Conceptual researcher Gnat Bowden presents a talk on brutality, action, and activism.

Rescheduled to Saturday, January 13th due to weather. This event takes place in the some fools living room; warm meal provided, come around 6:30 to eat.

Recording of artist talk at bottom of page or click to watch part one and part two.

VIDEO PLAYLIST TO WATCH WHILE READING // CLICK PLAY TO BEGIN & MUTE WHILE READING

WRITTEN BY// GNAT BOWDEN

( INSTAGRAM.COM/PAYDIRTDOTGOV )

INTRO: WE HAVE ALWAYS BEEN

DYING ON TV

THE GHOST OF THE MONUMENT

FROM WITHIN HOLDS UP ITS HANDS

WET FROM ITS FANTASIES 

AS IF IT COULD NOT SAY, “ENOUGH”

ALL OVER THE COUNTRY

WE ARE STILL DYING ON TV

OR IF YOU CANNOT SEE IT-

BUT THEN WHY WOULD

THE SHAPE OF MY HEART

BE WATERED BY RAGE?

THE FIRST VIRAL BRUTALITY

I KNOW OF WAS FILMED THROUGH BLINDS 

ON  A SONY HANDYCAM

MARCH 3RD 1991

AND EVEN IF YOU HAVEN'T 

SEEN IT / WITH ITS NO SOUND 

1. TWILIGHT LA

THE RHYTHM OF THE BATONS

EACH BATTERING UP 

IS ACTUALLY LOOPING A MURDER

WE ARE WATCHING THE POLICE

WE ARE TRYING TO FIND THE BODY

IN THE FRAME

EVEN IN A STILL IMAGE

THIS GAME OF KEEP AWAY 

WITH THE LIVING 

THAT HAVE NO BUSINESS

WITH BEING

IS PRESENT

AND WE ARE PRESENT AT THE WOUNDS

BEING MADE 

I SEEN IT/WITH ITS NO SOUND 

WHICH WE KNOW IS INSIDE 

BUT WE CANNOT SPEAK

ON LAND THAT IS CURSED

THIS NO SOUND/ ON A 10 FOOT CHAIN

IT TRIES TO BECOME ME

1. ARTIFACE

THEY LEFT YOU

LYING IN THE STREETS 

FOR FOUR HOURS

AND I WATCHED WHEN

THEY ROLLED YOU OVER

ON LIVE TV

THE WHOLE WORLD

KNEW NOW THAT YOU

HAD BEEN  ALIVE

THIS WHOLE TIME

THERES A POSSESSION 

IN EVERY HOUSE. 

AND NOW THEYVE BEEN ASKING

I AM ENDLESSLY GRIEVING FOR YOU

I AM ENDLESSLY TELLING SOMEONE

IN THE FRONT TEETH THEY BREAK

THERE IS ROOM IN THEM NOW

FOR YOU TO BREATHE

“Stranger in a strange land”

The fear of the historical composure/construction of blackness. “True nationalism” of blackness. America as the home of its social creation - the transportation and transition from product (in the hull/hold of the ship) to object (social capital of the body/ american labor).

The QUALITY of the monster to represent a human difference that the assimilated lover can interact with. The extracted lover/monster is of use to the assimilated through historical stereotypes of seduction. A hyper sexuality that includes a misrepresentation of blackness, homoerotic desire, lived queerness, and “fractured nationality” (a statelessness). For this example the black female/ feminized or castrated person represents this. That in becoming physically present the “Extracted lover” brings themself forward to be in service of the “assimilated lover”. In order for the assimilated lover to experience or access liberation from domestic oppression -Using the extracted to temporarily escape and exit the machine. The need to be converted or saved through the performance of fetish and desire. Through experiencing the extracted person as fetish for however long the assimilated can benefit from the extracted identity. The othered body once in use is able to become AGAIN a THING representing a place where fear and death transition into usable devices of power for white americans. 

The mechanics of fear in “domestic” American relations and interactions. The reenactment of punishable desire- longing for the already extracted lover as a self punishment, a “wearing/ attempted becoming” of the lover’s otherness and of their skin without knowledge or consent to be consumed/used. The wanting a form of domestic psychic/emotional terror. This violence is a reminder that the assimilated lover is one with and a part of the state. Which brings protections within the agency of whiteness and possession that will forever have its home in American vulnerabilities and anxieties. 

AND I MEAN NOTHING TO YOU. WHEN THE SUN COMES UP AND YOU REMEMBER MY GOD. DONT SPEAK THIS WAY AGAIN. DONT TURN TO FACE ME. WE WILL MEET AGAIN IN THE SOIL. DEEP INSIDE THE EARTH. AND WE WONT EVEN HAVE TO THINK ABOUT IT

THE LEATHER FRATERNITY: SOCIAL REALITY

State powers and mechanisms, -isms, are used to shape the conditions we struggle underneath. Suspended within this architecture of violence our perception of reality becomes. We become conditioned to horror. Under this manipulation our freedom and even our fear becomes an earned experience of being. This being maintained through the indexing of people - post property and in capital. The unbelievability of what truly scares me silences me. You would not believe me if you tried. 

