Pop culture is no stranger to political themes, but when even Miley Cyrus has jumped on the Occupy bandwagon, is it just lazy opportunism, asks UNA MULLALLY
WHEN NIALL "Bressie" Breslin, former frontman of The Blizzards and current judge on RTÉ's The Voice of Ireland, released his latest video, the subject matter seemed slightly out of step with his previous offerings. Animals, with the hook "Treat us like animals/That's how we'll react", was a collage of footage from the Occupy Wall Street protests, the latest in a slice of quite poppy popular culture looking to the Occupy movement for visual inspiration.
It's not the first music video to use Occupy as a muse. In late November, the unlikely source of Miley Cyrus uploaded a video to a new track, It's A Liberty Walk, to YouTube, dedicated to "the thousands of people who are standing up for what they believe in". The video is also a montage of footage from the Occupy movement worldwide.
Has the Occupy movement become a touchstone for artists? Or is it just an easy shorthand for vague political engagement? Both the artistic and pop-cultural response and appropriation of the Occupy movement has been visible since the first protesters sat down on Wall Street. The most noticeable visual has, of course, been the Guy Fawkes mask worn by the character V in Alan Moore and David Lloyd's V for Vendetta, which was initially appropriated by Anonymous, and then the Occupy movement.
Shepard Fairey’s second major work for the movement (the first was a poster for the Times Square protest in October that re-imagined an evocation of the Black Power movement with a Soviet aesthetic) sparked controversy when he parodied his own Obama “hope” poster, replacing it with a person in a Guy Fawkes mask and the message, “Mr President, we HOPE you’re on our side”.
Fairey had to change the message to “We Are The HOPE” when some in the Occupy movement complained that the initial slogan implied that those protesting were natural Obama supporters, which is not necessarily the case.
That’s the problem with reacting artistically to a live movement – the people involved mightn’t always like what you’re saying.
In London, protesters welcomed Banksy’s contribution, a monopoly board with Rich “Uncle” Pennybags begging with his top hat. In New York, the No Comment art show, held in a former JP Morgan building on Wall Street, contained works inspired by the movement. A flag made of dollar bills that was on display was spontaneously burned by visitors to the exhibition.
Perhaps most exciting is Occupy Comics: Art + Stories Inspired by Occupy Wall Street, a current project started by Matt Pizzolo.
Funded on the crowdfunding website Kickstarter, a dizzying array of artists including Alan Moore, Amanda Palmer, David Lloyd and Steve Niles, have come together to illustrate stories from the Occupy movement. The work will be collected together in a digital comic series, a hardback book and an “illustrated film” DVD.
There’s another possible artistic response to Occupy to follow this year. Although Bruce Springsteen recorded the majority of his upcoming album before the Occupy movement kicked off, it’s inevitable that many will be looking to The Boss for some kind of musical reaction to what is happening on Wall Street and beyond.
Hollywood Reportersaid last week that topics of economic justice and a strong sentiment of anger typify the new album, although any presumption that this will be a Rising-type reaction to global protest is probably pushing it.
