The rules posted on the wall at the Los Alamos County community art space in the underpass tunnel near cooperative market. Photo Courtesy James Rickman
BY JAMES RICKMAN
Los Alamos
The First Amendment to the United States Constitution, in my opinion, remains the most enlightened and beautiful fundamental freedom guaranteed to citizens of this nation. Therefore, I was saddened to read Rabbi Jack Shlachter’s appeal for “legitimizing” the art in the underpass tunnel near the Los Alamos Cooperative Market.
When my wife and I first saw that the Los Alamos County Community Services Department had designated the tunnel as a community “art space,” I was overjoyed. Art and the free expression of ideas are necessary ingredients for an enlightened society. However, I cynically wondered out loud how long it would take before controversy would lead to calls for regulation of the space or to do away with it entirely and let it devolve into the realm of graffiti anarchy. Unfortunately, we now have our answer.
When I hear people start framing “legitimate” art in terms of being non-offensive, apolitical, or not sexually graphic, I shudder. Throughout human history, art has been all of those things…and many other things as well. For example, Michelangelo’s David was considered a political symbol for decades, he sports an unclothed penis in plain view, and the statue continues to offend certain sensibilities even into present day. As the old saying goes, “art” is in the eye of the beholder.
Regardless of the reactions that art elicits, perhaps the best thing is that it often leads to spirited and genuine discussions among people—often among people of widely disparate backgrounds—about our place in the universe. Discussion leads to truth; truth leads to understanding; understanding unlocks our ability to love, which in turn creates its own beauty.
After having gone to the tunnel and seeing for myself what my friend Rabbi Shlachter was writing about, I concluded that, from the perspective of the tunnel as a public art space, the only illegitimate thing about the graffiti in question is that it did not follow the clearly visible rules for the space posted at the tunnel’s entrance. Because the “artist” did not have the courage to sign his/her/their piece and did not follow the simple rules, we have no way of knowing the person’s intention or frame of reference for the piece, and no way of contacting the artist to ask. As such, one could argue that the paint is merely vandalism.
Oddly enough, the vandal did spur a genuine discussion that allowed Rabbi Shlachter to speak his piece and offer sources by which our community can gain a better understanding of the Rabbi’s point of view, and did motivate another member of our community to provide us with an opposing point of view and sources behind it, as well.
I hope the County makes some positive changes to the way it deals with the public art space within the tunnel to encourage artists to follow the rules. Perhaps a monthly cleanup of the anonymous graffiti that encroaches upon and detracts from artists who are courageous enough to sign their work is in order. Either that, or we settle into yet another cynical mindset of “this is why we can’t have nice things” until we find ourselves wallowing neck deep in a world devoid of beauty, truth, love—and freedom of speech.