4B — Thursday, March 9, 2017
the b-side
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Who is this narrator? What is the accent? I’m so scared. The way he said
“firing squad” just made me want to cry. Eerie. The death penalty beds. I’m going to cry. This
man, Hank, has been on death row for 17 years and he’s still cracking jokes. I’m just going to
leave this here: So many things that the police does are illegal. Hank looks so tired. His arms
are chubby
but his cheeks are hollow. Still terrified of this narrator’s tone;
it is CHILLING. Here’s Hank’s story: This man was
accused of triple homicide of his girlfriend and her
two children. Though he denies the crime to this
day, he was sentenced to death row. With 20
minutes of his execution, in the “death house,”
Hank said his last goodbyes, and then he was
saved. “The only thing was that they didn’t
kill me.” He was pardoned by the Supreme
Court just moments before his schedule
execution. Now, Hank is back on death
row. His holding cell is five steps away
from the gurney. Nothing about this is
right. They feed these inmates around
the clock. “Time really has no meaning
in here.” Nobody washes the prison
windows; inmates can’t receive a clear
view of the outside world, neither literally
nor figuratively. I cannot go into detail here
without breaking down, and I have no relation
to the issue of death row aside from watching
this show right now. I feel sick. Outsiders are
not allowed to view the inner areas of death row
housing. Hank describes them as a house of “human
bondage and human suffering. A bad place.” Interesting
take:
A chef at death row commissioned to cook people’s last-ever meals.
Can you imagine? Cooking meals for criminals awaiting a planned execution. How anyone
eats just minutes before their certain death is beyond my comprehension. Hank is smart. I feel
nauseous and I haven’t seen any blood.
— TESS GARCIA
Werner Herzog’s
‘On Death Row’
in this series, three daily arts
writers in varying states of mind
do the same activity and write
about it.
Oh my god, why is my spell check correcting into French. Moving on. For posterity: I feel
very strange. Sort of tingly, really. Ah, it is begining now. Dramatic string music and a
pan shot of a prison table with Bibles. This surely portents much. Werner Hertz-
og is talking now, and I have to listen. He has such a grave, dramatic voice
— I am bound to heed to it. The death-row inmate seems like such a
congenial fellow, until he starts talking about, like, the fact that
he was convicted of tripple homicide. “How familiar are
you with the details of the execution?” Herzog to
DRI — jesus christ Werner, you don’t go gently
do you? “Could that be more Ameri-
can?” asked Tess about the last meal
of a hamburger and fries, “much like
the death penalty” thought I. (To be read
with thick Bavarian accent): “God, this is really
depressing. Why does this exist (re: the death pen-
alty)?” (Also, see “Get it Right: Privatize Executions” by
Michigan’s own Arthur Miller.) “His cheeks are really hollow”
says the Style editor. “No shit,” says someone in the back of my
cerebrum. It is interesting that the inmate’s most vivid descriptions are
about food. Why is someone vacuming right now? “Yeah I see your point”
The concept of being led to death on a timeline is excruciating to me. To see the
specter of death land on your bedside, to measure each second until that great abyss
of unknowability is perhaps the most terrifiying thing after the abyss in the first place
“This guy is still on death row” says buzzed. “This show was five years ago” “Is his name
Frank?” says Tess “Hank says” buzzed. “What is going on with this family” Herzog after learn-
ing the man’s son is charged with kidnapping. (update, he was later aquitted) Tbh I should stop
just quoting things I hear. A journalist is now describing the staggering wounded walk of a
murder victim. This really is a downer. There was just a minute of silence on the episode. very
effecrive use of abscene “I don’t have a problem with the death penalty” says TV journalist.
