Key Uncertainty.

Some notes on Tributary @ La Esquina, May 12th-June 10th, 2017, from the Chief Hydrologist.

Trace a river to its headwaters and you will swim through any number of aphorisms.  The clearest of which might be, river is as river does. Same might be said of artists. And scientists.  From a managerial perspective, each can appear uncontrollable; yet boundless inquiry and unfettered meandering are not without purpose.  Rivers mark time but also create it. They erode physical and mental obstructions. They challenge extant notions and forge new paths. Same might be said of artists. And scientists.

Despite legislature dating back nearly two centuries to ‘improve’ the nearly 4000 kilometers of the Missouri River, the longest river in the USA, the groups charged with enacting said changes can’t agree as to what this means.  A river master plan requires us to create false notions about the nature of a stream, i.e., human existence stands outside the river rather than being integral to its flow.  Such hubris allows us to minimize floodplain connectivity, disregard centuries of community history, and undermine the concept of water as giver. This neglect is done in favor of bullet points from an agency founded on building forts. Such thinking has shortened the river by 320 km and eliminated 12,000 km² of riparian corridor habitat. Your taxes paid for the disappearance.

Thirty American Indian tribes reside in the Missouri River Basin. Many of those nation’s sovereign views are at odds with the notion that it takes an act of Congress to establish the river’s purpose. They (Congress) decided on six: flood control, navigation, power, recreation, and water supply. Attorneys and environmentalists later convinced them they meant to include fish and wildlife and water quality. Taste-makers constantly review the list but currently (2017) we are stuck on eight. Note that metaphor is not considered an authorized purpose. Unless one happens to be an artist. Or a scientist. River is as metaphor does.

Countless tributaries drain into the Mighty Missouri and endless stories arise from it.  Here’s one you might want to finish. Begin with, how did we get here? What was formerly a river is now called a System. A system with benefits. From such great minds the concept of a river protected by a Master (manual) was born. Should we be surprised that the manual has been protected by an army and the troops (the Corps of Engineers) reside in castles? The scaffolding surrounding such thinking has been buttressed by concrete, revetments, and Congressional acts. Only massive floods can disrupt such malfeasance but truth told, such events more often serve to deepen manifest destiny conspiracies. Your kingdom in exchange for a piping plover, interior least tern, or pallid sturgeon.

The first bridge to span the largest tributary to the Missouri River (the Mississippi) was designed by James B. Eads, a former salvage-man, who walked not on water but on the river bottom. The knowledge gained from such intimate interaction with the rich sediment load produced a steel arch bridge like none before.  This project helped Eads restore his reputation and finances. His astute understanding of stream sediment dynamics was eventually turned into a new, national philosophy of environmental control: streams make money the old-fashioned way, they earn it.

Today it is not uncommon for decision makers to stand at podiums and surf terms like expected outcomes, effects analysis, and preferred alternatives above the audience. Language so invasive that it sometimes burdens the campfires of recreationalists who prefer to swim in the river rather than profit from it. There is always fortune to be found on a river.  As well as a supply of misfortune.  But understanding each is, like the difference between praying for rain and surviving a flood, often a matter of perspective.

It can take days, weeks, even months for a drop of water to filter down through tributaries to the main stem of the Missouri River. However, once that water reaches the channelized, lower section it will typically reach the river’s mouth within 10 days. This means a variety of physical and chemical pollutants travel largely unabated to St. Louis. At St. Louis, the Missouri River comingles with waters draining the eastern half of the US and onward all will flow down the Mississippi. In another couple of weeks those waters, along with their burdens, will swim in the Gulf of Mexico. 

The works collected for Tributary ask you to change your perspective on the Missouri River and its tributaries. Some works catalogue streams but wrap it anew, be it in a shroud of media, consumer goods, or waste products. Others produce experiences that link human actions to environmental consequences. Some works provide a lens through which to see through the mud, the vagaries, or the endless change. Together these works imagine a future for the river without disregard for the resource.  Rivers can confound us but the recent past doesn’t have to predict the future. It’s not a clever idea to test the depth of a stream with both feet. Instead, baptize your heart and soul in the murkiness and surrender to the undulations of wind, waves, and current. Swim in Tributary then take a river bath and stand naked of fear.

References.

Big Dam Era, 1993. John R. Ferrell, Missouri River Division, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Omaha, NE. 

Dammed Indians Revisited: The Continuing History of the Pick-Sloan Plan and the Missouri River Sioux, 2009. Lawson, Michael L., South Dakota State Historical Society Press, Pierre, SD.

