Volume 5–2.pdf - U&lc

PROPAGANDA.
BY BERRY MORTON ECKSTEIN
While riding in the front seat of his father-in-law's yellow cab one Sunday, Berry Morton Eckstein
glanced down at a copy of America's favorite picture newspaper lying on the seat. The front page
photograph depicted a jet airplane with two stark white arrows adrift in the Daily News sky.
Knowing that the caption below would provide an explanation for the flying arrows, he picked up
the tabloid and proceeded to read. It told of how a desperate human being had attached himself
to the plane's fuselage (first arrow pointing to two infmitesimal legs' dangling) in an attempt to
escape Vietnam during the final days of evacuation. The second arrow pointed to the rear of the
plane, where according to the caption, a bomb had been set (arrow left, pointing to an unseen
bomb). No other details were offered. Did the plane successfully evacuate? Did the would-be escapee
make it to the U.S. ofA.? Did the bomb go off and foil the escape for everyone? The bewilderment
produced by such an uninformative (however graphically pleasing) news photo provided the
stimulation for the work shown here. Originally displayed as a group of twenty-five pieces at the
OK Harris Gallery March 1978, twelve are presented here to pique, provoke, amuse, anger, etc.
"Propaganda?' was intended as comic relief, glaringly impersonal as to author, and preserving
the artist's anonymity. It dangles in the face of a world that has already shrunk in readiness for
Orwell's 1984, confirming our worst fears. "Propaganda?' is the equivalent of those secret government
doctrines continually falling into the public eye these days. Or is it?
American department stores display mannequins in revealing fashions (arrow center
bottom).This practice fosters lurid thoughts in the minds of the people.The gesture of the
hands (arrow left and right center) and the sideways glance (arrow missing) are calculated
to entice the imagination.
Idolatry isstillwidely practiced by a large segment of the American population. Omnipotent
deities such as this lion (arrow top) are ever-present reminders of strange pagan rituals.
American children have become pathological in their play: here they use sliding ponds to
vent their rage.The small boy dripping blood (arrow bottom center) frantically tries to hold
onto a lifeline (upper center, bottom arrow) so as not to fall into a pond waiting below
(not shown). One of the other youths makes it more difficult by jiggling the frail cord.