Christopher Pelley: July 2020

Friday, July 31, 2020

Me Too

The presidency of Donald Trump has polarised our nation. But his toxic brand has served to clarify and amplify the distinction between an entrenched misogynistic and racist culture and those of us that believe in a broader sense of equality and justice for all. He has made (many) of us look a little closer at our thoughts, actions and even our collective histories. This process has spun way beyond the first pussy hat marches in the opening days of this administration and the sustained Black Lives Matter protests going on now. It has spread to cultural institutions, thanks to the DeColonise This Place protests and even into academia. Corporate America, whose only interest has always been the financial bottom line, is being forced to join this conversation.

In Rome I have a continuing guerrilla billboard campaign in support of the Me Too movement. It was not difficult to find images to serve as the literal poster child for #Me Too. Doing this project has changed me. There is a new awareness of how deep, profound and across the board abuse and victimisation of women is in the canon of western art. I now look at the artworks differently than I did as an undergraduate sitting in a darkened lecture hall watching slides projected on a screen.

There are ramifications to art history. As I was writing this post, Congressman Ted Yoho called Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez a, and I refuse to repeat the vulgarity, literally behind her back on the steps of the US Capitol. In his forced faux apology in the House, Yoho said, and I quote, "no one was accosted, bullied or attacked".

Christopher Pelley #Me Too Rome

The good news: change happens. Congressman Yoho will not be seeking re-election in the fall.

Saturday, July 25, 2020

Chinese Characteristics

In the northern hemisphere water circles clockwise before continuing its journey down the drain. In the southern hemisphere I am told it circles counterclockwise before descending.

Culturally the East and the West reflect a similar polarity. Structures of everyday life are conceptually organised in opposite ways.

In the West, writing is organised in lines from the top of the page to the bottom going from left to right. Traditionally in the East writing was composed in columns descending from the top to the bottom of the page and organised right to left across the page. Clay roof tiles in the West are laid in convex courses and in the East the courses are laid in a concave fashion. Even royal colors are opposites – western royalty wore purple and imperial chinese wore yellow. The West prefers organising geographies from smaller to larger: street, city, province, and China prefers larger to smaller organisation: province, city, street. The polarity continues to even the way time is conceptually ordered, which seems to present endless confusion with translation software. The West considers the past to be below (ie we build upon the past) and the future is above. Chinese express the past as SHANG 上 (above or on top of) and the future is XIA 下 (under or below).

Sometimes I wonder if somewhere in the world there is a place that water does not circle to the left or to the right, but effortlessly and without hesitation continues a leisurely journey to its destination.

My work in China references this distinct cultural narrative. Here are a few paintings that I did last year in my studio outside of Beijing.