“fuck journalists” says a not-TV journalist This inmate just made a reference to medieval his-
tory. Templars “Skinner tends to get lost in obscure historical tales” Herzog This is probably
too long now. I’ll stop. He has a very distictive nervous laugh
— Daily Arts Writer
so like i’m shitfaced rn and i came into this apartment
expecting a dandy ol good time (:^]) but the second we
popped this on, shit got reeaaaaaaal — i went into this
situation thinking it’ll be some regular BBB but, and
perhaps it’s because i am (again) fairly shitfaced, i feel like
a level and candor is appropriate for what the fuck we’re
watching rn. wenrer herzog’s thick and distinct german
accent has been haunting most of my night as he pries into
the nitty gritty details of the squalor death row inmates
face. this man, hank, just ruminated over how he went
through a last meal and his last rites and prepared for his
eventual death until a judge issued him a stay on his case
20 minutes before his execution ?? wtf ?? this was a terrible
idea wow
“are you high?” “i think so”
“are you drunk” “yeah but i don’t wanna be”
“this shit got me fucked up guys”
we binged episodes of chef’s table to feel better oops :^)
— Daily Arts Writer
local
leadership
to
empower communities in a
sustainable way. She works
with Youth Development
in the Community Arts
Department
where
she
coordinates
photography
programming for 5th to
8th
grade
students
in
Detroit where they take
field trips and learn to use
DSLR cameras, hoping to
cultivate passion and skills
that
may
help
students
find
educational
and
employment opportunities
as
they
mature.
Her
outreach
also
involves
starting art clubs at schools
where funding or access to
the arts may be limited.
“I’ve gotten what I’ve
learned
through
college
and through art school and
now I’m giving it back to
the community,” Borromeo
said.
From Borromeo’s studio
in
Ypsilanti
she
works
on
other
independent
and
collaborative
art
projects. She was recently
featured in the “Vagina
Show”
in
Detroit,
an
exhibition
centered
around
intersectionality,
or the way social identities
interact and open up space
for
multidimensional
dialogue
about
various
systems of oppression and
discrimination.
Borromeo
is also involved in the
curating of an anti-Trump
show in Detroit.
Additionally,
she
collaborates
with
community activists groups
in
Detroit,
like
Detroit
Independent
Freedom
Schools, a movement that
offers
supplementary
weekend
education
by
volunteer
teachers
to
aid those Detroit Public
Schools
students
who
struggle. She is also a
member of the Detroiters’
Resistance to Trump and
DMJ studio, a group of
women artists who use art
to tell stories of those who
live in Detroit and bring art
to non-traditional spaces
and neighborhoods.
However,
the
project
that seems to be most
reflective
of
Borromeo’s
artistic
journey
is
one
which seeks to provide a
cultural exchange between
Houston and Detroit. She
co-founded
a
show
in
Houston last year called
“Art to Art” that showcased
the fashion, hip-hop and
art of local artists, and she
hopes to foster a cultural
exchange between the two
cities, ideally having people
from Detroit visit Houston
and vice versa.
Borromeo
highlights
interdisciplinary
and
intersectionality
at
the
heart of her work. Such a
multidimensional approach
is clear in the work of
the artists and activists
she admires. She spoke
of Antonio Cosme, who
weaves
his
public
and
street art with community
organizing, and of Adrian
Piper, who Borromeo said
was, “basically everything
I
want
to
be
ever,”
expressing
admiration
for Piper’s strength as an
artist, philosopher and her
exploration and expression
of what it means to be a
light-skinned black woman.
Borromeo views art as a
way of educating, informing
and inspiring those who
may not otherwise have the
access to such knowledge,
touching on the universal
quality of what she does.
She suggested that art was
maybe more “digestible”
to some than say, reading a
newspaper.
“It’s
a
very
special
situation to be an artist,
especially during this time
because not everyone has
the capacity to read the
newspaper,
maybe
not
everyone knows how to read.
But art — but everyone kind
of
understands
imagery
—
understands
what
a
sound
is,
understands
what movement is and so
it can strike people in an
emotional way that’s very
different than just cut-and-
dry stuff. I think artists
just have a very strong role
to play, especially in just
empowering other people.”
