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Go Home "the Assassination Of Barack Obama"

THE SPINE MARCH 4, 2008

"the Assassination Of Barack Obama"

BY MARTIN PERETZ

Of all the disgusting themes in this political season the most repulsive isthe widely talked about but underground theme of the assassination ofBarack Obama.  How many times have you heard some sallow sage say that"Obama will be assassinated," just like -take your pick-  J.F.K. or Bobbyor Martin Luther King Jr?

The particular iteration of the assassination theme that I have in mind isan installation by Yazmany Arboleda at the Naomi Gates Gallery in theChelsea neighborhood of New York. Its title is simple and direct, "TheAssassination of Barack Obama." And the verbal discourse is paranoid and hysterical.

The installation explores the figurative, but highly effective attempts by the American populace to assassinate Barack Obama’s reputation during his historic candidacy for president. Reflecting the sentiment that no one is without blame or responsibility, Arboleda shows the extreme effects of a society intent on castrating anyone in power. The rest of the verbiage is more or less the same.

And then comes the "art."  A few posters, photographs, GAP and Budweiserlogos, an image of Bobby Kennedy haunting Obama, nine nooses and anenormous black penis stretched over three of four large walls. Speaking ofstereotypes. Just move from scene to scene by clicking "view."

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18 comments

Why even advert to this dreck?

- basman

March 4, 2008 at 11:53pm

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This is ridiculous, Marty.

Is this part of Obama's campaign strategy now, trying to make people sorry for him?

Of course there are crazy people out there ready to kill, but I think all candidates and this includes Hillary as well a McCain are in danger of assassination.

As Itzkik said, "why even advert to this dreck?"

- jacksondyer

March 5, 2008 at 12:02am

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My, my, Mr P, how er interesting are your forays into the contemporary art scene.... blog postings about the bejeweled skull, Jeff Koons, now this excrescence?

- teplukhin2you

March 5, 2008 at 12:39am

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Peretz, you're so out of it.  It's just the fashion.  "The Assassination of Richard Nixon," "The Assassination of George W. Bush"...  Now, some too-clever-by-half denizens of Lower Midtown have their own riff.  Or do you imagine Chelsea as some hotbed of Hillary cadres with the Molotovs, just waiting for a signal?

" Why even advert to this dreck?"  Because Peretz is a media type, which means he cynically panders to our trashy nature, packaging the dreck as an exposé, a service to the reader.

- jm_rice

March 5, 2008 at 1:06am

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The artist seems to be as sick as anyone who would assassinate Obama.  

- fwslusser

March 5, 2008 at 3:30am

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Why call this person an artist?

- fougasseu

March 5, 2008 at 6:17am

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This reminds me of a similar "artist" who painted a portrait of Chicago's first African-American mayor, Harold Washington, in drag.  A local alderwoman was offended, burst into the gallery, and took a hatchet to the painting.  Obama endorsed her in the last election, which I found curious for a Constitutional Law professor (she lost).

Anyway, I agree with the rest of you, media attention is just what this bottom-feeder is seeking, why give it to him?

- Lymon1

March 5, 2008 at 8:41am

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What offends me the most about it is that the art is really, really bad.  It is the kind of art that is reliant on artist's statements and the notion the putting the word "black" into "The audacity of hope" will surprise people who don't actually take 1/1,000,000th of a second to realize that it has no meaning.   It offends me not that he is contemplating the assasination of Barack or anything, but that the artist actually thinks I might be dumb enough to think he is saying something interesting and important about race and America.  

- boneill

March 5, 2008 at 10:55am

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I don't know, the inverted opulence in the negative space approximates a peagentlike effect of massed splendor, for me.

What?

- The Ignorant Populist

March 5, 2008 at 12:20pm

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And yet, there is a kind of recursive tableau which presents itself as an affirmation of tribal delineation, wouldn't you say?

- jm_rice

March 5, 2008 at 12:47pm

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Artists are weird anyway.  My Uncle Hal used to be able to make his nose move from side to side without touching it.

- ironyroad

March 5, 2008 at 1:35pm

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I would JM, I'd even go so far to say, if I may be so bold, that it evokes the recurring leitmotiv of consanguine dissension. An almost astern juxtapostion, very much in contrast with its splendiferous proposition.

- The Ignorant Populist

March 5, 2008 at 2:36pm

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....playfully subverts conventional categories denoted by signifiers such as "assassination" and "penis"...

- teplukhin2you

March 5, 2008 at 4:04pm

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On Martin Luther King Day a few weeks ago, a local news radio station interviewed people who were riding a special train up the Peninsula to San Francisco for the annual march commemorating Dr. King.  The reporter found two friends, older African-American men, standing together on the train, and asked them both for whom they planned to vote in the (then) upcoming California election.

One man said, "Barack Obama" and was plainly enthused about Obama's candidacy.

The other said, "Hillary Clinton," and then said (and I'm paraphrasing here, but not by much): "I don't want to be one of those responsible for Obama's assassination."

The second man on the train is not alone among African-Americans, or others, with that fear, rational or irrational that it may be.

- williamyard

March 5, 2008 at 4:41pm

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I liked the black guy.

Art!

- boneill

March 5, 2008 at 4:48pm

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My comment was meant to follow the poking fun of art critique, not williamyard's.  But I guess it works either way.

- boneill

March 5, 2008 at 4:49pm

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I agree with Basman: "Why even advert to this dreck?" Peretz has shown incredibly bad judgement in disseminating this nauseous meme. Maybe somebody should take his keyboard away from him.

- amidut

March 5, 2008 at 6:26pm

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Eh, meme schmeme.

- sleepyavl

March 10, 2008 at 2:32am

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