December 23, 2012

Paint

Four ideas about paint from Engaged Resistance: American Indian Art, Literature, Film From Alcatraz to the NMAI by Dean Rader:

Those who see the project as having been unlawful will most likely see the paintings as graffiti; those who think of the occupation as having been necessary will find the images celebratory; those who see the takeover through a lens of anarchy, sedition, or subversion will likely view the works as desecration and defacement; and those who see the occupation as a project of positive resistance and self-determination will understand that the marking of the infrastructure of Alcatraz was a gesture of independence, autonomy, and self-naming.