Cultural Hegemony and Art

My senior thesis has managed to take on many, many forms - ever changing until this very moment (yes, it's been terrifying.) In the midst of it, I uncovered a really interesting debate over public art, specifically performance art, and the issues of community it brings up.

The regional focus I've chosen is Northwest D.C., namely for my personal connection to it that has developed over such a short span of time. I spent a while living in Mount Pleasant and currently reside in Adams Morgan (these are my post-Tenleytown days, mind you), and the neighborhoods have unfolded themselves to me way beyond the Friday/Saturday night bar crowds. There are strong, strong communities who have lived here and seen the streets change over the past several decades. Out of the migratory trends that have come up recently in Mount Pleasant specifically, a really interesting piece of performance art called "Chaos Standing" was made. Gabriella Gahlia Modan describes it in her book, "Turf Wars," in terms of creating civic discourse on belonging and identity.


Image from the notorious Borf symbology, lifted from an address on Mount Pleasant St. Date unknown.

"Chaos Standing" fascinates me because it is a piece of performance art where characters who are essentially stereotypes of neighborhood figures are pitted against one another. There are the old timers who have been on the streets since before it was 'cool,' the transplants who come to D.C. in search of the perfect internship and live in the kinds of urban communities that attract people in pursuit of the latest housing fad, purveyours of violence, neighborhood leaders and everything in between. The themes it deals with are rooted in fear, as a female 'transplant' describes her hesitations about walking down Mount Pleasant street, receiving catcalls from bystanding men and generally feeling hyperaware of her gender while living in the space. The "Chaos" project juxtaposes suburban and urban ideologies, creating a dichotomy of private and public that often constructs a form of de facto segregation. Suburbanites fetishize the urban sphere for it's "dangerous" qualities and patronize the space in a sort of "slumming" trend. This is explored in "Chaos" in the form of narratives from both perspectives.



I think this aptly fits into the context of the culture wars. It all boils down into the ever-evolving debate over who belongs and who doesn't, and both sides don't see much fault in their own logic. That which is wrong to the neighborhood 'natives' about transplant communities (fears, anxieties, Starbucks) is what feels safe and appropriate to suburban dwellers about their urban counterparts, and vice versa. This mirrors the debates taking place to this day on same-sex marriage, global warming, etc.