This work of art falls neatly into what I call the Politics of Performance.
All performance has some kind of political import. Brecht, a Marxist playwright, was famous for saying that all Art is political. It either is subversive of power or it supports the status quo.
I saw this image via Stumble Upon and for purposes of this post refer to it as Patent Leather Oppression. The shiny black shoes are supported by the many individual generic plastic figures underneath. In between a piece of clear glass distributes the weight of the black shod individual across the assembled masses, and prevents any mixing between the two.
Marx would call the black shod individual the Capitalist Oppressor and the figures beneath the Proletariat.
I would call the black shod individual Government, and the figures beneath, We The People.
What would you title this image? What do you see?
Please leave your comments below.
The original image can be found at this link:
artwork_images_651_65528_do-ho-suh.jpg JPEG Image, 599×480 pixels.
