I have been thinking a lot lately about the difference between the Tea Part movement and Occupy Wall Street and its sundry spinoffs. In late July I created an animation called A Juxtaposition Worth Thinking About. I posted the animation on Illumination Gallery in early August. I am now doing something I have never done before. Because of recent political developments, I am posting an alternative introduction to the animation. At the time I created/posted A Juxtaposition Worth Thinking About Wall Street had yet to be occupied. The animation was a response to the Tea Party demonstrations that first cropped up in January 2009. On September 17 the Occupy Wall Street demonstration began. That is the day folks first showed up in Zuccotti Park. It was a planed event. The organizing force behind it was the Canadian Adbusters Foundation, which publishes the anti-consumerist magazine Adbusters. The Occupy movement, as it came to be known, took on a life all its own, transcending its original aim. Nevertheless, I find it fascinating that it all sprang from the Adbusters Foundation, an organization I feel an affinity for. Which brings me back to A Juxtaposition Worth Thinking About. I sensed a deep hole in the Tea Party movement. The point of my animation was to fill that hole. There is a connection between the Tea Party and Occupy movements. I find them complimentary, reflecting different aspects of contemporary angst. The Tea Party movement embodies the frustration of individuals overwhelmed by governmental and corporate forces beyond their control. The Occupy movement reflects the collective frustration of a world where resources, regardless of one’s labors, are distributed in a most unequal manner. The point of A Juxtaposition Worth Thinking About was to offset symbols from each movement against each other. Because the Occupy movement did not exist at the time, it is represented symbolically by a figure from a previous era. I do believe, though, that this particular figure’s image cuts to the heart of the Occupy movement in a way no other figure’s image does.
Animation duration: 49.3 seconds, before looping.
Peter Schmideg