Wars, Panels, Memorials and Rythymn

The war on poverty has long since been supplanted by a war in Iraq (and perhaps imminently Iran) and on the environment. Arguably, the latter goals were provoked by abandoning the first, the former goal, in favor of abundance for a very few.

Recently, one wise person who has written a wise book I did not take notes on (I was driving) commented that America suffers from a culture of deficit of empathy. Might not there be a relationship between that deficit of empathy and the other deficit in the budget now plagueing the party in power in the service of these wars? I suspect there is.

This past Saturday, at Exit Art, in New York City, a small group gathered to address the environment anyway. The event had to compete with a march against the war in Iraq taking place en route to Foley Square.

Amy Lipton Neill had put together a panel for Exit Art including three of the artists from The Drop show, Brandon Ballangee, Bob Braine and Jackie Brookner. They were joined on the panel by Glen Abrams, future-looking Urban Watershed Planner for the Philadelphia Water Department, Eric Goldstein, Senior Attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council and Franco Mantalto, hydrologist and civil engineer. The six presenters gave inspiring accounts of the progress of realizing their ideas. What was inspiring to me, was the persistent desire to collaborate and the variety of strategies, to work across disciplines.

So on that day, there was another sort of abundance for a few available rather than that promised by this administration. This small group was self-selected, as is the group so radically benefitting from the labor and death of so many, even across species at this time. In the former case, benefit may acrue in the very trickle down theory that is promoted as the economic goal by the latter few.

In fact, artists have always historically made dramatic economic contributions to society. Nor do I know of any deaths to people or species as a consequence of that work.

Tuesday and Wednes I attended two memorials for artists. One was for Al Hansen, Fluxus artist at the Andrea Rosen Gallery. The other was for Nam June Paik, also associated with Fluxus and with Shuya Abe, the father of the video synthesizer. The Nam June memorial was at the Guggenheim Museum, in view of the exhibition of David Smith sculptures. As museum leaders and artists from across the world eulogized the gracious manner and generous brilliance of the personality of Nam June Paik and his work, the sculpture work of David Smith floated above us like steel clouds.

In June, I plan to attend and briefly speak at the memorial for another art hero of mine, Allan Kaprow. An era is passing and changing in the art world as I know it for me. Consummate city planner and thinker Mary Jane Jacobs also passed away recently. These losses are happening at a time when the natural world as I know it is threatened as never before.

At the panel, I commented that I see a problem has arisen because human nature changes so slowly but the problems we face are so urgent. Bob Braine replied, in effect, that urgency is opportunity, look at what happened with 9/11? Well, I thought Katrina was pretty urgent and nothing came of that except a lot of talk and protracted misery. Last I heard, it was being used to set a precedent of further voter registration problems.

My Mother always told me to slow down under pressure. So today, I shall take a deep breath and consider how I might slow down so that things might accelerate, in the right rythmn with life.