ARTIST
From Page 3B
had
both
enjoyed
and
learned from it — though
I
had
been
expecting
this, as it isn’t the first
time I have encountered
Vanmechelen’s work, and
have a CCP poster to prove
it.
Most of the remaining
speakers capably presented
their ideas, though at a
month’s remove I would
have difficulty telling you
what they all spoke on
without my notes. I won’t
touch on everyone here
(and soon enough you’ll
be able to watch the talks
yourself online), but I will
mention a few moments
which I feel are pertinent
to my point. The artist
Sophia Brueckner, now an
Art and Design assistant
professor,
perhaps
indirectly
addressed
the principal concern at
the heart of this piece:
The place of optimism.
“Critical optimism” was
the
way
she
described
her approach (in her case,
to the potential impact
of new technologies), a
midway
between
“pure
optimism” and “everything
is terrible.” And perhaps
that is the most healthy
way to view things. But for
myself, I fear that far too
often optimism takes the
place of action, that our
dissatisfaction
with
the
world can be sated through
a simple, cheery belief that
things will all work out —
the problem lies in that,
like trying to sate a physical
hunger with pure glucose,
this
solution
essentially
has no substance.
One
of
my
principal
issues with TED, I suppose,
is that it gives a smattering
of anodyne verbal offerings
while
rarely
translating
words
into
tangible
gains. Its audiences are
full of essentially well-
meaning people who more
than likely will never do
anything about the very real
problems discussed (and I
do not exclude myself from
this group; and of course
there are obviously others
in any given TED audience
who I would exclude, but
here I speak generally).
The
conference’s
theme
was
“Dreamer’s
and
Disrupters,”
and
my
concern is that the former
perhaps overbore the latter
to an unhealthy degree.
While a TED conference
indulges in the dopamine
rush of what seems to me
an extreme, often irrational
optimism,
I’m
unable
to overcome the feeling
that the whole of our
civilization is careening
towards some grisly wreck.
The
tragedy
is
greater
because I feel that this
wreck is probably avertable
if we simple managed to
rouse ourselves to action.
But maybe it’s not, and
maybe all that will be left
one day of this pleasant
little jaunt around the park
of liberal democracy are the
steel skeletons that were
once our cities, skyscraper
tombstones
whistling
in the wind. Oh well. Of
course, this is probably a
hyperbolic thing to wonder
— I do that sometimes. But
I’m not the first to think it,
and I won’t be the last, and
someday one of us is bound
to be right.
The
inadequacy
of
mere talk turned out to be
perhaps my biggest take-
away from the conference,
but this isn’t to say that the
feeling is merited equally
by all the presenters. Many
of the speakers do engage in
exactly the sort of concrete,
tangible altering of the
world that I’m advocating.
Scott Matzka has become
an ALS advocate. Erika
Newman is trying to cure
cancer. Abdul El-Sayed is
the Health Commissioner
for the city of Detroit — a
few days after the talk the
32-year-old announced his
candidacy
for
governor.
All of these people do
real
work
to
improve
the world. But one of the
things they all have in
common is they strive to
use
science
to
address
material issues. For the
artists of the conference,
the impact they can have
was far less obvious, and
far more abstract — all
of which raises the much
larger question of art’s role
in changing the world. In
what ways, in the light of
all the wrong that exists,
can what we do as artists
be ultimately meaningful?
I don’t have the answer. But
what I do know is this: We
have to believe art means
something. The alternative
is negation and despair.
TEDX
From Page 3B
From
Borromeo’s
studio in
Ypsilanti she
works on other
independent and
collaborative art
projects
Most of the
remaining
speakers
capably
presented their
ideas, though
at a month’s
remove I would
have difficulty
telling you what
they all spoke
on without my
notes
INTERESTED IN WRITING FOR
ARTS?
Email arts@michigdandaily.com for an application.