Lecture – ‘Protest Trail’

Lecture memorandum: my Monday, October 25, 2010, talk at The Queen Elizabeth II library – Memorial University of Newfoundland – St. John’s, NL, Canada

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la liberta de Letras Libres

Fate or oddness,  at the very moment my origin country men in Paris are  into a major  ‘protest’ mode, arguing ‘politics’ – miles away,  I am projecting into a big wall my keynote presentation ‘Protest Trail ‘ –  part of  ‘print-political-protest’:  Wayzgoose 2010′ s topic. So what about this three “P’s”?

To association ‘protest’ and ‘politics’ is no rocket scientist discovery by any means, hard to escape knowing about it, it is   everyday ‘plat du jour’ from medias all over the planet – not to mention historically. My purpous is to present one segment of it, the one that relates to ” images – pictures – graphics ”  in a nut shell, surprisingly, anything but words! I will risk myself to maybe a few.

Regarding ‘ print ‘, what comes to people’s mind is a composition of words with a given type – from business card to toilet paper packaging, everything is ‘printed’. Let focus on the impact of ‘image representation’ – not as a secondary decorative way  [ to make things look good] – rather as a strong visual able to deliver a thought – an unique universal language  free from translation. Still, I do not wish to rule out the importance of   ‘ image ‘ and ‘text ‘association:  harmonious bonded intended to deliver a specific [targeted] ‘package’.

A question will remain: will the support of the ‘image’ alway be a ‘print’?  In other words coming out from a printing device [operating a machine of any kind and size and complexity].  I will argue that the ‘image ‘ will remain but will not necessary utilize its traditional ‘print’ formating – Yes, I do operate an hand ‘printing’ simple ‘pressuring’ machine as part of the process of creating esthetically single images , but still let not confuse functions,  as far as spraying information or ideas is concern I do not  believe that the ‘print’ [ on paper or fabric] is the most efficient formula available today – including in the case of ‘protest’ – specially if speed/urgency matter ! Besides when millions have already endorce modern form of communication technologies it is unthinkable to ask them to drop them to listen to your – this appart does not mean that I am not unaware of the limitations and negative effects of those devises.

It would be hypocritical while using cell phone and email to pretend that cracking any old  and possibly magnificient machinery will contain the magic to spray images and words alike better –  it is an amateurish and beginner approch to rely on tools, in an other hand masters have always rely on their creativity with tools or without them. The top of martial art for a sword master is to be able to prevail in a fight sword-less!  People tend  to confuse  having: a sword = mastery , a tool = mastery, a machine = mastery,  buying a camera = being a photographer  – while  the  prevailing essential element  in any cases is the “form”. This apply to any kind of arts : is not the “steps”  that makes the dance, but again the “form”.  The one that cannot create a clear stoke carrying a thought with and ordinary stick into the beach sand will not be able excel  using a 10 tones machine – he/she will entertain in ordinary circus town, but will not shine at ‘Le Cirque du Soleil”.

To obtain a ‘print’ [ traditional  and limited definition] one places  a piece of paper onto an ‘inked’ engraved surface and then apply pressure – but the best ‘print’ by itself misses its function if it fails to be well  distributed/published  – like a good grain ready to germinate, but unable to take off  because being in a poorly nourished soil.

Back to Paris’ May 1968 ‘protest’ , a fertile period for ‘visual’,  numerous imaginative  silkscreen ‘prints’ were  pasted on the City of Light’s walls – using  graphic and hand type – expressing opposition to the policies of  the French government of that time .  ‘Protest’? This is a quick reading, the intention was rather using a ‘tool’ that will help creating a bounding between university students an factory workers, workers and farmer – Could it be said this brought France to a stand still? Very unlikely – still when image and text are successfully combine their  are able to have an impact – advertising applies this principle – the fact that advertising could be ‘beneficial’ or ‘devastating’ is not the issue for us to debate here.

Yesterday  morning, on the online version of Le Monde [newspaper ],  a web photograph was displaying an image from recent Paris ‘ street ‘protest’. Tackling the problem on an different angle we should observe with few examples over a short periodeof history  how the ‘image’ – regardless of  the utilized technique – repeat itself  or at least get very much inspired/copied from one an other. So encrypted on peoples mind that a new image cannot be created or accepted if there is not some  minimum reference to an image already ‘established’, accepted and approved  for its symbols by a population at large. In this case it is quiet obvious  that the ‘protest’ photograph of today’s 21 century le Monde paper  will not be published without 19 century Eugene Delacroix  master piece painting existence, “la liberte  guidant le peuple”. Nor the enormous engineering enterprise of building the Statue of Liberty – now a NYC symbol – be conceived. It took some business man meeting and saying ‘we must turn this into money’,’ let get engineer Eiffel -Father of the Paris tower – to deal with the bolds and nuts.’

It is an absurdity not to acknowledge todays technology as a support of diffusion of image and ideas – regardless of the fact that we can and must be critical of the limitation of any ‘technique’.  One will exhaust oneself pulling print by hand –  traditional hand press –  unless one intent to posted  them inthere local small town, the result would be of a very limited impact

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did not focus only  on ‘ politics’ commissions subjects from newspapers and magazines but rather venture into our ordinary life as well as history to raze the issue of our ‘protest’ manifest’s itself visually, and our artists – at large – have deal with this specific issue.

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Linoleum cuts, photographs and texts copyright Raymond Verdaguer, 2010.