Surfing the Spectacle

That Which Offends

Michael Dickinson is a very rude man. He creates unpleasant images.

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His work is tedious. It’s preachy. It’s pretentious. Oh, children are starving. Oh, goodness. Oh, voracious consumption is bad. Oh, woe is me. Oh, our values are debased.

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Give me a break. It’s easy to see why he’s hardly a blip in the Art World. Sure, there may be some talent here. Some sense of aesthetics. Perhaps he could start doing something more…abstract. Something powerful.

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But no. He keeps doling out the same old crapola. His depictions of American foreign policy can be most tiresome. Of course, we’re all against torture. We don’t wish to hurt people. But in the neverending war against global terrorism, we’ve got to break a few eggs to make an omelette.

Perhaps many, many, many eggs.

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And to show American leaders in such an unflattering light? That’s libelous. And just plain wrong. Dickinson has a particular obsession with President George W. Bush. What’s Bush ever done to him?

Nothing, that’s what. But still Dickinson makes his disagreeable implications.

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Historically, photomontage has been used for powerful political expression and outrage. But that was then. Back in history. When Hitler walked the streets, and the world was a terrible, terrible place. Now it’s far more complicated. We need some courtesy. Some restraint. We need afffirmative images. Positive things. Not offensive depictions that no one cares about in the slightest.

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Dickinson has even created scenes that reveal his own dark fantasies – clearly something that no respectable artist should indulge in.

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One can only ask, how can this madman be stopped? You’ll be relieved to know that the Turkish government may have found an answer. More on that next time.

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