Oakland is Berkeley’s Noble-Savage
Wednesday, 14 January 2009
Ever wonder what-is-up with public art? Take this one, for example on the Oakland/Berkeley border:
The artists are Steve Gillman and Katherine Keefer. In 2005 the City of Berkeley (with the help of the county) sported a $5,000 grant for The South Berkeley Gateway Project, and approved this public sculpture at the border of Oakland and Berkeley that reads HERE (on the Berkeley side) and THERE (on the Oakland side). “Whimsical”, they called it.
There’s this other blogger in the East Bay that’s walking all the borders… Anyway, as this blogger noticed, it’s the only North/South-Berkeley/Oakland Border with this severe a demarcation. It’s also not only just the Berkeley/Oakland border, it’s the Berkeley/Oakland/Emeryville border. It’s also a border that delineates a class and race boundary, more than the rest of the borders lying to the east (toward the hills).
I actually think visually this sculpture is more interesting than a lot of the public art in Berkeley, built on very narrow and specific formulae of conditions. But I just can’t be convinced that the artists weren’t aware that this project was going to come across divisive. The message of the piece (which outweighs the visual impact of the piece) is US vs. THEM, where clearly Berkeley is US (or “good”) and Oakland is the OTHER (whether that is exotic or savage). Race is a factor, as this part of North Oakland is historically African American, and the region where the Black Panthers operated in the 60′s, and to this day live, work and do community service.
So, why has a public sculpture that was built in 2005 sparked any kind of reaction just now? Well, last week a protest in downtown Oakland was invaded by rioters who, after arrests were made, turned out to be FROM BERKELEY! A an unarmed kid on BART going from San Francisco to Hayward gets murdered by a BART police officer (not an Oakland cop), and it happens to be at the Fruitvale station in Oakland – and now the city of Oakland seems to have to bear the brunt of public outrage, some of which turned to wanton destruction. I have not yet read one story in the papers about people protesting at BART headquarters, nor the Alameda County courthouses, where the DA is supposed to be announcing the charges. Plus, why not protest at Berkeley City Hall?
According to the Chronicle, The people from Revolution Books in Berkeley perpetrated at least a portion of the destruction on downtown Oakland last Tuesday. Revolution Books is nestled in the bottom floor of a parking garage on Telegraph near campus – security-a-plenty. They came out of their hidey-holes to wreak havoc to a city that is already struggling with a reputation of unfettered violence, where the people are struggling with poverty, where business owners are putting their blood, sweat and tears into a sustainable livelyhood – and then they went back to the comfort and safety of their Berkeley bungalows, and have made no apologies or concessions. Whether charges will stick is another story. Never have I had so much disdain for self-righteousness.
In this case, Oakland is Berkeley’s Noble-Savage, their exotic land for reaping resources and leaving the inhabitants to pick up the pieces. And this piece of public art is sort of rubs the salt in the wounds.
Footnote: the THERE side is also a nod to the famous Gertrude Stein quote…
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No. 1 — January 17th, 2009 at 2:09 pm
Wanton violence in the streets is no answer to injustices by our Police, our supposed civil protectors. Rioting shouldn’t be the answer to situations like this. However, I do believe the BART police are a semi-mercenary force with no oversight, and protesting this recent incident where a BART officer killed Oscar Grant is necessary, in order to prevent this from happening again. Protests should be directed towards changing the situation, not only venting anger. Yet even with oversight in our police state, especially with BART cops, in our extremely overpopulated world, situations such as these where extreme errors of judgement are made by people in power will always continue on a certain level. We do not live in, nor should our American society be see as, a utopia.
On another note, Gertrude Stein is so often quoted out of context with this “no there there” (a quote often used to insult Oakland, but was actually made in poetic reference to her visiting the site of her torn-down family home…), so here is the real deal:
Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)
“What was the use of my having come from Oakland…it was not natural to have come from there…yes, write about it if I like or anything if I like, but not there… there is no there there.”
GERTRUDE STEIN, Everybody’s Autobiography, p. 289 (1937, reprinted 1971).
No. 2 — January 19th, 2009 at 12:02 am
A. I would never go to the Chronicle for accurate reporting on a protest. This article provides a much better picture of what happened that night.
B. I wouldn’t say that the rioting was the fault of people exclusively from outside of Oakland coming in and hurting our city.
C. Frankly, it’s worse when the Raiders lose. This has been a media distortion of an event which was much smaller than we were led to believe. The Chronicle focused almost exclusively on the rioting while ignoring the bigger story and the BART police’s attempt to cover up the murder. There has been relatively little attention being paid to the peaceful protests. However, the fact that Ron Dellums did nothing UNTIL people rioted seems to validate the rioters’ actions.
About the “Here, There” public art – wow. I am glad someone is talking about this, because I have always been irked by it. I agree completely with Narangkar – it stinks of race and class divisions. I guess I’m one of those people who misunderstood the Stein quote, so thanks Steven for the illumination, but as most people probably misunderstood it as well, it seems an odd choice to refer to it so dramatically. In fact I heard a different story, I guess an urban myth, about the sculpture. In this story, an artist from Oakland wanted to refute the Stein quote by making this powerful statement of “there”ness on the Oakland side only. Then Berkeley commissioned an artist who put up the “here” side. Funny how these stories get around, thanks for clearing up the real story.
No. 3 — February 3rd, 2009 at 9:46 pm
Here is a link to a radio interview between NPR and Mayor Ron Dellums of Oakland (2/3/09) discussing the Oscar Grant riots, the current fiscal situation in Oakland and California-at-large as well as Dellums prospects for working in the Obama administration…maybe after he is voted out of office!
In this interview, Dellums seems to be knowledgeable of what needs to be done to improve Oakland, but the question remains: is he going to finally roll up his sleeves and get to work to help Oakland?!?
Thanks to Theo Konrad Auer for the link.