Which Side Have You Chosen? A Response to Bruno Latour1Latour, Bruno. Translated by Stephen Muecke. What protective measures can you think of so we don’t go back to the pre-crisis production model?, 2020. http://www.bruno-latour.fr/node/853.html, accessed June 22, 2020.
June 23, 2020
—
Anna Mikaela Ekstrand
Left: Protesters kneel in front of New York City Police Department Officers as they violate curfew, Plaza Hotel, 59th Street, New York City, June 3, 2020. AP.
Right: From left, ex-police officers Derek Chauvin, J. Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane, and Tou Thao. All have been charged in the on-duty killing of George Floyd. AP.
In the early days of the Corona crisis, I strongly felt the intensity of the online art world – viewing rooms, podcasts, article series, and more launching during the first week of quarantine. The most successful initiative engaging both the art world and mainstream audiences in practices of deep looking, but more importantly revising and restaging, was the Getty Challenge with participants across the world recreating artworks.2https://www.buzzfeed.com/louisekhong/getty-museum-challenge-recreate-artwork, accessed June 22, 2020. Etty Yaniv, an independent publisher, has interviewed over 125 artists on how they are coping during Corona times – some of them are published on my platform Cultbytes.3“Artists on Coping” published on artspiel.org and cultbytes.com. The Immigrant Artist Biennial, a project that I am working with, has shifted programming online hosting studio visits on IGLive, and on Zoom, a roundtable on Anti-Asian Racism and an immigration law clinic.4“Artists Respond to Anti-Asian Racism, Xenophobia, and Immigrant-Bashing in the Time of COVID-19,” April 22, 2020, co-hosted by EFA Project and The Immigrant Artist Biennial and “Visual Artists’ Immigration Clinic,” April 23, 2020, co-hosted by the Center for Art Law, EFA Project Space, and The Immigrant Artist Biennial. The online sphere quickly became a place for reflection and communal support but also a more rigorous competition for visibility, one that artists, many who already work with self-promotion to manage their careers, excelled in.
In “What protective measures can you think of so we don’t go back to the pre-crisis production model?”5See footnote 1. Bruno Latour, a French philosopher, anthropologist, and sociologist urges his readers to sacrifice their opinions to rely on descriptions and research to devise systemic solutions to stifle climate change through his call-to-reflect questionnaire. On March 12th I began writing a response to Latour’s text:6As one of their curatorial residents I was asked by WCSCD? to participate. https://old.wcscd.com/index.php/2020/05/31/series-of-texts-developed-by-participants-of-wcscd-2020-2021-program-as-a-response-to-bruno-latour-text-what-protective-measures-can-you-think-of-so-we-dont-go-back-to-the-pre-crisis-producti/, accessed June 22, 2020. In America, COVID-19 has provided further magnification and broadcast of racial divides, which has been a hot topic with push back against rampant police violence in recent years, but also class divides – which in the seat of capitalism is not regularly a hot topic. Major companies, like Amazon, are experiencing strikes by their workers, unrelated to unions. In times of crisis, the needs of the people are magnified. Latour and I, and many others, anticipated a shift. We just could not put our finger on what it would be.
Before the four now ex-police officers, Derek Chauvin, Tou Thao, Thomas Lane, and J. Alexander Keung, brutally murdered George Floyd by restraining him, preventing onlookers from intervening, and, the former, pressing a knee on Floyd’s neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds during which time he called-out for his mother and uttered the words “I can’t breath.”7On July 14, 2014, Eric Garner said the same words under duress before he was killed by David Pantaleo, a New York City Police Department officer, who had put him in a chokehold (despite them being banned in the NYPD since 1993). So, what happened to Pantaleo? In 2019, the U.S. Department of Justice declined to bring criminal charges against the officer who had been relegated to desk duty and after disciplinary hearings in an administrative judge recommended that he be fired, which he was on August 19, 2019, five years later after the murder. The system is broken. Before the arrests of Gregory and Travis McMichael’s some two months after they fatally shot Ahmaud Arbery, a black man out for a jog. Before these events that would trigger yet another wave of protests against state sanctioned violence against people of color many of us busied ourselves with increased levels of self-care, care for others, and issues of personal finance, while in confinement. Countrywide stay-at-home orders provoked an increased reliance and engagement with government entities, local and state politicians, healthcare providers, or within the American context, insurance providers (or a distancing from them as it were to not override hospitals), Department of Health (for information), and the Department of Labor (to register unemployment) also made these entities more visible in our everyday life. Little did we know that this work would prepare us and offer us tools to carry out the revolution.