Draft Missouri River Recovery Management Plan and Environmental Impact Statement, December 2016. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 6 volumes, variously paged.

Flood Control Act of 1944, An act authorizing the construction of certain public works on rivers and harbors for flood control, and for other purposes. Act of 22 December 1944, ch.665, 58 Stat. 887.

Missouri River, 1935. Letter from the Secretary of War transmitting report from the Chief of Engineers on Missouri River and tributaries, covering navigation, flood control, power development and irrigation, House Document 238, 73^rd Congress, 2^nd session, US Govt Printing Office.

The Great Flood, 2014 (Icarus Films release date). Film by Bill Morrison, music by Bill Frisell, performed live at the Nelson Atkins Museum, April 2017.

The Great Flood of 1903: Being A Graphic Story of How Two Mad Rivers, the Missouri and the Kaw, Deluged Kansas City and Its Suburbs, 1903. Hill, W.R., Enterprise Publishing, Kansas City, MO.

The People of the River's Mouth: in Search of the Missouria Indians, 2011. Dickey, Michael, Univ. of Missouri Press, Columbia, MO.

We Remember Rivers: An Oral History survey of the River Valleys in the Harry S. Truman Dam and Reservoir Project, Missouri, 1980. Sprunk, Larry, J., Historical and Archaeological Surveys, Garrison, ND.

What the River Carries: Encounters with the Mississippi, Missouri, and Platte, 2012. Lisa Knopp, Univ. of Missouri Press, Columbia, MO.

Wild River, 1960, directed by Elia Kazan. 20th Century Fox.

 

Tributary @ Healthy Rivers Partnership, April 8-22, 2017

Curatorial Statement.

To understand this language of sites is to appreciate the metaphor between the syntactical construct and the complex of ideas, letting the former function as a three-dimensional picture which doesn't look like a picture.

This little theory is tentative and could be abandoned at any time. Theories, like things, are also abandoned. That theories are eternal is doubtful. Vanished theories compose the strata of many forgotten books.--Robert Smithson[1]

It’s possible to launch a stone from the roof of this building and have it land in the Missouri River. We’re that close. But you can’t see, touch, or smell the river from inside. The history of places stands between you and water’s edge.  And these are not little obstacles. A levee.  A rail line. Warehouses. Roads. Stench from past and current sins.  You’d need to get through all that to arrive at water. Which, I guess, is why, despite us being that close to one of our nation’s greatest natural resources, few venture the journey. No matter how short.

If, as Twain remarked, the Mississippi Basin is the body of the nation, then the Missouri River Basin is surely it’s brains, heart, and soul. The Missouri River has almost as many tributaries as stories. The stories, like tribs and fish, often get bigger if one must wait out a storm on its banks. The river also has eddies. I’ve seen them, day and night. Sometimes they make a sucking sound but mostly they remind me of meadowlarks that greet the morning.  Traveler, do not be afraid of the journey that awaits. Call to it and sound its depths for it is both shallow and murky, swift and dangerous.

These works are about the river in the same way that fishing is about the river.  Or that Jesus was about fishing. To cast a line into the water is to understand that tension is the first surprise of any reward to follow. Some say the river waits for no one. Or did they mean time. Same thing really. River and time. I say no rain, no river.  Holy water will, by definition, have some of both else it would be other-worldly rather than merely restorative. Step inside and dunk yourself in the real. Or the metaphorical.  Doesn’t matter because we need both and all faiths are accepted.

---

[1] A Provisional Theory of Non-sites, in Robert Smithson: The Collected Writings, Jack Flam, ed., Univ. of California Press, Berkeley, California, 2^nd Edition, 1996.

A Walk from a River Sculpture to a Sculpture on the River

Tributary at Healthy Rivers Partnership.

Join artist Karen McCoy and walk two States along the Freedom Trail. Sites to view along the way: a river sculpture, a sculpture about the river, a sculpture on the river. View the only monument in the state of Missouri celebrating African Americans who escaped slavery. You will depart Healthy Rivers Partnership, 815 Woodswether Rd, Kansas City, MO 64105 at 1:15 and return by 2:45 pm. Trail is covered for most of the way so event is rain or shine. Come early or stay after because at 1 and 3 pm, artist Caitlin Horsmon will show her expanded media piece, "Every Time I Go Outside the World is Different." at HRP. Other installations works also on view.

Walking map. Begin at HRP. Stop at Surplus Exchange, then to Woodswether Bridge over the  Kansas River and then back again.

