Conor Casby’s nude portraits of Brian Cowen, which have been causing a sensation these last few days, reminded me of a story I once heard about Brendan Behan.
During an interview, Behan was asked if he was gay. He replied: “Well if I had a choice between Michelangelo’s David and Whistler’s mother I know what way I’d be.” If you don’t know the work by Whistler, Google it and you’ll know why Behan said what he did!
The reaction in some quarters to Casby’s images is clearly over the top and RTÉ apologising for reporting on the incident will certainly go down as a low point in the national broadcaster’s history.
Yet art, as Picasso so rightly remarked, “is not for the decoration of houses, it is a weapon to be used offensively and defensively against the enemy”. Art, whether through the form of painting, song, poetry, film, etc, can be a reflection on and give expression to feelings widely held by the public at a given time.
While walking along the canal and in Newtownsmith last weekend I saw a piece of graffiti on a bench and on a section of the Salmon Weir Bridge, that sums this up. While I am not necessarily defending the act of graffitiing these two areas, the image was cleverly done, thought out, and reflects a truth as many voters will see it.
The image was of the head and shoulders of Brian Cowen under which read Fianna Fáilure - The Recession Party. The words and the inclusion of a harp with them were deliberately and accurately styled on the party’s full name, Fianna Fáil - The Republican Party, and font used, when this appears on leaflets, letters, and posters.
As far as many are concerned, Fianna Fáilure - The Recession Party is not an unfair charge. Brian Cowen was the Minister for Finance who presided over the bulging property bubble and did nothing about it. Once it burst, our economy - a real case of all eggs in one basket - went with it. International conditions are not the complete story.
The party has so far failed to deal adequately with the worsening economic crisis - first it denied it was happening, than it went into ‘rabbit in front of headlamps’ mode - and despite the recent burst in last weekend’s the opinion polls, it is hard to see FF not taking a hammering on polling day.
The April 7 Budget will be the last roll of the dice for Cowen and Co to show they have a grasp of the seriousness of the situation. However, perhaps too much self-inflicted damage has already been done.
‘Fianna Fáilure - The Recession Party’. Perhaps it is a good time to remember what John F Kennedy said: “We must never forget that art is not a form of propaganda; it is a form of truth.”
