“Big Brother isn’t watching. He’s singing and dancing. He’s pulling rabbits out of a hat. Big Brother’s busy holding your attention every moment you’re awake. He’s making sure you’re always distracted. He’s making sure you’re fully absorbed.”
Ive been to this art installation when it was in Seattle it was made by an indigenous artist if I remember correctly it has small patches of astroturf in front of a black and white American flag with a sign that invites people “kneel and join in the screams of the American national anthem”
This piece is called Neon American Anthem by indigenous artist Nicholas Galanin “to mourn the loss of lives, freedoms, and safety for people and lands subjected to American violence, and to protest continuing oppression.”
Text below the line to make it easier to read!
[Image 1 Text: I’VE COMPOSED A NEW AMERICAN NATIONAL ANTHEM TAKE A KNEE AND SCREAM UNTILL YOU CAN’T BREATHE /end]
[Image 2 Text: If we sell you our land, you must remember, and teach your children. that the rivers are our brothers and yours, and you must henceforth give the rivers the kindness you would give to any brother.
The wtite man does not understand. One portion of land is the same to him as the next, for he is a wanderer who comes in the night and borrows from the land whatever he needs. The earth is not his brother, but his enemy and when he has won the struggle. he moves on. He leaves his fathers graves behind and he does not care. He kidnaps the earth tam is thiaten And he does not care. The father's graves and the children’s brithright are forgotten by the white man, who treats his mother the earth and his brother the sky as things to be bought plundered, and sold like sheep, bread, or bright beads. In this way, the dogs appetite will devour the rich earth and leave only a desert.
Neon American Anthem is a participatory installation designed to activate the American Art galleries at the Seattle Art Museum. The work offers visitors a place to kneel and follow the directive of a neon sign on the wall that reads, "I've composed a new American national anthem: take a knee and scream until you can't breathe." The work creates an intersectional space for catharsis; to mourn the loss of lives, freedoms, and safety for people and lands subjected to American violence, and to protest continuing oppression.
The neon sign embodies capitalism, its text a pointed reference to the murders of Eric Garner, George Floyd, Tyre Nichols and all people of color who have been murdered at the hands of police and agents of the American state. Asking participants to take a knee is a position of deference turned refusal; to scream until you can't breathe encompasses protest aimed at tearing down the systems built to enforce Whiteness, White privilege, heteropatriarchy and capitalist control. / end]
painting this on the ceiling above my bed so it's the first thing i see upon waking in the morning and the last thing i see before falling asleep at night
tangentwithtanner
areudirty
dailybridgerton
stormborns
