AED 813 “4: Contemporary Art Concepts”
When I think about public pedagogy in its farthest reaching/teaching nature, I think immediately of how greatly visual culture, specifically streamed internet videos and music, influences all ages, abilities, races, and economic statuses. My students and I learn a lot through listening and watching things on a daily basis; everyone does. Despite being a tad unconventional, there is one music video in particular that I consider a piece of contemporary artwork that has become both mainstream and popular but speaks in a countercultural fashion to disrupt our thinking about our society. Donald Glover's music video production is a performance piece to me, and if you have seen it, you might just agree with me. The song “This is America” by Childish Gambino won song of the year at the Grammy’s last month and the album was also recognized as album of the year.
“This is America” is both a satire and a critique on our country and its values. The video begins with a soft assemblage of voices singing about just wanting to party and have a good time. Donald begins to rhymically move on the screen, shirtless and exposing his upper body. This sets a tone for the video that will bare some really naked truths while somehow convincing the viewer to participate in moving with him. As quoted in Gude’s “Principles of Possibility” "’Artworks are always about something,’" and ‘Artworks attract multiple interpretations and it is not the goal of interpretation to arrive at a single, grand, unified, composite interpretation’(Barrett, 2003, p. 198).” I am offering interpretations that I take from his work and believe this piece could be a catalyst for discussion in many contexts.
The music video has shocking breaks, where Donald as he is singing and dancing breaks into violent episodes, one of the most disturbing being when he catches an AK47 and shoots down the church choir you see singing as backup on the song. He does these things while singing about dancing, money, and the way you present yourself. I believe a juxtaposition (see Gude's "Postmodern Principles") exits here between fun and chaos that is unsettling and makes us question our values. The American dream wasn’t ever based on having a good time or money. Meanwhile, with chaos unfolding behind him, children in school uniforms dance along with him, further complicating the question of guns, violence, safety, and security in our society. Recontextualizing gun violence into a music video is a purposeful choice that’s meant to have us question how normalized these things are in our American life, the news, in schools, and so on.
I believe the video asks us flat out, of course without directly saying it, how long are we going to let things go before we care more about what is happening around us? The video ends with an eerie shot of Donald sprinting down a dark hallway while being chased. The slurred lyrics behind the scene sing:
“You just a black man in this world
You just a barcode, ayy
You just a black man in this world
Drivin' expensive foreigns, ayy
You just a big dawg, yeah
I kenneled him in the backyard
No proper life to a dog
For a big dog.”
The song itself holds a lot of metaphors, ending with a comparison of a black man to a dog- someone America has figuratively caged in the backyard. I believe he is making a comment on how we continue to sweep racial issues out of view but they’re still there. America can claim to be a place of equal opportunity, but that’s never been the case and is still sparsely acknowledged.
With issues of race, violence, and societal values included in one artwork, "This is America" serves as a jumping point for meaningful learning and thinking but is a highly risky and controversial piece to introduce in a public school classroom where I teach. Wexler’s “Museum Culture” article references Elizabeth Delacruz who “suggests that we are whitewashing art, which means making it clean and noncontroversial, before the public schools' consumption. Our preoccupation with the elements and principles of design does a disservice to our students who are therefore denied access to subject matter that is more compelling.” The subjects examined in “This is America” are extremely compelling and something my students would feel connected to- especially guns and race. We don’t talk about these things in school but we are ignoring a critical piece of the communities culture and struggle by having these taboo topics. I am further interested in discussing the value we put on material objects, fun, and money- something that heavily drives my students. Gude draws attention to Peter Menzel's "Material World" which could be another contemporary work to dive into and make cross-cultural connections.
