{"id":1187,"date":"2009-10-19T12:32:10","date_gmt":"2009-10-19T19:32:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp\/2009\/10\/tear_gas\/"},"modified":"2009-10-19T12:32:10","modified_gmt":"2009-10-19T19:32:10","slug":"tear_gas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/2009\/10\/tear_gas.html","title":{"rendered":"Allan Sekula: Waiting for Tear Gas"},"content":{"rendered":"

On the first day of the World Trade Organization’s Ministerial Conference in Seattle<\/a>, I walked uptown to the Sheraton hear Morris Dees<\/a> talk about the history of the Southern Poverty Law Center<\/a>. On route, I found myself surrounded by a sea of people in turtle suits, if not a sea, then a substantial cluster.<\/p>\n

They were in town to represent the ocean, which didn’t have a representative at the conference. By the time I left the hotel,
\nthe turtles had company: labor unions, other environmentalists,
\nprogressive religious groups, anarchists from Eugene, police,
\nreporters, press photographers and TV camera crews. <\/p>\n

Joe Hill<\/a>, who’d advised, “Don’t mourn for America – organize,” would
\nhave been proud. The 1999 battle in Seattle brought together a wide spectrum of forces to protest a common if abstract foe – unregulated, free market Capitalism.<\/p>\n

\"allansekulacop.jpg\"Allan Sekula ‘s interest in the event set him apart from journalists seeking peak moments or critical points of revealation. <\/p>\n

I hoped to describe the attitudes of people waiting, unarmed, sometimes
\ndeliberately naked in the winter chill, for the gas and the rubber
\nbullets and the concussion grenades. There were moments of civic
\nsolemnity, of urban anxiety, and of carnival.
\nAgain, something very simple is missed by descriptions of this as a
\nmovement founded in cyberspace: the human body asserts itself in the
\ncity streets against the abstraction of global capital.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"allansekua2.jpg\"Wrote Richard Lacayo<\/a>:<\/p>\n

In this moment of triumphant capitalism, of planetary cash flows and a
\npriapic Dow, all the second thoughts and outright furies about the
\nglobal economy collected on the streets of downtown Seattle and crashed
\nthrough the windows of Nike Town. After two days of uproar scented with
\ntear gas and pepper spray, the world may never again think the same way
\nabout free trade and what it costs.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"allansekula1.jpg\"Ten photos from 30 in Sekula’s series, titled, Waiting for Tear Gas<\/i>, are at the Henry Gallery <\/a>through Jan. 31. Because the series is a narrative, it would have been swell to see all 30, but the 10 in the hallway are riveting. The cheap charm of their carny glamor does not obscure their heart. <\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On the first day of the World Trade Organization’s Ministerial Conference in Seattle, I walked uptown to the Sheraton hear Morris Dees talk about the history of the Southern Poverty Law Center. On route, I found myself surrounded by a sea of people in turtle suits, if not a sea, then a substantial cluster. They […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1187","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1187"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1187\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}