The Reception of Lorna's Head
- Projecting meaning into an empty receptacle
Jordan Singer Carleton
University
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When the strike began I knew that I would
have to become actively involved. Over the last 5 years I have been on strike
three times. The first time as a social worker, the second as a teacher and
now as both a T.A. and a G.A. at York University. I joined what became know
as the CUPE Art Collective or what I liked to call The Guerrilla Art Collective. Over the course of the strike we were involved
in many endeavors from making signs, to performing plays, all of which were
aimed at increasing public and CUPE member awareness regarding some of the
deeper issues and political machinations behind our struggle for Tuition
Indexation and a fair first contract for the oft maligned unit three Graduate
and Research Assistants.. I will leave the in depth analysis to others
and I will focus here on the personal testimony I have to offer as a member
of this artistic collective. One particular piece of art that transcended
both the duration of the strike and its foreseeable function during the strike
was the infamous paper-mache head of Lorna Marsden. This was no ordinary
head to be sure. It was unflattering in a manner that could only be
achieved by a large scale caricature. The head was contentious: for
some as it was perceived of as a potential 'object' which could contribute
to psychological and social-political reductionism, effectively
reducing the complexity of the issues behind the strike to a simplistic exercise
of demonization, while for others more specifically, the significance
of the head did not focus attention on the Board of Governors where
it belonged. Lorna, many of us were aware, was not the soul purveyor of the strike
maelstrom, although she did have the power to end it. Also, initially
I too was concerned that the projection of hostility toward an identifiable
human art object might be a simplistic and regressive use of aggressive
impulses. I wondered whether the the head would contribute to a dissipation
of the limited physical and psychological energy available from our members
and other supporters both inside and outside the York community. Should
not this essential vital energy be directed toward the academic and political
issues of the strike and not focused on a base and petty, scape-goating
exercise? After some thought about the use of similar art objects in other democratic
movements I suspected the head would become a silent witness, a doppelganger,
and even an objective personification of the 'Board of Governors'
behind Lorna Marsden. The head was a symbol that signified these aspects
and carried the significations of much more. As I mentioned, I do not want to become too
analytic in this short piece. I am attempting instead to convey an interactive
testimonial. This piece was something I needed to write. The instance
within an incident that has sparked the necessity for me to write this piece was
a particular moment in space and time that has become for me the fulcrum of
all of my memories of the strike. Within this one encounter there lies for me
a connection to all of the rallies, speeches, performances, analysis,
meetings and victory celebrations. The moment occurred when the head and Ms.
Marsden were both confined to the same space as the members of the university
senate, CUPE executive, and student senators as well as members of the
Guerrilla Art Collective and supportive CUPE workers. . I, unbeknownst
to myself would be the harbinger of this surreal circumstance. The head would
become a representative of far more than anyone could have surmised. It was four weeks into the strike and an important
senate meeting was scheduled. Great care had been taken to transport
the head to the meeting. Several of the members of the Art Collective
were caught in traffic and would be late. The meeting was about to begin. I
waited several minutes. Then, swallowing my latent and theretofore silent
wish for anonymity, I decided the head must be a presence for those in the room.
I walked in several minutes late and was attempting to quietly wedge the
one and a half by one meter head in the back corner of the room between a chair
and the wall. My attempt to be quiet was betrayed by the ominous presence
of the head. Senators turned their heads to view the head and recognize it in
all of its significance. It was our representative. It was all the members
of the strike who could not attend. It was all of the students and merchants
who were suffering under the globalized glare of this disembodied opportunist.
Some laughed, others who sat literally and figuratively-political on
the right hand side of the room ( Lorna's side of the room) sat seemingly dumbfounded.
The CUPE members were clearly proud of the presence of the head
and rejoiced at the doppelganger's entrance. The head had essentially silenced
Lorna's ability to appear as a genuine person and for her speech to be heard
as anything but disembodied. I finally propped the head into a stable position
and turned around. At this precise moment Lorna rose to speak. She could
not possibly have made any sense so close to the presence of her doppelganger,
her nemesis, the cranium reflecting a silent verisimilitude of her
TRUE agenda. Her eyes met mine after they had glanced at the head. The eyes
were cold, distant, dismissive as though she recognized something but was
unsure what it was. I wonder if this recognition was something catalyzed by
the head. I suspect it was the processing of my image to catalogue and add
to her ever-expanding list of PEONS to wreak vengeance upon.
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