Guillermo Gómez -Peña and Coco Fusco - Couple in the Cage video here
The Couple in the Cage documents the travelling performance of Guillermo Gómez -Peña and Coco Fusco, in which they exhibited themselves as caged Amerindians from an imaginary island. While the artists’ intent was to create a satirical commentary on the notion of discovery, they soon realized that many of their viewers believed the fiction, and thought the artists were real “savages”. The record of their interactions with audiences in four coun tries dramatizes the dilemma of cross-cultural misunderstanding we continue to live with today. Their experiences are interwoven with archival footage of ethnographic displays from the past, giving an historical dimension to the artists’ social experiment. The Couple in the Cage is a powerful blend of comic fiction and poignant reflection on the morality of treating human beings as exotic curiousities.
This piece really reminds me of the art of the "orient" in art history, where the people of the western world would project their ideas and beliefs of what life was like for people in East Asia. The oriental art from the western world would display these East Asians as barbaric and portrayed the belief that the foreigners needed to be colonized. The Couple in the Cage shows the idea that people will believe anything and that there is a level of ignorance to the audience.
ReplyDeleteI think these are understandable comparisons. Yes. The reason for the work seems to go beyond just exposing the gullible nature of some of the audience though. One valuable consequence to the work is to demonstrate that the colonial mindset still can manifest itself in today's audiences - even in museum audiences and other cultural institutions. It exposes the way(s) cultural biases can adversely override cultural or educational activities.
DeleteI really enjoyed this project for various reasons. Touching on culture and the perceptions created by different cultures onto one another was very interesting. Having the artist in the cage not only makes it seem as though they are barbaric but as something exotic to view. It mimics animals in cages at zoos or in circus'. I got the idea that humans are animals too and we are similar to these animals we lock up into cages. I enjoyed how they were not only part of the artwork but made the artwork portray the concept they wanted.
ReplyDeleteSee Dylan's comment above about western projects of attributes on to other cultures. I think you are perceptive to see the exotic and barbaric brought up in relation to this performance. The artists are playing on cultural biases and racism and ideas of the other in art history and anthropological studies in previous centuries. By staging themselves as a display in the museum they raise the obvious question that many in the audience never asked which is "Why are these two locked up - shouldn't somebody let them walk free with the rest of us." Instead many viewers felt comfortable to discuss them and their "exotic" behavior as case studies as they stand locked up and on display for entertainment etc. (something that should generate outrage).
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