Andrew Brandou on his Jonestown paintings
Earlier this year, painter Andrew Brandou mounted an astounding and provocative exhibition, "As A Man Thinketh, So He Is," at the Corey Helford gallery in Culver City, CA. The paintings told the story of Jonestown, the commune in Guyana where more than 900 members of Peoples Temple, under the guidance of cult leader Jim Jones, killed themselves or were murdered in 1978. While creating the series, Andrew consulted a variety of sources on the history of People's Temple, including the "Alternative Considerations of Jonestown and Peoples Temple,” a site sponsored by the Department of Religious Studies at San Diego State University. Now, Andrew has contributed a piece to the site's online journal, "Jonestown Report."
From Andrew's essay:
i was ten years old living in michigan when the events in guyana occurred, so on one hand i have no direct relationship to them. on the other hand, i was attending catholic school. each morning after for quite some time, the sermons tended to be responses to the tragedy. my teachers and priests not only described the events to me, but my own brothers and sisters, all 14 years or more older than myself. their point of view did not always align with what other authority figures had said. i became driven to understand exactly “what” had taken place, not only to the victims of circumstance who became “a nations tragedy” but to myself, as a frightened child suddenly forced to question authority. these are the forces which have always driven me for my series regarding peoples temple.Link to The Jonestown Report essay, Link to Corey Helford Gallery (select Andrew's name from the "past shows" menu to view "As A Man Thinketh")
i have 30 some pieces, only 10 of them recalling specific events in south america. i have no interest in mocking anyone, glorifying tragedy, playing into conspiracy theory, or being overtly graphic. as a matter of fact, if you did not know it, you may not even realize the paintings were about the peoples temple in particular. i humbly submit that this is because i am coming from a youthful perspective, as an outside observer trying to reverse engineer an “unsolvable” situation.
i have found that a visual shorthand helps to focus on the types of stories i tell. for this reason, i call forth the simple graphic nature of childrens book artwork as a shell around my concepts. most people seem to respond very rapidly to the benign nature of the visuals, and have an easy time deciphering them. for example, i use animals in my work instead of humans. most people have vivid memories of the childrens books they read. they understand things like a lion is king of the jungle, or a rabbit is the everyman. the use of these simple visual metaphors works to take away distractions. if i attempted to portray jim jones specifically, people would find flaws or idiosyncrasies that have nothing to do with the story im trying to tell. if i simplify him by making him a lion, he becomes a hieroglyph, filed away under jones, and you can then go straight into the story.
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Even after reading Mr. Brandou's somewhat satisfactory words concerning his painting philosophy, I still don't know why he replaces imagery of human beings with that of cute bear and bunny cartoon figures.
The only person who has really succeeded (recently) with this sort of grown-up visual anthropomorphism is Art Spiegelman (see his two part Holocaust comic book MAUS)
Basically, this sort of artwork is easy to do...simply pick a tragic event from recent (or distant) recorded history and substitute cute animals for real, suffering humans. It's bound to be controversial and it's bound to sell (after all, it's only cartoon animals)
I think Mr Brandou is underestimating the intelligence of his viewers...since Jonestown happened 30 years ago, I think we can all "handle" real images of Jim Jones and his doomed congregation. Cute bunnies and bears aren't necessary.
My left eye always points to magnetic north- Pr-dsmvwlld fr yr plsr?
"The only person who has really succeeded (recently) with this sort of grown-up visual anthropomorphism is Art Spiegelman"
I take it you've never read Usagi Yojimbo, then?
If you want an informative and in depth history of Jonestown check out OUT THERE radio on iTunes.
DevoPhill: Yeah. He spammed the site with them. I gather you spotted a couple.
Sure, cute bunnies and bears aren't necessary, but who said that art must always be practical?
Nonessential expression is one of the things that separates humanity from hedgehogs.
Well, that and perhaps the erectile spines...
>I think Mr Brandou is underestimating the intelligence of his viewers...since Jonestown happened 30 years ago, I think we can all "handle" real images of Jim Jones and his doomed congregation. Cute bunnies and bears aren't necessary.
Art is not about what is necessary and what is not, it is about an artist expressing something to the viewer. An artist creates their own unique, visual language to convey an idea of their choosing.
It is important when analyzing a painting to not be too rash in judging what conveys meaning and what is present purely for aesthetic purposes. I believe that you are underestimating the intelligence of Mr. Brandou, and should instead look for reasons that the artist chose to express himself in this manner.
Andrew's website preserves the order of the images and includes the Guyanese proverbs used as subtitles.
DEVOPHIL:
I take it you've never read Usagi Yojimbo, then?
Yes, I'm familiar. But I said "succeeded" - also, Disney succeeds at animated anthropomorhism.
CLAYTON HOVE:
Nonessential expression is one of the things that separates humanity from hedgehogs
Yes, I agree - most of what humans express is non-essential.
Hedgehogs tend to keep it real.
I think the animals make the art more effective-- for me, certainly. Every time this piece comes up on BoingBoing, my brain says, "Hey, Richard Scarry!" and the shock moves on from there.
Andrew is an incredibly intelligent and talented artist. We recently had the pleasure of interviewing him at Excommunicate.
http://www.excommunicate.net/interview-with-artist-andrew-brandou
I don't quite know how to frame this, but Archive.org has "An audio recording made on November 18, 1978, at the Peoples Temple compound in Jonestown, Guyana immediately preceding and during the mass suicide or murder of over 900 members of the cult."
http://www.archive.org/details/ptc1978-11-18.flac16
Like the common profile, these cult members were of above-average intelligence, and yet they still committed mass-suicide. I find that fact unspeakably chilling.
Personal reflections,
One of the nurses there (the fox) was a schoolmate.
I agree with mannyo.
The past 20 years of cartoon character in art and design is disconcerting. Hip wiz in a can without the plugs of gristle that actually compose our daily life. I chill at the Soma, especially when parsed in capital letters.
Bill
(don't know why but logging in here is problematic.)
SPACE TOAST:
"Like the common profile, these cult members were of above-average intelligence, and yet they still committed mass-suicide. I find that fact unspeakably chilling"
Jonestown was a classic case of basic mind control. You tell something to somebody enough times and they'll believe it.
In this case, Jim Jones told his congregation that agents of the United States we're after them, there was no time to fly to Russia (supposedly a possible temporary home for The Temple) and that a visiting congressman was out to get them
Jones led his followers into believing that their only hope was to die with each other and then "meet on the other side"
Sadly, most of us are capable of following such evil directions to the other side. There are have been many documentaries and films about Jones and People's Temple
You know why you don't hear any jokes about the Jonestown massacre?
The punchline's too long.
Can someone explain this recent trend of omitting standard capitalization from art essays?
I don't mean this as a detraction from Mr. Brandou's work, which is clearly attractive, technically strong, and iconographically allegorical. I'm just wondering why I've seen many artist's statements recently, such as this one, apparently written in the style of Archy and Mehitabel.
mannyo - What, pray tell, is "unsuccessful" about Usagi Yojimbo? At 20+ years, it's by far the strongest continuing comics story I've ever read. No Pulitzer, though, so I guess it's not really a "success".