In America, the Black Lives Matter movement has urged citizens to look beyond their own experiences to see facts; there is rampant systemic racism that violates black people in this country every day. Activist groups, protestors, influencers, democrats and republicans, politicians – basically people of all races and walks of life, many who normally would not have the time or interest, are all chiming in in solidarity for change. In the art world, influencers, galleries, institutions and the media are highlighting black artists, and some have quickly created grants and financial support for arts education for black people. Anti-racist resources are being widely shared to help institutions shift away from tokenizing to truly become more inclusive.8One example is “Racism in the Arts” created by @rhearhea__ and @paintherlex, two Chicago based artists https://www.instagram.com/p/CBTZeXClSJS/, accessed on June 23, 2020.
Latour’s first question is ‘What are some suspended activities that you would like to see not coming back?’ In solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement, my answer is: The Police. His second question is why? My answer is: Shifting funding from the police, a racially biased and broken system and the industrial prison complex to education, housing, healthcare and community engagement would help the black population, POC, LGBT community – groups that endure frequent policing aka systemic harassment, murder, and disenfranchising through mass incarceration. Dismantle lobby groups like ALEC that support and are largely funded by companies that profit from mass incarceration. Re-integrate ex-convicts into society by allowing convicts to start and complete degrees and work for minimum wage when they are incarcerated. Create a probation system that supports instead of restrains, and give ex-cons their democratic rights back, the right to vote.
The Prison Policy Initiative estimates an annual cost of $181bn for mass incarceration in America.9PPI includes the cost of operating prisons, jails, parole, and probation, as estimated by the Bureau of Statistics to $81bn — in addition to policing and court costs, and costs paid by families to support incarcerated loved ones. Least we not forget the private entities like bail bond companies, which collect $1.4 billion in nonrefundable fees from defendants and their families; phone companies that charge families up to $24.95 for a 15-minute phone call; and commissary vendors that bring in $1.6 billion a year and the companies that use prisoners as low wage workers (sometimes $0.13-$4/hour) to produce goods “Made in America.” https://eji.org/news/mass-incarceration-costs-182-billion-annually/, accessed June 22, 2020. Defunding the police and dismantling the industrial prison complex will leave many out of work. As my response to Latour’s third question:10“Question 3: What kinds of measures do you advocate so that workers/employees/agents/entrepreneurs, who can no longer continue in the activities that you have eliminated, are able to facilitate the transition to other activities?” superfluous prison guards, police, parole and probation officers who truly care about reform, rehabilitation and community building can be fast tracked into becoming social workers and educators. The rest can be put on Unemployment Insurance (or how about Revolution Unemployment Assistance? RUA) until they find work in other industries. Maybe Elon Musk (not Claire Denis) can find a way for them to explore space?11High Life (2018), directed by Claire Denis, is set in a dystopian future where convicts are involuntarily sent to explore deep space in space ships designed by the Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson. In 2018, with more idealism, Elon Musk launched Enoch, a satellite by the Bahamian artist Tavares Strachan, into space. The artwork is a 24-karat gold urn featuring a bust of Robert Henry Lawrence Jr., the first African-American NASA-trained astronaut. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/13/arts/design/spacex-enoch-tavares-strachan.html, accessed June 22, 2020. The companies that profit from convicts and their families can be allocated federal and state contracts to ideate, create and lobby for environmentally sustainable law-changes (perhaps taxing car and oil production, companies with high carbon footprints, or America’s wealthiest 1%) or just continue selling their goods to other consumers, however, with a mandate to employ at least 70% ex-cons. If they fail or are unwilling, they too can be put on assistance until they find work in other industries.
I believe that the longevity of the current wave of the Black Lives Matter movement has been reliant on the government indirectly funding its supporters and participants. It was fueled by an increased proximity to government entities and officials moderated by the Corona crisis in addition to our lived experiences enduring personal sacrifice to curtail the crisis.
