Iconoclasm & Iconoclash Readings: Mitchell “Offending Images” and Latour “Iconoclash”

Silencing the past

Public Outrage

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Vandalism & Iconoclasm

Vandals as ignorant, silly, senseless, stupid Goya No sabe lo que hace

Iconoclasm vs. Vandalism?

•deliberate destruction of images rooted in religious, political, cultural

beliefs or groups etc. vs. Ignorant behaviour. Which is it?

Example: Destruction of 3rd c. A.D. Buddhas by Taleban in Afghanistan completed March 12, 2002--

Iconoclasm?

 Destruction of images linked to “rational” acts,

meaning or connections of images to something - but how?

Ofili Virgin Mary

Why are some images kept & others destroyed?

 Personal (family) Networks & Values  Community -based criteria  Other factors (sometimes concurrent) – Scholarly – Political – Economic – Moral & ethical – Class-based (elite, popular) agendas etc….

 Variations in meaning over time

Inclusion --Exclusion & the democratization of image censorship

“Headbangers”--Heavy metal fans http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhGx4Rh0Qo8 Mid-Summer Night Swing Dancing at the Lincoln Center, NYC

Identity issues & the meaning of images

 Inclusion/cohesion – Visual images as expression of identity, difference (distinction)  Exclusion – Discriminatory Dimensions – Censorship and/or Democratization

Mitchell--Why do some images offend?

 False Assumptions: – Images transparently linked to what it represents (doing something to image, does something to what it represents) – Images “feels” what is done to it

Examples from Mitchell

 Richard Serra’s

Tilted Arc

Maya Lin’s Vietnam Veteran’s War

Memorial

Lin

Mapplethorpe

Michelangelo David

Swastika

Confederate Flage

Jasper Johns Flag

Marcus Harvey Myra

Damian Hirst

Poussin Adoration of the Golden Calf

Serrano Piss Christ

Offili

 Outrage over

Virgin Mary?

 Outrage about symbolic desecration

Latour: Why do images inspire hatred?

 ways of understanding iconoclasts – Inner goals – Roles ascribed to images – Effects of destruction on others – How reactions of those assocciated with images are interpreted by iconoclasts – Effects on the destroyer’s own feelings

Fuseli: Artist weeping in despair ….

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diverse meanings of the disappearance & rejection of artworks

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Vandalism vs. Iconoclasm

•Vandalist s: ignorant, senseless •Iconoclast s: deliberate opposition, “rationale” grounded in system of values

Censorship as an outcome of democratization

 artists’ & minority publics’ rights to – “self-expression” or – freedom of speech (1st Amendment in US) – But systematic suppression  VS. public’s rights & government’s duties to enforce standards  issues-- what standards, whose standards?

Typology of Iconoclasts

 A-- against images   B against “freeze-frame” C against opponents’ images  D-Unwitting destroyers  E-Ironic destroyers  Message? Interrupte vs. cascading images