Smoke and Mirrors

Items
  • Smoke and Mirrors, Proposal: clear and colored glass, stenciled letters, wood,found objects, overall size 10’-3” l x 5’-6” h x 4, 2022.
  • Reference
  • Seven-in-Ten Americans Now See Russia Russia as an Enemy, Pew Research Center,
  • Pushing Eastward NATO adds three to its Membership, Daily News, 1999.
  • link text 1782
  • Process Notes
  • Smoke and Mirrors The name comes from the magic that has transformed the US left from generally anti- US-imperialism and anti-war to pro-US imperialism and pro-war. Like many magic tricks if you walk around the illusion, the mechanics reveal themselves and can break the spell.
  • In order to make sense of the complex geopolitical tragedy that we are living through, we must always remember that the STRONG use every opportunity to dominate the WEAK (aka public) and that the STRONG use their power to convince the WEAK to share the perspective of the STRONG.

    The proposed installation is a visualization of how the STRONG have convinced the public that military aid to Ukraine, encouraging them to fight to the last Ukrainian is the only response to the ongoing crisis, even though these events are part of a larger US project to weaken rival states (Russia, China, EU) and domestic opposition.

    The tools of the STRONG are:

    1. Narrow the public’s perspective so the public will (through their generosity and sympathy) support the goals of the STRONG
    2. Erase history that doesn’t support the goals of the STRONG
    3. Obfuscate the real conflict between the STRONG and the WEAK

    The proposed installation uses news headlines/ quotations drawn from unimpeachable sources (AP, Washington Post, Pew) to show both limits of a narrow point of view favored by the STRONG and the opportunity for a wider viewpoint which will help empower the WEAK to end the physical and economic violence promoted by US policies throughout the world and at home.

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