On view: May 30 – June 30, 2024
Opening Reception: Saturday, May 25, 6 – 8pm
Performances start on May 30 at 6:30pm
Text, construction and performance: Hanne Tierney
Music: Kiowa Hammons
Songs composed and sung: Jane Wang
Construction and performance: Cooper Mumford
Production: George Simmonds, Ruby Lindsey
The installation/performance WHY?? asks the question: “What has the human species done to its males?” Throughout history, humans have consistently dealt with conflicts and confrontations by sending men into battles and wars to kill and slaughter each other off. It is an appalling burden that we have settled on the men, and one must ask why they have fallen into the trap of periodically slaughtering their own population.
One answer is the incredible power of propaganda and language that brainwashes and indoctrinates us all into accepting the otherwise unacceptable.
An installation of large prints on the gallery walls at FiveMyles shows the stages of propaganda and indoctrination that have allowed many civilizations to take this mutual massacre of the men for granted.
The prints feature representations of battles and wars fought since antiquity, as well as propaganda posters used to indoctrinate and manipulate men and the society into believing that the mutual killing that the men are made to engage in is necessary, honorable, and heroic. Images from as early as 4,000 BCE point out the ongoing advocacy for the idea of heroic manliness, a notion that has sped billions of men into their death. Finally, images of precise marching formations in military parades conclude with a picture of the rows of thousands of white crosses in the cemetery in Arlington Virginia, set up with equal precision.
While the installation doesn’t answer any questions, it hopes to create awareness of this sacrificial purpose human civilizations have assigned to men throughout the ages.
To complement the installation a life-size puppet delivers a more detailed lecture about this human aberration. Her sidekick, a small boy puppet, asks controversial questions that the audience might want to ask. A line of dowel sticks become marching soldiers and an otherworldly spirit-figure sings her commentaries on the foolishness of mankind.
- Hanne Tierney
Beginning May 30, half-hour performances take place Thu. – Sat. at 6:30pm, until June 30th.
Gallery hours : Thu – Sun, 1 – 6pm
Directions : Take 2, 3,4 or 5 trains to Franklin Avenue in Brooklyn. Walk two blocks against the traffic on Franklin, turn left into St. Johns Place, walk ½ block to FiveMyles