The police murders of Trayvon Martin, Tamir Rice, Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Philando Castile and Breonna Taylor12The list goes on. The police killed 1,098 people in America in 2019. https://mappingpoliceviolence.org/, accessed on June 22, 2020. have provoked countrywide protests and actions of solidarity, however, none as encompassing as now. With the suspension of local businesses, the ‘closure’ of states and work stop orders, many people are out of work and are eligible to receive between 21 to 39 weeks of benefits.13Number of weeks varies by state. https://www.cbpp.org/research/economy/policy-basics-how-many-weeks-of-unemployment-compensation-are-available, accessed on June 18, 2020. 40 million Americans are currently enrolled in these financial assistance programs. Without a job to go to and financial assistance (stimulus checks at the very least), it is easier to continue organizing against and protesting the American governments repression of its people to provoke real change.14Realizing that state and government had money in their coffers to sustain monetary assistance to curtail a financial crisis but not to help struggling communities with education and healthcare is also a provocation. Similarly, the wide-spread protest movements, Fridays for Future (FFF), Youth for Climate, Climate Strike or Youth Strike for Climate, essentially carved out protected time during the school day for protests to occur as children, protected by various laws stating that they must go to school, were let back into school on Monday after returning from protesting on Friday.
In March, America’s market economy became overhauled by federal and state sanctioned regulations to alleviate the healthcare system to tackle the virus outbreak bringing the need to remedy mass unemployment and aiding struggling corporations. Mayors and governors crowded the stage many addressing their constituents directly on a daily basis. Andrew Cuomo’s daily press briefing was broadcasted on most local TV channels across the country. When Cuomo pleads for New Yorker’s to stay at home and social distance, even offering through the NYC Health Department tips for safer sex during COVID-1915We have decades of work by the HIV/AIDS activists to thank for its frank, clear, and non-judgmental tone. No rimming please. https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/doh/downloads/pdf/imm/covid-sex-guidance.pdf, accessed June 22, 2020. and addressing intimate and personal matters, it is not surprising that people feel empowered to speak directly to politicians to advocate for and vocalize defunding a police force that is killing their friends, family and neighbors.
Lastly, regulations, fear of infection, death and the uncertainty of what will happen in the world has impacted people. Social media platforms offer spaces to process, discuss, and engage with the Corona crisis and our current situations both through information sharing, critique, humor, and holding others responsible for their actions. The crisis has forced many to (re)learn and spend more time communicating and broadcasting. According to the New York Times, we are ‘internet-ing’ differently and using a wider range of apps and services16https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/04/07/technology/coronavirus-internet-use.html, accessed June 22, 2020. – Zoom usage climbed from 10 million daily meeting participants in December to 300 million in April.17https://www.theverge.com/2020/4/30/21242421/zoom-300-million-users-incorrect-meeting-participants-statement, accessed on June 22, 2020. We are also spending more time on our immediate environment, local neighborhood and families. We have all become better at communicating online – thus more people are participating in digital forms of protest to broadcast, negotiate and further the Black Lives Matter movement.
Simply put, in the past months, we have moved from recreating our favorite art works to fend off weary in the confinement of our homes to collectively with love, in outrage, despair, hope, and solidarity protest racism and police brutality and reimagine the society we live in; the Black Lives Matter movement has brought us out of our homes back into the streets18Police across America have arrested and detained peaceful protestors and members of the press. As an effort to curtail looting, but let’s be real, in an effort to assuage protests, New York City implemented a city-wide curfew during the first week of June. In our fifth week of protesting the slogan Whose Streets! Our Streets! still rings loud. https://www.aclu.org/know-your-rights/protesters-rights/, accessed June 22, 2020. and, hopefully, to the voting polls. Latour’s appeal to reconsider how we can use this slowdown of capitalism to renegotiate existing production models to better protect our environment is valid. Yet, environmental policy is more mature and developed than anti-racist policy. The former is institutionalized, carried out by a complex system of national and international bi- and multilateral agencies and partnerships pressurized by activists, like Greta Thunberg. We must make sure that the Black Lives Matter movement in America and anti-racist policy across the world continues to develop – like climate change, this is an issue that belongs to us all. We must stay the course.
Anna Mikaela Ekstrand is a Swedish/Guyanese independent curator based in New York City.
[1] Latour, Bruno. Translated by Stephen Muecke. What protective measures can you think of so we don’t go back to the pre-crisis production model?, 2020. http://www.bruno-latour.fr/node/853.html, accessed June 22, 2020.
