Thursday, April 26, 2012

"The Struggle Continues"


     At the plaza of Jay Street Metrotech... I thought it was so refreshing to see public art in its "natural state" meaning that it is a web/video piece that needs nothing except a screen.  It was not designed to fit into or match a space.  The only condition is that you must read English.  It can be viewed on any computer as well.  On their website, all pieces are viewable in multiple languages.  One thing that is a shame is that since it is in a public place, "profanity" is replaced by a text "bleep" which does little to disguise the message.  See The Struggle Continues full video here.
     The struggle that they are referring to is the struggle for love and physical connection in a world that seems as if it is fighting against our interests.  In our culture, there is plenty of sex and sexiness.  Just browse Victoria's secret catalog, where "sexy" seems like the only word they use to describe something.  The ideas present in Young-Hae Chang's video are starkly different from all of this.  If I'm not mistaken, there isn't even any direct mention of gender or body type here.  Here, sex is detached from pornography, sex is detached from images, from objects, from purchasing.   It is unrelated to owning anything.  We encounter the idea of sexiness daily in our visual experiences, but the overwhelming majority of them are about selling something either explicitly or implicitly, and the image attached to that is of some sort of unattainable ideal.  Young-Hae Chang's philosophy is that sex is a democratic action, in a world where most people are afraid to admit that love is free and individual.  No valentines, no lingerie, no make-up, no flow of money.  By transcending all of this, we are making the world a better and happier place.