SOUND - Cur·rent Car·ri·er

In an interview on August 13, 2010 Mayor Bloomberg gave John Gambling of WOR-AM talk radio show his opinion on cigarettes and taxation on Indian reservations. I listened to the interview as well as many other interviews during that time that seemed to have interlocking points on issues of race, freedom, and representation in current media.

One discussion happened just one day prior to Bloomberg's interview and it just so happened to be through the same media....talk radio. It became known as Dr. Schlessinger's N-Word rant, where she has since apologized for her remarks.

The other discussion during this time involved Mayor Bloomberg as well in regards to an Islamic center being built by Ground Zero. Here are a few words from a speech he gave on August 3, 2010:

"We may not always agree with every one of our neighbors. That's life and it's part of living in such a diverse and dense city. But we also recognize that part of being a New Yorker is living with your neighbors in mutual respect and tolerance. It was exactly that spirit of openness and acceptance that was attacked on 9/11," he said.

"Let us not forget that Muslims were among those murdered on 9/11 and that our Muslim neighbors grieved with us as New Yorkers and as Americans. We would betray our values - and play into our enemies' hands - if we were to treat Muslims differently than anyone else. In fact, to cave to popular sentiment would be to hand a victory to the terrorists - and we should not stand for that."Huffington Post

There wasn't a day that went by in the next month where I did not turn the television on to hear a news anchor update the public on "public" opinion of these two events. There also wasn't a day that went by at all where I heard a news anchor give public credence to Bloomberg's statement:

“I’ve said this to David Paterson, I said, ‘You know, get yourself a cowboy hat and a shotgun,’” said Bloomberg, blasting from the hip on his weekly radio show. ”If there’s ever a great video, it’s you standing in the middle of the New York State Thruway saying, you know, ‘Read my lips – the law of the land is this, and we’re going to enforce the law.’”Daily News

At the same time I was listening to these events carried through the current news media, I to was a current carrier in my third trimester of my first pregnancy. I had since been to two ultrasounds and heard the heart beat of my child and the sounds of her moving through the fluids that sustained her. Most mothers during that time had asked if I had turned on Bach or Mozart and I soon came to the unfortunate realization that I had turned on Bloomberg. I began to wonder what she could really hear and prayed for what I had hoped for her to hear.

When I began to mix the two of wonder and hope along with my questions of apologies, statements and irony it all jumbled up into a short video I called "Sound". It's true that "we may not always agree with our neighbors", but in living in "mutual respect and tolerance" we must accept that in order to communicate we must understand language, meaning and interpretation.

The N-word has been discussed, but there is one word that continues to lack true discussion:

sov·er·eign·ty   
[sov-rin-tee, suhv-]
–noun, plural -ties.
1.
the quality or state of being sovereign.
2.
the status, dominion, power, or authority of a sovereign; royalty.
3.
supreme and independent power or authority in government as possessed or claimed by a state or community.
4.
rightful status, independence, or prerogative.
5.
a sovereign state, community, or political unit. -Dictionary.com


This word and the above definition became the introduction code to the projection of the "Sound" video at my solo exhibition entitled Cur·rent Car·ri·er. The projection is over a three dimensional screen of slip-cast baby bottle nipples.

Everything at the time of making the piece revolved around my newborn...in questioning language I wondered if a child could ever truly be sovereign?

If it Ain't About Smokes it's About Jokes

"The Obama Administration announced today that the Shinnecock Indians on Long Island will be federally recognized, which means they can now build a casino in New York City. The White House recognized them as an official tribe after meeting with the four tribal leaders, Fat Tony, Louie the Barber, Crazy Sal, and Momo Ricardo. The Gambino tribe, indigenous people to the area." -Jay Leno Late Show Joke December 17, 2009

December 15, 2009 Shinnecock Analysis of English Language

Rec-og-ni-tion [rek-uh g-nish-uh n]

1. an act of recognizing or the state of being recognized.
2.the identification of something as having been previously seen, heard, known, etc.
3. the perception of something as exisiting or true; realization.
4. the acknowledgement of something as valid or as entitled to consideration: the recognition of a claim.
5. the acknowledgement of achievement, service, merit, etc.
6. the expression of this in the form of some token of appreciation: This promotion constitutes our recognition of her exceptional ability.
7. formal acknowledgement conveying approval or sanction.
8. acknowledgement of right to be heard or given attention: The chairman refused recognition to any delegate until order could be restored.
9. International Law. an official act by which one state acknowledges the existence of another state or government, of belligerency or insurgency.
10. the automated conversion of information, as words or images, into a form that can be processed by a machine, esp. a computer or computerized device. Compare Optical Character Recognition, Pattern Recognition.
11. Biochemistry. the responsiveness of one substance to another based on the reciprocal fit of a portion of their molecular shapes.

Synonyms:
5. notice, acceptance.

Source: Dictionary.com

Dear Dan,

So this is Fashion Week, and I would like to make a statement. My name is CL and I am CK's neighbor. I do not reside on Meadow Lane, but we are neighbors none the less. We are bay neighbors. Since I was a child "Dragon Head" has always been in my view. I am Shinnecock and I live on the edge of the reservation directly across from CK.

Now you often write articles incorporating the history about my nation's interactions with the community over the past 400 years, but not often is such an intimate detail given. Housing on the reservation is dependent upon a families' income. Housing loans for the most part, do not apply on reservations and grant funding for such housing programs at the state level are dwindling as we speak. As a people, we do what we can and have been for thousands of years. I am only one voice that comes from many and this is my story.

I live in a 12' x 17' cabin with no running water. I have an outhouse. I have a water pump and a coal stove. Up until a year and a half ago I had no electricity running to the land. Living in this manner I have come to realize the simplicity of life that we often overlook. When I had no electricity I used a roaring generator on occasion. The noise would cover the crashing of the waves as they exited and entered the bay at night of the whippoorwill calls in the summer evenings. I would shut it off and use candles just so I could keep those moments.

I have lived through many winters looking out my sliding doors towards Shinnecock Bay. Dragon's Head became a symbol to me of excess and loss...of the "other side". This has become our new cultural landscape. Only a few windows were lit in the months prior to and after the summer weeks. I would often imagine and estimate that my cabin would fit in the room behind one window.

I have never met my neighbor and I mean him no offense in sharing these thoughts, but upon hearing of the recent "slay" of "Dragon's Head" (as some articles have termed the demolishing of the home) I began to wonder why and how? I mean in these times of loss...why ask for more? Then again I have heard of the phrase..."if you can't beat them join them"? So, Instead of demolishing the home, I propose donating it?

I haven't quite looked into it, but is there any financial equivalency involved in moving a structure to a property close by verses demolishing it and disposing of the remnants? If there is, then I propose that part of the property be moved to the reservation. I have always wanted to know what it would be like to live in a castle and I think the history of collecting that Henry Francis du Pont held on the property would be carried over quite nicely if an indigenous art center could be built in the interior. I hear there is enough square footage to afford such a proposal.

Think of it like killing two birds with one stone or maybe in this case one really huge dragon. CK would be rid of the beast, CL would try to tame it, and the community can still view and possibly understand the notion of excess, loss and one "simplistic" move.

Now how's that for fashion?-CL

Published in Dan's Paper February 27, 2009

http://www.newsday.com/news/printedition/longisland/ny-lidrag6037966feb16,0,5148813.story
http://www.luxist.com/2009/02/16/calvin-kleins-hamptons-teardown/