[2] https://www.buzzfeed.com/louisekhong/getty-museum-challenge-recreate-artwork, accessed June 22, 2020.
[3] “Artists on Coping” published on artspiel.org and cultbytes.com.
[4] “Artists Respond to Anti-Asian Racism, Xenophobia, and Immigrant-Bashing in the Time of COVID-19,” April 22, 2020, co-hosted by EFA Project and The Immigrant Artist Biennial and “Visual Artists’ Immigration Clinic,” April 23, 2020, co-hosted by the Center for Art Law, EFA Project Space, and The Immigrant Artist Biennial.
[5] See footnote 1.
[6] As one of their curatorial residents I was asked by WCSCD? to participate. https://old.wcscd.com/index.php/2020/05/31/series-of-texts-developed-by-participants-of-wcscd-2020-2021-program-as-a-response-to-bruno-latour-text-what-protective-measures-can-you-think-of-so-we-dont-go-back-to-the-pre-crisis-producti/, accessed June 22, 2020.
[7] On July 14, 2014, Eric Garner said the same words under duress before he was killed by David Pantaleo, a New York City Police Department officer, who had put him in a chokehold (despite them being banned in the NYPD since 1993). So, what happened to Pantaleo? In 2019, the U.S. Department of Justice declined to bring criminal charges against the officer who had been relegated to desk duty and after disciplinary hearings in an administrative judge recommended that he be fired, which he was on August 19, 2019, five years later after the murder. The system is broken.
[8] One example is “Racism in the Arts” created by @rhearhea__ and @paintherlex, two Chicago based artists https://www.instagram.com/p/CBTZeXClSJS/, accessed on June 23, 2020.
[9] PPI includes the cost of operating prisons, jails, parole, and probation, as estimated by the Bureau of Statistics to $81bn — in addition to policing and court costs, and costs paid by families to support incarcerated loved ones. Least we not forget the private entities like bail bond companies, which collect $1.4 billion in nonrefundable fees from defendants and their families; phone companies that charge families up to $24.95 for a 15-minute phone call; and commissary vendors that bring in $1.6 billion a year and the companies that use prisoners as low wage workers (sometimes $0.13-$4/hour) to produce goods “Made in America.” https://eji.org/news/mass-incarceration-costs-182-billion-annually/, accessed June 22, 2020.
[10] “Question 3: What kinds of measures do you advocate so that workers/employees/agents/entrepreneurs, who can no longer continue in the activities that you have eliminated, are able to facilitate the transition to other activities?”
[11] High Life (2018), directed by Claire Denis, is set in a dystopian future where convicts are involuntarily sent to explore deep space in space ships designed by the Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson. In 2018, with more idealism, Elon Musk launched Enoch, a satellite by the Bahamian artist Tavares Strachan, into space. The artwork is a 24-karat gold urn featuring a bust of Robert Henry Lawrence Jr., the first African-American NASA-trained astronaut.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/13/arts/design/spacex-enoch-tavares-strachan.html, accessed June 22, 2020.
[12] The list goes on. The police killed 1,098 people in America in 2019. https://mappingpoliceviolence.org/, accessed on June 22, 2020.
[13] Number of weeks varies by state. https://www.cbpp.org/research/economy/policy-basics-how-many-weeks-of-unemployment-compensation-are-available, accessed on June 18, 2020.
[14] Realizing that state and government had money in their coffers to sustain monetary assistance to curtail a financial crisis but not to help struggling communities with education and healthcare is also a provocation.
[15] We have decades of work by the HIV/AIDS activists to thank for its frank, clear, and non-judgmental tone. No rimming please. https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/doh/downloads/pdf/imm/covid-sex-guidance.pdf, accessed June 22, 2020.
[16] https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/04/07/technology/coronavirus-internet-use.html, accessed June 22, 2020.
[17] https://www.theverge.com/2020/4/30/21242421/zoom-300-million-users-incorrect-meeting-participants-statement, accessed on June 22, 2020.
[18] Police across America have arrested and detained peaceful protestors and members of the press. As an effort to curtail looting, but let’s be real, in an effort to assuage protests, New York City implemented a city-wide curfew during the first week of June. In our fifth week of protesting the slogan Whose Streets! Our Streets! still rings loud. https://www.aclu.org/know-your-rights/protesters-rights/, accessed June 22, 2020.