A mention from the Engineer’s Daughters (aka Heidi J. De Vries) blog
capitalism is over! if you want it
The Capitalism Is Over! If You Want It public projection series taking place right now at the Luggage Store is a part of a summer-long series of artworks and creative happenings being staged in San Francisco and around the world to inspire people to think about alternatives to corporate capitalism. “Creative” is an important word in this context, as the individuals who have banded together for this project have an intent to rebuild community and to encourage positive action through their art, not unlike the Yoko Ono piece from which they take their name. And like Ono they aren’t so deadly serious either, as demonstrated by the film playing on the Luggage Store’s exterior when I walked up last night: a PR extravaganza courtesy of local archive Oddball Film + Video that was made for Esso back in 1988 chronicling the oil company’s “century of achievement” as viewed by two intergalactic travelers from the controls of their spaceship, one of whom looked a lot like Grace Jones. Even with no sound playing the parade of cheerful images was instantly recognizable as corporate propaganda, and Esso’s use of a tiger to represent the ferocity of its gas or whatever has always made me especially cranky. As if any self-respecting tiger would want anything to do with a company that rapes the land and destroys the environment for profit. I also caught Paz de la Calzada’s short film “Shopping Cart Soldiers” that follows the urban nighttime rambles of a few clever adbusters as they spraypaint stencils of shopping carts in prominent places. Some might say graffiti; I say street art, and important political commentary.
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