Bunker Rulz 5: Threaten anger. Fascism feeds on our desire to have control. The Colony offers protection by wielding the ultimate power of the bully – violence and war.
Daily we witness the brutal and insidious force of the bully, patriarchal power that cannot tolerate any challenges, no talk back, soft, assertive, aggressive or otherwise.
We are warned anger, rage, outrage are aggressive emotions that we must suppress, at the expense of our autonomy, our rights, our liberties.
It is a classic double-bind, a sublime con: With the threat of violence comes the slippery offer of protection, straight from the racketeer’s tool kit, Daddy knows best, leave it to the more powerful, we will come to collect later - never mention it, not a word. Silence is violence.
And ultimately, the fascist’s desire to control everything, using threats of glorious annihilation, endless, purifying, profitable war that will unite us under a strong leader. So we bottle up our anger, can our rage and endure safely confected anonymous outrage. For how long? What are we afraid of?
Who benefits from suppressed rage?
Why do we fear vulnerability? How can we acknowledge our anger without being controlled and consumed by it? How do we use threats of violence in our daily lives to get what we want? What brutality do we outsource to keep our privilege? How do we challenge our ability to destroy everything? How do we redirect our rage to create change?
Can we use art to disrupt the threats of physical, mental and structural violence?
The Sound of Annihilation
Listen to an inaudible sound installation of canned rage: The Sound of Annihilation stacks wistfully labelled food cans full of silent memories hoarding our nostalgia and suppressed desires. In its whimsy, it challenges us to consider what we lose when we let the bullies take over.
Provocateurs corner: We conceived of The Sound of Annihilation as a musical score of the atom bomb formula, performed by an orchestra of household items, pipes, chip bags, bottles, car keys, nostalgic moments and canned feelings. Canned grief of burned, wasted lives. A reminder that we can destroy it all when we avoid solidarity, which in turn allows fascism to claim respectable spaces in our societies. Anger is essential for liberation. May be art does save lives after all….
Send us your nostalgic moments, sounds and memories to be canned for future use: Click here: contact.
Creative concept, development and curators: Jen Lyons-Reid & Carl Kuddell
Sound, text, design and installation: Jen Lyons-Reid & Carl Kuddell, other collaborators tbc.
Provocations, text and cartoons: Jen Lyons-Reid & Carl Kuddell
Poetry: Poets tba
Photos: Change Media
Venues: Nexus Arts, Nov 12 - Dec 11. You can find some of the Sound of Annihilation works at Coral St Artspace Victor Harbor.