[spectre] (fwd) shulea: MILK, public and moralistic

[Andreas Broeckmann]

(shulea, sorry, the list-software blocks your posting because you are 
not subscribed; i'm posting your latest message and will try to 
answer your questions asap; for now: i do feel something when i see 
the counter. you know i'm a romantic. regards, -a)




Date: Fri, 3 Dec 2004 16:09:42 +0000
To: Andreas Broeckmann <abroeck at transmediale.de>
From: shu lea cheang <shulea at earthlink.net>
Subject: MILK, public and moralistic
Cc: spectre at mikrolisten.de, reinhard storz <rstorz at xcult.org>,
         geert <geert at xs4all.nl>



dear andreas

i dont mean to prolong this discussion any further
, but okay, maybe spectre can still entertain some
  critical dialogue.

It is not for me to argue the value of my work,
as you put it, " this one isn't. that's it." period.

however, i do want to bring up two points that
still bother me.....


(1) The public and private domain refer to the posting
of Perry Bard at Specture on museum/gallery/internet
space being public or private. This all seem to be
daja vu...isn't it? thus, revisited. My work
Bowling Alley (1995) at Walker Art Center encounters
this particular issues. And this year, my exhibition
at Norway's DETOX caused a stir, concerning Norwegian
law's definition on public and private space for a
proposed porn casting session for Fluid.

Yes, i like our dialogue to be open. Although there
did happen some e-mail cc confusion.


(2) concerning your use of the word 'moralistic' on milk,
i am a bit confused about this critique..

>  >>while i agree that art has no obligation to be moralistic, it has 
>to accept >> a critique that questions symbolic associations that an 
>artwork implies;
>  >> while i can follow the porn/sperm/milk/aids argument, i find 
>the >>representation of this relation in the piece unconvincing; the 
>implied
>  >> moralism of the piece itself, ie by relating the consumption of 
>internet >>porn (perpetrators?) to the dying of AIDS victims in 
>africa, has the >>opposite of the transgressive impact that you 
>suggest. for me, it >>re-introduces a heavy-handed moralism into a 
>domain of (highly ambiguous) >>pleasure.


Are you suggesting the toll actually disrupt some kind of pleasure?
and the indication of my being moralistic (by tolling in africa)
actually deprive this pleasure. Thus i fail on transgressive impact
required in an art work?? Do I, do you, really feel a thing, sorry
for the Africans,  when you see the number tolling and clock counting
on Milk site??? If anything , it is apathy. As how the flood of thumbnails
porn images reduce you to....where and how to revive this pleasure, however,
ambiguous???

In this case, i am also a bit confused of another comment you made earlier...
>>  i think that the correlation of internet porn images and AIDS 
>>victims in >>africa is spurious - it would maybe make sense to 
>>relate it to cases of HIV >>infection (and AIDS deaths) among sex 
>>workers in europe, for instance,

Now, would this make me less moralistic???
Would the sex workers's AIDS toll be more corresponding to the porn icons?
more concerned of the deep europe condition of sex trade??

oh, sorry to take up much of your time
and much of spectre posting space.
for clarification sake, i rest my case.

much thanks for sharing the critical dialogue

shulea