In September 2009, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania hosts the G-20 summit. Fe Gallery in the district of Lawrenceville stages an exhibition at this time called “G-Spot”. The artists involved were part of the Visionary Arts Festival, which, was organized by Alberto Almarza.
Estlack Sensory Products’ contribution to the show is a portrait of Milton Friedman. It is a mural, painted directly on the wall, with a sculptural element. This work is part of a series of disjunctive mediation works (social commentaries) that are aimed at topical subjects. The work contains an acronym “MF”, which can stand for a variety of words. It could be the subject’s initials. It could stand for “monetary fund” as in IMF. Alternatively, it could be used as an insult, as in “motherfucker”. All of these associations are intended to be read in this work.
The composition is a montage of a variety of elements. There is an official portrait (photograph) of Friedman. There is iconography from United States currency, in the form of Victorian style framing treatments and typography. There is a protruding phallus emerging from the wall, and painted splatters in pink throughout the composition. When the viewer observes the entire work, the combined shapes resemble a sperm cell. There is an array of sexual and political messages throughout the work.
Etymology
Milton Friedman was an economist and leader of what was called the “New Chicago School” of economics. Recently, much talk has been made about “predatory lending” practices with regard to the housing market and the worldwide “economic crisis”. If you could extrapolate this phenomenon, and apply it to relationships between world economies during the 60’s through the 80’s, you would have a similar scenario. Milton Friedman’s ideas and strategies were at the core.
Economists emerging from the new Chicago school, found positions “helping” economically depressed societies to find their way out of the economic hardships they were facing. These were countries like Bolivia, Argentina, Chile, Indonesia, Poland and so on. You might recall that a year or two ago, Bolivia’s President refused to accept economic help from the United States. Perhaps the forthcoming remarks will shed some light on that situation. At any rate, the Chicago School’s method of “help” involved developing an economic “plan” (which was usually described by its proponents as a bomb) to “help grow” the economy of these countries. Here’s how it typically worked:
- 3rd World government takes a loan (with interest) from the IMF or World Bank
- 3rd World government agrees to lift sanctions on American corporate activity in 3rd World country
- American corporations set up factories in 3rd World country
- American factory attracts hungry and starving workers
- American corporation pays the workers just enough to keep them coming back to work
- 3rd World country workers organize and protest against their government’s economic plans
- 3rd World government turns into a fascist dictatorship
- 3rd World government begins terror campaign against workers to keep them under control
- 3rd World government is left poorer than they were before the IMF loan
For more details, here are a few good resources:
- The Shock Doctrine – Naomi Klein
- The Real News
- The Anti Capitalistic Mentality – Ludwig Von Mises
- Capitalism and Freedom – Milton Friedman
Milton Friedman has been quoted as stating that “economies flourish, when individuals have the freedom to pursue their aims” (very loosely quoted). This makes the “free market” sound like a very good thing. But, we need to pay very close attention to the word “individuals”. This is during a time when corporations are legally classified as individuals. Let’s get this straight. A corporation is made up of many individuals. If a real individual does something criminal, they might be brought through the judicial system. If that individual claims that one of the other “individuals” within their self told them to commit the crime, they can plea insanity (as in disassociative identity disorder or multiple personality). Therefore, some individuals (corporations included) have limited liability via the insanity plea.
Correlations between sexual reproduction, disease and the macroeconomic scenarios described previously are made throughout this work. Like a sperm into an egg, the economic “plans” developed by the Chicago School were inserted into these societies and exploded, releasing a whole set of programmatic outcomes, like the genetic code during the reproductive process. The head of the sperm is the portrait frame from the 1 Dollar Bill with Friedman’s head directly in the center.
Emerging from Milton Friedman’s nose is a wooden, painted phallus. The phallus is painted with bubbles and wrinkles, to suggest disease, warts or age. The placement also suggests both the subculture of experimental sexuality and circus clowns. These associations are read as being comic, exciting or disturbing. Depending on whom you ask, people have these mixed reactions to clowns and experimental sex. Therefore, these subjects are generally not addressed publicly in American culture. Clowns tend to be associated exclusively with public entertainment for children. Experimental sex tends to be associated exclusively with private entertainment for adults. The combination of the two sets up an uncomfortable comparison in our cultural psychology.
There are pink paint splatter textures cascading down from the portrait. These suggest bodily fluids emerging from the subject’s nose, or the phallus. These splatter shapes also form the flagellum of the sperm shape. The color is intended to suggest excitement, celebration, orgasm or sarcasm. It’s linked symbolically to the head of the phallus, implying disease being spread around and making a mess; very much like volatile economies such as those of the United States.
The acronym “MF” is derived from a 1 Dollar bill. The typography is unmistakable as that which is used on American currency. The “motherfucker” association can be interpreted in a variety of ways. We often use this language to insult someone. Symbolically, one can make the jump to “mother earth”, seeing as how Friedman’s economics have played a pivotal role in the degradation of human lives in many cultures. Our offense at this term must relate to the archetypal mothers, such as Mother Earth or the Virgin Mary. It points to the absurdity in western culture where sexual expression is treated with shame or embarrassment. (For further examples of this, Joseph Campbell makes many comparisons between the treatment of natural processes in many different cultures)
My father offered an eastern perspective on this term once, when someone called him a “motherfucker”. He laughed and said “they must know me”. He is a “motherfucker” after all: he is my biological father.
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