I just finished reading the article,
A Politics of Tears: The Museum of Useless Efforts, Marfa, TX
Mary Walling Blackburn
5th November 2008
This one goes beyond a review for an exhibition, or a screening of a film. It goes into the geopolitical development of southwestern Texas, notably, the city of Marfa. It is located about 70 miles east of the Rio Grande River, which serves as a natural divide between the United States and Mexico. It seems that Blackburn found interest in this area after visiting The Museum of Useless Efforts and the Blackwell Museum and Community Center in Marfa. It seems that The Museum of Useless Efforts is a fictional place, but she uses this as a reference to the teachers and our societies attempt to wash away the Spanish language and spread English into newly found settlements. She uses powerful analogies with water as a way to better understand the development that created segragation, and has now tried to right these wrongs. A divided region is even evident in the cemetary of Marfa, where a fence litterally divides the cemetary into halves, one where the headstones are made my hand and of cheaper quality, and the other where the headstones are store bought and the area has trees and is well-maintained. It is hard to say that we have come a long way from the past frontiers and expansion years, especially since Marfa now has a rapidly expanding border patrol. The issues they face in Marfa, as well as the collective south that borders Mexico, are real, and seem to be diluted within our mass media, with the exception of Lou Dobbs promoting more security along our borders and stereotyping people coming to America for prosperity as drug dealers and job thiefs. What everyone could afford to know more about is the accepting assimilation that people and cultures of the world have done to try and function within our expanding society, in hopes of bettering themselves as well. It seems that we try and deface the validity of their rights, to justify our actions. The tone of this article was not of anger, but rather of observation of a region divided by politics, it seemed to illicit a reaction within me that wonders what I don't know about my own country's history and its development. What I have been enjoying within the articles I have been reading from Afterall thus far, it seems to be educating me on the interpersonal relationships that exist within different regions of our world, and how we interact within these mediums, whether with tension or complacent coexistence.
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2 comments:
Nick - thanks for keep posting about Afterall; am glad that it is holding your interest, and that you continue your engagement with it, whatever the deadlines.
I am reading your posts out of order. If I read this one I was struck by the title of the "institution" - The Museum of Useless Efforts - maybe in part because I am interested in obsolescence and irrelevance, or those things or ideas that are so deemed. What seems interesting about this claiming, or erecting of a fictional institution - by Blackburn? she comes up with the name, yes - is that it in some way is about commemorating a politically suspect pursuit: does Blackburn find this commemoration to be ongoing in the region? is she heightening the atmosphere through such an imagined structure? Is there - through ongoing behavior and policies - an steady maintenance, erecting of such a museum? Are these eradication efforts understood to be not merely historical, but ongoing?
I know, I know - I should read the article. Your discussion of it does enhance my view of Afterall. Or how does this fit into a this art publication? I know that Marfa is anomalous to its landscape, an unexpected oasis of art, funding, and creative activity. But was wondering Is Blackburn's project conceptual in any way, or does it feel like straight journalism?
I know - I should give a look - as I don't quite get a sense of that in your report on it. It is evident though that the reading of the article was edifying for you, impactful, maybe the start of new thoughts. Again, glad you didn't stop at the deadline for your immersion in the worlds available through this publication.
Now I'll get around to reading your original posts.
To me what I found the most interesting of Blackburn's claim to this fictional institution was its existence at all. It is a site in which you would think that the government, or even public interest groups, would see this site as a blemish to our country. In the article it delves into the ways in which teachers at this site would actually try and alter the language of these people to try and make Spanish, an earlier conqueror's language, obsolete. What is great is that it exists untouched to this day, so in a certain aspect it has steady maintenance. Serving to further the title of Museum of Useless Efforts, the Spanish language displays its ability to maintain a presence, and even become more incorporated into the daily lives in the US. Even today, for example, I remember riding the bus and seeing an ad on TransitTV that was in Spanish. It was for www.collegioenPJs.com. I have seen this exact same ad in English before as well, so either it is our cultural acceptance for the language, or a new approach at trying to promote the English language with a new technique. I can't decide which it could be, because sometimes I find that I tend to be more of a conspiracy theorist, but it does say in English on the ad that all classes are in English, so...??
I would also contest that these eradication efforts can be understood to be more than merely historical. In part, it is a display of the presence because you cannot fully understand the present without having a knowledge of the past. To feel one understands the present fully without acknowledging the past would be disregarding the effects that the past has on present circumstances.
I would also contest that Blackburn's project distances itself away from straight journalism enough to be considered an artistic publication. Depending on the ways in which someone looks at the world, art can be found in a variety of locations, settings, and through varying degrees of input. Some art is regarded for its displays within a gallery or an exhibition, other artists perform, and other work can be found. I find the existence of such a site to have the resonance of a piece of art because it is an exhibition that exists within our world. It has all the necessary elements to be considered a piece of art. She also finds herself trying to put this place together because it cannot readily be defined. Each person will not necessarily have the same interpretation as the next, so to drag Duchamp into all of this, as a spectator, each much grapple their interpretation of what they feel and experience to complete the creative act, to give meaning to it for the world. I think its safe to say that Blackburn used the medium of an article as her way of furthering her experience there, but to also give the world a chance to envision and interpret the exhibit that we aren't all capable of seeing firsthand in a gallery, or screening in a theatre because it is a different kind of art.
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