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| The Art of Instant
Deification Through Victimization,
1995 |
| Performance,
50 x 6 x 100 inch wooden cross. Good Friday, The Miracle Mile of
Michigan Avenue, Chicago, Illinois. |
| This performance
was held on the anniversary of the Stations of the Cross, when the
Romans forced Christ to carry the cross for his own crucifixion,
then crucified and killed him. Eric Ringsby wheeled nine foot cross
one mile down the Miracle Mile of Chicago to the Chicago Art Institute
wearing a tuxedo. The artist wished to us perhaps the ultimate example
of martyrdom to protest and question the increasing cross-cultural
problem of the gross glorification of victimization throughout popular
culture. Victims and victimization dominate the media, talk shows,
radio, newspapers, Internet, art, etc Victims canonized by the media,
from the Bobbits, Rodney King, the Menedez brothers, Bernard Goetz
and O.J. Simpson, warp our sense of justice and well being. Many
self proclaimed victims have bee overly rewarded. At the same time,
Ringsby, in his satirical victim protest, wished to point out that
we all have crosses to bear and that we must all suffer. Suffering
is not limited to certain minorities Ringsby discussed the nature
of his performance piece wit passersby's and had many exceptional
conversations. Homeless African-Americans on the street told him
they understood perfectly well that we all have crosses to bear.
One young black man confide in Ringsby that once he blamed his problems
on the white man until he realized it was just an excuse. He then
moved out of the projects quit drugs and started a new life. He
said his old friends still think of themselves as victims and are
still in the same situation he left the in. Ironically, but given
the politically correct times perhaps it is no so ironic, Ringsby
was accused of having engaged in a blatantly racist performance
by colleagues at the Chicago Art Institute. Ringsby's response was
that they completely missed the point. To the self made media martyrs
of the world Ringsby says, "Just get over it." |
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