Motoi Yamamoto - FOREST OF BEYOND. salt (2011)
Solo Exhibition To the White Forest, The Hakone Open-Air Museum, Kanagawa, Japan
Photo : Makoto Morisawa
“My heart has more rooms in it than a whore house.”
Happy Birthday to Gabriel García Márquez, born today in 1928.
This is my school’s production poster for this year’s play, Othello.
The photo features students (the girl who plays Desdemona and the boy who plays Othello) and was also taken by a student.
This morning, many copies of this poster were put up through the hallways of my high school. By this afternoon, they all had been ripped down - some by teachers, some by students, and many by the principal himself due to a large amount of complaints that the administration received for allowing such a poster on the halls.
I honestly don’t know what I think of it because I fear that I have such a big bias in favor of my drama program, being that I am an avid thespian. I understand how this poster can be taken the wrong way - for one, it’s currently black history month, and my school is one that goes all-out to celebrate that. To have posters, announcements, and clubs all revolving around black pride and then to put this poster up in the midst of all that? This poster depicts exactly the kind of stereotypes that we have been trying to negate - a black man attacking a pretty young white woman.
However, this is advertisement and this is art. This is probably the most effective way the drama teacher could have thought of to get people to come to the show. Everyone will see the poster and wonder, “What is that show even about? All I know is that there are black hands strangling a white girl.” Because I know that people do see it that way - completely black-and-white, if you will. They will wonder, and they will go see the show, just to find out whether or not the drama program is actually racist or something. I mean, this is an incredible marketing strategy. Hit them in the face with shocking controversy and make them need to find out.
On one hand, the photo looks amazing from a photographer’s standpoint, and the poster itself is brilliant from an advertising standpoint. On the other hand, from the side of politics and from an activist’s standpoint, how far is too far? I’m afraid that I can’t truly say, since I have both white privilege and a slight bias in favor of my drama department.
Uhm, have you ever read Othello?
This is just an illustrated plot point, from a play written in 1603. The character of Othello is written as— probably— black (this isn’t certain, since European racial classifications of the time were more along the lines of ‘they’re darker than us’).
Othello is a well-written character. He’s respected in the community; he has power, money and a hot wife.
There is no oppression within the play; there is no racism. We only know he is black because of allusions to his appearance in dialogue— that’s it.Yes, it’s a story about murder. Othello was tricked into killing his wife by a (presumably) white guy. It’s… it’s just Othello.
no
cant believe people are legit trying to defend this
You don’t think it’s just a case of an advertisement for a play where a guy (who happens to be black) kills a woman (who happens to be white)? I don’t know. I don’t see why they wouldn’t have made the same poster if Othello was a white guy?
Whoever said there is “no oppression” in Othello is wrong.
However, the story of Desdemona and Othello (Shakespeare’s version at least) is a deconstruction of the racial and sexual politics of the time. This poster toys with the sort of imagery Shakespeare toyed with in the writing of the play, and I think anyone who watched the play would recognise the irony in the use of such imagery.
Of course, if people are offended, that’s a problem and perhaps this poster was a bad idea. Nevertheless, I think that it’s important to bear in mind the nature of the play it is advertising, rather than taking the whole thing at face value.You can’t never offend anyone. Offense is not harm. Of course, if people are offended there should be a discussion as to why they were offended and whether it’s a valid reason or whatever. Personally, I’d be more likely to agree that this was somehow controversial if a black person came forward and said, actually no, I find this to be a distasteful portrayal of the stereotypes I face in my everyday life. I don’t know who decided that it was the privilege of white people to decide what black people ought to find offensive.
I didnt decide it was offensive (although i think it is), i reblogged it from someone i follow who is black and thought it was offensive and agreed
OK, fair enough, I respect that person’s opinion and I can actually see why they would find it offensive. But this is a poster for a play, it’s not racial propaganda. I mean, I could get my panties in a twist about how I find this offensive because it shows violence against women and pretty much everything has violence against women in it and maybe it perpetuates rape culture and whatever. But I won’t. Because it’s a poster. For a Shakespeare play.
I dont think im going to be able to argue this adequately tonight and i dont want to speak for anyone either so i think im going to leave this one, but my knee jerk reaction on looking at the poster is that having a faceless black male with his hands around a blonde little white girl with big innocent eyes’ neck is a bad choice, and reinforces a damaging sterotype and that is why i have an issue with it.
i didnt see anything when i looked at this other than that it’s a pretty amazing picture of something from a shakespeare play. i dont know, it seems like a black character should be able to, in the context of art, be strangling a white character without it being about race, the play isnt even about race? just thinking aloud. i honestly just saw it as two people. i’m thinking aloud but i guess you can project damaging stereotypes on a lot of things and it just seems like the intention was so far from that.
These are taken from the abandon Takakonuma Greenland Park of Japan. The park opened in 1973 and shut down only after two years of service; common lore says that the rides were due to many accidental deaths. It was reopened in 1986 and closed thirteen years later. The park is not located on any maps and is now surrounded by radiation due to the Fukushima meltdown after the tsunami.
Haunting, but beautiful. I dig this shit man.
thejokerandthethiefinthenight:
According to a poster at BHASVIC, men of all ages, backgrounds, and sexualities can be affected by eating disorders.
Sorry, but what the fuck does sexuality have to do with whether or not someone is affected by an eating disorder?