 

Tributary Opens at Healthy Rivers Partnership

To understand this language of sites is to appreciate the metaphor between the syntactical construct and the complex of ideas, letting the former function as a three- dimensional picture which doesn't look like a picture.

This little theory is tentative and could be abandoned at any time. Theories, like things, are also abandoned. That theories are eternal is doubtful. Vanished theories compose the strata of many forgotten books.--Robert Smithson1

It’s possible to launch a stone from the roof of this building and have it land in the Missouri River. We’re that close. But you can’t see, touch, or smell the river from inside. The history of places stands between you and water’s edge. And these are not little obstacles. A levee. A rail line. Warehouses. Roads. Stench from past and current sins. You’d need to get through all that to arrive at water. Which, I guess, is why, despite us being that close to one of our nation’s greatest natural resources, few venture the journey. No matter how short.

If, as Twain remarked, the Mississippi Basin is the body of the nation, then the Missouri River Basin is surely it’s brains, heart, and soul. The Missouri River has almost as many tributaries as stories. The stories, like tribs and fish, often get bigger if one must wait out a storm on its banks. The river also has eddies. I’ve seen them, day and night. Sometimes they make a sucking sound but mostly they remind me of meadowlarks that greet the morning. Traveler, do not be afraid of the journey that awaits. Call to it and sound its depths for it is both shallow and murky, swift and dangerous.

These works are about the river in the same way that fishing is about the river. Or that Jesus was about fishing. To cast a line into the water is to understand that tension is the first surprise of any reward to follow. Some say the river waits for no one. Or did they mean time. Same thing really. River and time. I say no rain, no river. Holy water will, by definition, have some of both else it would be other-worldly rather than merely restorative. Step inside and dunk yourself in the real. Or the metaphorical.  Doesn’t matter because we need both and all faiths are accepted.

m.o.i. aka The Minister of Information, Chief Hydrologist for Tributary, April 2017.

 

 

1 A Provisional Theory of Non-sites, in Robert Smithson: The Collected Writings, Jack Flam, ed., Univ. of California Press, Berkeley, California, 2nd Edition, 1996.

A Billboard that Wasn't

Recently I submitted the above mock-up for a pair of art billboards. It may not come as a surprise to some that they were not selected for inclusion. And as much as I would have preferred that they were included, up front, I realized it was a long shot that they might not be seen in a favorable light by a review committee composed, in part, of business interests. Regardless, I felt it was important in a program about art, more specifically one using billboards as an art framing device, that the proposed work should do just that: acknowledge that the medium is a billboard and given that, how can proposed work be framed within the history of outdoor advertising and how can I, as an artist, respond to such constraints in a meaningful way.

Those interested in learning more about the history of outdoor advertising can consult this industry view which contains a keynote speech by the current director, Nancy Hartman, at the Duke Harman Center.  Duke also maintains a large library of digital images that are worth a view.

Tools for toupees!

Wherein we assess the state of haircuts.

Large-scale Community History Murals

Panoramic view of a portion of the Spirit of Argentine mural.

Another type of mural found in the Kansas City region is the large-scale community history mural. Due to their scale—they may span an entire city block—they are difficult and expensive to produce. The most expansive of these is the Spirit of Argentine mural. Executed in the summer of 1998 by the Guild of Latino Arts, the mural traces the history of the Argentine district of Kansas City, KS from indigenous peoples to the present. In the process, the mural does not shy away from earlier troubled times: such as wars, destructive floods, and Jim Crow segregation. The idea is to showcase the enduring spirit of the area despite these periods as well as to celebrate the triumphs of the community. The mural can be seen on Metropolitan Avenue, between 30th and 32nd Street.

Panoramic view of a portion of the Spirit of Argentine mural.

The Argentine mural was produced under the direction of Jesus Ortiz and includes the work of muralists: Alicia Gambino, Jose Faus, Martha Vivanco, Virginia Delgado, Tadeo Franco, and Ardis Peterson.

The 18th and Vine mural on the edge of the Kansas City Downtown loop spans a block between Main and Walnut. The mural celebrates the rich history of jazz that once enveloped the area.  Sadly, much of that has given way to more corporate forms of entertainment such as is often formulated in the Power and Light District.

Even more disappointing is that recent development in the Power and Light District has covered up the second portion of that mural which spanned a block to the east (Walnut to Oak). The mural depicted the history of Kansas City Monarch and Negro League baseball in the city. Although visitors can still sample this rich heritage at the Negro League Hall of Fame a few blocks to the east, it's sad to see this landmark get covered by gentrification.