A 1995 article from the Washington Examiner titled, “The Coming of The Superpredators.” This article details the rise of “youth crime” in big cities.

“We're talking about boys whose voices have yet to change. We're talking about elementary school youngsters who pack guns instead of lunches. We're talking about kids who have absolutely no respect for human life and no sense of the future. In short, we're talking big trouble that hasn't yet begun to crest.”

“,they are not just gangs of kids anymore. They are often the kinds of kids that are called superpredators. No conscience. No empathy. We can talk about why they ended up that way but first we have to bring them to heel”

Now you see me, now you don’t. I am not only suspended in this conditional reality but between,within, and without the state. My humanity pending on current popular social representation. Pending the witnesses.  A gaze does not create me. What does what you see mean to me? 

In community, how do we maintain the State installations of terror and brutality? These inherited fears and judgements. What tools remain and are used to manipulate our grasp of what our reality can look like? What our communities, our spaces, our art could be? What does being a person look like, feel like? What knowledge do you have of what I can be?

These futures and perspectives that refuse to be suspended in terror. They can all be limited by the influence and presence of conditional terror. 

 Who has the power to use this power? When can it be brandished? 

We are all subject to this fear and the state relies on that fear to manipulate our response.But few are subject to the consequences of their actions. Specifically those harbored or under state protection. Freedom. What is the value of my gaze upon brutality? What are the consequences of my witnessing? When I am not a person - when I haven’t ended up here yet. What does it all mean?

We are afraid of what they tell us to be afraid of. For profit. For capital. Your fear matters when considering action. Space you inhabit or arrive to. Parasitic. The water is rising.

Even in subcultures the state finds its bounty. It is because whiteness carries with it it’s history. It goes where you go freely. With it, it’s demands of submission of total control. Its plantation social architecture. Its building of walls, cages, and cctv footage. Of evidence to justify who can be and who cannot. 

SELECTIVE OUTRAGE

Even in radical space this plantation machine is still warm to the touch. To speak on these issues in spaces, white majority spaces is always dangerous. To upset the balance of the normalized reality and call out the power. There is always a risk of dispossession. There is action that can be made to reinforce your capital. And then there is nowhere for us to go. 

The American triptych looks like this. That as people declared human by the state and before that by our labor. We will always be the difficult ones. The ones that can never just be satisfied with the progression of things. That we are the monsters you seek with your anthemic gazes. You seek and you shall find. You will make it make sense with your history, your blood. That there is never any action you can take that will do me harm. Just Because you see me doesn’t mean you perceive me. Just because you surveil me doesn’t mean you see me. Just because you index me doesn’t mean you see me. It makes you a witness. 

What is action? I don’t really have an answer. Action makes way for the practice of love,of patience. Action makes way for these human things. Creates and protects that space so we can live, not just survive. 

THE OIL COMPANIES ARE PUTTING OMENS INTO THE OCEANS

AND WE WATCH THEM DO THIS

ON THE TV

AND ISN’T THERE SOMETHING

WE KNOW WE COULD BE DOING 

IF WE DIDN'T KNOW

WHAT THEY ARE CAPABLE OF 

Through collective action we continue to threaten the manifest destinies. We threaten the historical/ahistorical/antehistorical timelines where state powers have power. Within the reality we threaten, activism and direct action becomes social. It walks a thin line between what is done for social/community stability and what is done for social capital/visibility. We know the state is watching us watch the state. We know we are watching each other. We smile at the camera. It is an American ritual. This constant reinstallation machine works in the background. We are powerful in this understanding. A visual representation of what it means to be powerful and powerless. To know but really not know where or who the red dot is aiming for. 

You know what I face but do you know me? Can you imagine me? Without capital. Would you believe me if I told you? Or do I have to show you again? 

In Philadelphia a bomb drops down from heaven. It came down like a feather. A spider lost its web in the dust. It is destined and it plummets through the roof and the floors.

So do we come in peace? We who never meant to come? American pleasure pursuit. Hot wheels on the highway. Didn’t you see it? Don’t you? They still beat the black off you. Till your brain is shut out of revolution. never would I settle . too much rebellion. Too much nature and justice in my anger for it to be nothing. The release of my freedom. 20 degree grip got you pulled over cause your elbow was out the window. no difference. Your body and the car. It’s all steel. 

Mass incarceration. The plantation. The law. Your kindness to strangers. Master history. A projection of a model t rolling off the lot. So rarely I function with purpose.  

I awake in outer space. I forgive my name. The thought of the inhibitors. Swans spreading their paws in the jungle. elf help tape. Before you know it. The future rides in on a corpse.