The best way to dispose of racist literature?
What to do with 4,000 copies of the "White Man's Bible", "Racial Holy War" and other rightwing supremacist books? A human rights centre in the US state of Montana managed to find a solution to the dilemma - give away the hoard of titles to artists.
In 2003 the Montana Human Rights Network received a call from a disaffected member of the Creativity Movement, a notorious ethnic supremacist group that had created its own ‘whites-only' religion. The group, originally known as the World Church of the Creator in the 1970s, had settled in Montana because they considered it a ‘white state'.
In return for 4,000 hateful books, the man was asking for 300 dollars, the money he needed to leave the state. Happy to take the books out of circulation, the human rights centre agreed.
After several years with the books piled up at the organisation's headquarters, they decided to hand them over to artists eager to work with hateful material. The result is the exhibition "Speaking volumes: Transforming hate", currently touring art museums across Montana.
“White Man’s Bible” and other books, before their transformation. Photo courtesy of Katie Knight.
Kristin Casaletto. “CondemNation”. Photo courtesy of Katie Knight.
“As an artist, the idea of getting my hands on these hate-filled objects and messing them up was a really empowering experience”
Cathy Weber is an artist living in Dillon (Montana) who helped organise the exhibition. Her "Racial Holy War" cut-out is one of the works included.
As an artist, the idea of getting my hands on these hideous, hate-filled objects and messing them up was a really empowering experience. The idea was to transform them into a message of justice.
Some artists had a physical, instinctive response to the books. One artist actually left them on her porch for several days until she could bear to take them inside.
There are very different transformations of the book. One artist, Jane Wagoner Deshner, knitted little hats for them: gentle, loving objects of warmth that defused them with a message contrary to that of the books. Another one, Billie Lynn, washed and washed the paper into pulp, until the message and the impact were gone. Jean Grosser took pictures of her immediate family who died at the hands of Nazis in concentration camps and made these exquisite shrines papered with fragments of the books. To think that the foundation of these religious shrines are the words from these books sends shrills down my spine."
Lei Curtis. “Superior”. Photo courtesy of Katie Knight.
Jean Grosser. “Memorials”. Photo courtesy of Katie Knight.
Tom Foolery. “Fool school”. Photo courtesy of Katie Knight.
Ariana Boussard-Reifel & Dana Boussard. “Between the lines”. Photo courtesy of Katie Knight.
Marc Morris & Shelley Murney. "Veil of hate". Photo courtesy of Katie Knight.
Billie Lynn. "Washing hate". Photo courtesy of Katie Knight.
Cathy Weber. "Racial Holy War". Photo courtesy of Katie Knight.
Comments
What isn't mentioned in the article....
Submitted by CaptBob (not verified) on Sat, 03/04/2010 - 04:11.Is that the Montana Human Rights Network and Tim Holmes, the Helena, MT-based artist who originally conceived of the idea, immediately came under attack from the "Creativity Movement," receiving death threats when the purchase became known (http://www.helenair.com/news/article_c93cdf2d-d150-51c9-89b4-6953a846e9a...).
To his credit, it only intensified his desire to make this work possible.
It took a lot of courage to mount this exhibit. And as a resident of Montana, I'm proud to know and support the Montana Human Rights Network and the artists that made it possible.
Yeah, when the National
Submitted by Fair Opinion (not verified) on Fri, 26/03/2010 - 21:33.Yeah, when the National Socialists in Germany lit pyres fueled by books they disagreed with, many people called them 'pretty' and 'aesthetically pleasing', as well.
Not to be too cynical, but what you're doing here (defacing the ideas of other people, in print) is probably more than a little hypocritical.
If the ideas of right-wingers are wrong and lead to dangerous conclusions, they should be grappled with intellectually.
'Messing up hate-filled books' is a practice that was already taken by someone else. Never forget ;)
I do believe the 'ideas'
Submitted by Unregistered user (not verified) on Mon, 05/04/2010 - 00:44.I do believe the 'ideas' expressed in the "hate" books should be classified as something stronger than "right-wing."
what a waste of time
Submitted by Unregistered user (not verified) on Thu, 25/03/2010 - 21:30.what a waste of time
I,We LOVE you CATHY great
Submitted by Unregistered user (not verified) on Sat, 20/03/2010 - 02:47.I,We LOVE you CATHY great
Complete garbage. Utter
Submitted by Unregistered user (not verified) on Sun, 21/03/2010 - 16:03.Complete garbage. Utter crap.
AWESOME comment. so
Submitted by Unregistered user (not verified) on Sun, 21/03/2010 - 16:03.AWESOME comment. so insightful.
Beautiful project!
Submitted by Unregistered user (not verified) on Fri, 19/03/2010 - 15:29.Beautiful project!
more like a waste of time
Submitted by Unregistered user (not verified) on Sun, 21/03/2010 - 16:02.more like a waste of time
"...Family Unification Of Mankind..."
Submitted by Unregistered user (not verified) on Thu, 18/03/2010 - 18:56.Church Of The Creator® is the religious, Church expression of the parent corporation. Oregon-based, Church Of The Creator® should not be confused with white-supremacist previously known as "World Church of the Creator" (Church of the Creator from 1973 to 1996) and now reorganized as the Creativity Movement. The use of the name "Church of the Creator®" was established as a "distinctive" Registered Trademark, through trademark litigation, commenced in 2000 and concluded in November 2002, TE-TA-MA Truth Foundation - Family Of URI, Inc. v. "World Chruch Of The Creator."[1] The litigation was appealed in both the US 7th Circuit and Supreme Court of the United States Of America, establishing several legal precedents relative "distinctive" trademarks and unacceptable conduct during intellectual property litigation. Complete details and court documents may be found at Church Of The Creator®, Trademark Litigation Home page.