The Troost Avenue Murals of Alexander Austin

Alexander Austin mural, The King, 3217 Troost Ave., Kansas City, MO

Immediately after your mural viewing trip along Avienda Cesar E. Chavez you should head directly to Troost Avenue in Kansas City, Missouri to see the work of Alexander Austin.  A couple of things set Austin's work apart. His murals are rendered in black and white. And they feature large scale iconic portraiture.
In The King, images of Dr. ML King, Jr in both oratory and reflection flank both the left and right sides of the murals.  Also featured on the mural is a young Michael Jackson, the King of Pop. The muralist Austin can be seen kneeling in deference the King's legacy.

Alexander Austin mural, Manheim Grandmothers, St. Vincent de Paul Thrift Store, 3922 Troost Ave., KCMO

A few blocks south, at the St. Vincent de Paul Thrift Store, lies a mural like none other in the region. It's depicts four grandmothers: Lucille Leaphart, Orisa Kelly-Hogan, Avern Hughes, and Dorothy Hawkins (left to right) of the Manheim Neighborhood.  In the center lies an image of St. Vincent de Paul. By placing these women, stalwarts of the neighborhood on each side of de Paul, Austin elevates them to saintly status and gives them their due respect.

Alexander Austin mural, 31st & Troost, Pergola Park/Osage Trail Station. Color mural on right added later by different muralist.

Avienda Cesar E. Chavez

If you want to see murals in Kansas City perhaps the first place to visit is Avienda Cesar E. Chavez. Across the street from the Guadelupe Center, a mural dedicated to the avenues namesake, wraps around a staircase. Brightly colored and finely detailed, it beckons one to ascend the steps into Gage Park which lies beyond and find a new world.

But go west, young man. Go West. At the western-most end of the avenue lies a block of murals  dedicated to Meso-American cultures. Created in 1985, the murals—despite some fading and chipping—are still rich reminders of these cultures as well as the culture of great community art and mural making that still thrives in Kansas City, Kansas.  The murals were created by a group of artists led by Lee Ann Perez, Javier Perez, and Clemente Raya Sr.

Mayan Warrior, Bonampak, 800 AD

The Life of the Mixtec King Eight Deer Tiger Claw

Aztec Glory

Obama Gets a New Style

Folks had a great time during the opening session of Cut Your Hair in the Socialist Style creating a new look for the President for the upcoming lame-duck session of Congress. Can you tell which of these is a Disconnected Undercut?

Nonsense, Campaign Posters, and Propaganda

If your interested in the art of the political poster, then Presidential campaigns are good places to look since at least 80 percent of their effort is pure propaganda. Ten percent is utter nonsense. The rest, perhaps a smattering of truth.

People tend to forget that Eldridge Cleaver, the Minister of Information for the Black Panthers, also ran for President. On the Peace and Freedom Party ticket. He didn't fare that well; he wasn't even 35 at the time of the election. The constitution is rather vague on when you need to come of age in order to be President. While campaigning? before the swearing-in ceremony?; at any point during the 4 year term? Only the all-seeing Founding Fathers knew.

You can see a poster from the Cleaver run, along with a number of other posters from US Presidential campaigns at the Kansas City, Missouri Central Library through October 2nd. Some of my favorites are a Ben Shahn silkscreen with a less-than flattering Barry Goldwater caricature, a 1972 Nixon (re-election) where he co-opted (read stole) some of R. Crumb's characters (a portend of things to come?). And a Wendell Willkie 3-color silkscreen from his unsuccessful 1940 bid for the Oval Office.

Labor Day Flag and Barber Pole raising

On Labor Day we raised the flag and a barberpole on Cut Your Hair in the Socialist Style. The first program, The Disconnected Undercut, is, Thursday, Sept. 15th and features Dylan Mortimer and Misha Kligman.

1968: a summer of screenprints

Recently I've been looking at a lot of propagandga posters. It seems that 1968 was an especially fruitful year for them. Likely because of all the turmoil that happened in '68: assassignations of ML King Jr, Robert Kennedy, the capture of the USS Pueblo by the North Koreans, the Tet Offensive, violence during the Democratic Convention in Chicago.  But the student riots in Paris in May of that year produced some the best silkscreen poster art seen in some time. Many of these images became iconic symbols to be wrapped into other forms of protest. Late in the summer of '68, two American sprinters, John Carlos and Tommie Smith, would spin the heads of conservatives into the ground as they attempted to raise consciousness about human rights by raising their gloved hands during an Olympic medal ceremony.

