, they are fully aware of their own nature and 
take the form of acts of irony, of a certain kind of questioning -- they
question the chasm between grandeur of goals and the incommensurable 
modesty and uncertainty of possibilities for action.  Sometimes it is difficult
to tell whether they are intended to be ironic or not.  What are they intended
to be when they are not ironic?  In what mode do they want to be read?
Sometimes (though not in the case of "artistic manifestos") they constitute 
threats of continued future terror.  But in the case of manifestos that
declare a political intent with respect to artistic activities, are they 
all of necessity, and sef-consciously, ironic? 


-m


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