| In 1981, Eric Ringsby
spent the year living under two fascist dictatorships in South America.
He lived under the regime of General Stroessner in Paraguay and of General
Pinochet in Chile. Living without any civil rights in countries that routinely
imprisoned, tortured and murdered with impunity forever changed Ringsby
and made him keenly aware of threats to personal freedom by those in power.
It is largely for this reason that he felt so personally responsible to
call academic political correctness in to question as a threat to the free
exchange of ideas in the American university environment. The Gulag,
1994 is a sculptural representation of a prison of political correctness.
The names of infamous 20th century dictators and politically correct gurus
satirically line the walls of a jail packed full of political prisoners,
i.e. the students, are symbolized by broken bricks. Ringsby's comparison
of feminist theorists with Khmer Rouge leaders was meant to satirically
point out that both were against free expression and that one follows the
other. In defense of both The Gulag, 1994 and of the entire Mano
Poderosa installation the artist quoted Thomas Jefferson, "The
price of liberty is eternal vigilance." |