A lot of the protest works that really stand out from 1968 have very simple, but very compelling imagery and messages. Black and white white screen prints by largely unknown artists on topics such as uncensored information, protesting warmongers, and basic human rights.This approach was in great contrast to earlier WPA propaganda posters where professional artists relied heavily on complex imagery and layering to create distinct visual identity. Some of this style difference is surely attributable to the self-funded nature of the student protests versus government funded professionally trained artists of the WPA.

French Prime Minister, Charles De Gaule, was a favorite target of satirists.

Around the same time, in Washington Reverend Ralph Abernathy was leading the Poor People's Campaign and march. The image below, produced by the Southern Christian Leadership Committee, displays a similar design approach to those seen in France about the same time: clear, sparse, and effective.

THE GOLD STANDARD

Admit it; you were keeping score. And we won!  Our treasure trove of gold, silver, and bronze was prime-time worthy. American women won 27 gold medals, as many as the entire country of Great Britain, more than China, 40 percent more than Russia. The Rio Olympics turned watching gymnastics—once shunned as the Cold-War provenance of Eastern Europe—into a Red State, core family value.  Provided one had the requisite cable provider to be able to tune in.

Unlike state-sponsored sporting events that demand a return on investment, art should never try to be popular. Sports are Collectivism. Art is Individualism. As Oscar Wilde noted, the great value of art is that it disturbs us and disintegrates the fixed idea.  And therein lies the rub.

Despite the protestations of some, and with the encouragement of others, we are moving forward.  On Labor Day we will hoist the flag, raise the barber pole, and proclaim: CUT YOUR HAIR IN THE SOCIALIST STYLE! A series of programs will thereafter ensue.

Program #1. The Disconnected Undercut.

Where: The Drugstore KC, 3948 Main St, Kansas City, MO 64111

In the barber chairs: Charlotte St Fellows Dylan Mortimer and Misha Kligman

Convening at 6:30pm (light socialist snacks and beverages). Barbering and discussion begins promptly at 7pm.

Topics for discussion during this performance (fixed ideas these are not). Who’s your favorite socialist: Jesus, Pope Francis, or Bernie Sanders?  Your least favorite: Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, or Donald Trump?  Sports as collectivism.  Art as individualism. Banners, slogans, and apartment art: untitled conceptualism in the face of oligarchy. alt-socialism.  Solidarity and love. The price of a decent haircut. The tyranny of dialogue.

Fall Event Guide

Cut Your Hair in the Socialist Style is part of Ink Magazine's Fall Event guide. Butts in the barber chair is just around the corner.

As seen in the parking lot of Scandanavian-based department store. The one where they shift some of the burden of assemblage back to the consumer in order to make the price of goods less expensive. 

Little Free Library

Your neighbor little free library is another example of #cutyourhairinthesocialiststyle

Sharpen Your Scissors!

It’s not always easy being a socialist. Sometimes it’s work.
Here’s some of the research we’ve been examining over the summer as we prepare to Cut Your Hair in the Socialist Style.

A sampling of our summer reading list.

• Black Liberation and Socialism. Ahmed Shawki. Haymarket Books, 2006. 
• Atomic City: the Untold Story of the Women Who Helped Win WWII. Denise Kiernan. Touchstone, 2014. 
• The Ransom of Russian Art. John McPhee. McMillian. 1994. 
• Hairdresser and Barbershop Signs in Africa. Nataša Njegovanović Ristić. Exhibition catalogue. 2009. 
• Thinking with Type. Ellen Lupton. Princeton Architectural Press. 2010. 
• A Peoples Art History of the United States. Nicolas Lambert. The New Press. 2013. 
• All of Us or None of US: Social Justice Posters from the San Francisco Bay Area. Lincoln Cushing. Heyday. 2012.

And what would summer be without a few movies? Here’s some that have been informing our progress.

• The Propaganda Game. Director, Álvaro Longoria. 2015. 
• Barbershop: The Next Cut. Director, Malcolm D. Lee. 2016. 
• Do The Right Thing. Director, Spike Lee. 1989. 
• Welcome to Leith. Directors, Michael Beech Nichols & Christopher K. Walker. 2015. 
• The Russian Woodpecker. Director, Chad Garcia. 2015. 
• Sausage Party, Directors, Greg Tiernan and Conrad Vernon, 2016.

Visit your local library for resources and follow our progress on Instagram, Facebook, Flickr, and Blogger at #cutyourhairinthesocialiststyle.

The Bard did.

He cut his hair in the socialist style.

critique your hair in the socialist style