Art as Culture, Art as Text: Reading Paul McCarthy's "Piccadilly Circus"
In 2003, contemporary artist Paul McCarthy created a video work titled “Piccadilly Circus” as part of a larger series of his works, “Exclusive.” The project, comprised of live action video, photography, fusion artwork, “painting as action,” and more, featured stylized versions of characters including President George W. Bush and Osama Bin Laden and was filmed in the few months before the start of the Iraqi war. Undoubtedly, the project was ablaze in both cultural commentary and controversy. Here, we will discuss one still image from the project, an untitled photo from “Piccadilly Circus” shown below along with a link to access the project in its entirety.
Click on this link (at left) to view the full-length video of Paul McCarthy's "Piccadilly Circus" via Art21.
In the process of “reading” artwork through a cultural lens, we must first consider the artwork as an independent entity, free of any context that the artist or we as readers impose upon the work. To most Americans, and likely most people in the world with access to news media, the character in the image is clearly a stylized caricature of President George W. Bush (shown at right). President Bush held office from January 2001 to January 2009 and is often held responsible for the Iraq War which happened as a result of the terror attacks on the U.S. in September of his first year as President. The war began when the U.S. lead a coalition that invaded Iraq in 2003 – the same year McCarthy’s “Piccadilly Circus” was filmed (only a few months earlier) and the year the official White House photo of George W. Bush was taken (shown at right).
To the unaware or culture-free bystander however, this photo only shows a man with an oversized head and a giant watch, sitting in a room and gesturing vulgarly with one hand over his timepiece. Even with no knowledge of the man’s identity or the intended implications of the photo, these bystanders could potentially draw some conclusions about the work’s significance. Is the man angry at the passing of time, wishing it would slow down or speed up? Does he feel trapped and wishes times would change? Is he a warning or an omen, telling viewers that time is ticking or that the end is nigh? Perhaps he is even a sad messenger, sullenly pointing out that it’s now or never – now’s the time! The options are endless for a viewer whose perception is untainted by the constraints and implications of the culture in which this work was created and shared, but, interestingly, it is those very constraints and implications which give artwork its meaning as a cultural “text.”
Consequently, to the viewer immersed in American culture or with knowledge of global politics in 2003, the references in this image are impossible to miss. To these viewers, this photo is of none other than President George W. Bush, wielding a giant clock and an even more massive head. For McCarthy, to release this image in the aftermath of 9/11 and in the months before the Iraq War was to make a statement, to display through art a commentary on the political state of the U.S. in 2003. Some implications are unavoidable in his portrayal of President Bush, particularly the presentation of him with a giant head. A common American idiom, defined at right, is to refer to egotistical people as “having a big head,” and this photo does nothing to hide the literal inflation of President Bush’s head in the photo – a president who often depicted himself as a “war-leader” and dominant voice in the world’s political landscape. Additionally, the vulgar gesture over the large clock and his grim expression could easily be perceived as warnings – not only to the world before the Iraq War, but also to the citizens of the U.S. who were still early in the throes of the Bush presidency.
It is these connections and implications that come to the artwork only through an understanding of its cultural context and the space in which it was created and shared. For any artist and any work, so much of the meaning derived from art is out of the art’s relationship to its viewers and the world around them. By considering these factors, we are able to read the artwork as more than simply an item, and instead as text which can be read through the lens of the culture around us.
Sources:
http://www.art21.org/videos/short-paul-mccarthy-piccadilly-circus
http://www.harvardartmuseums.org/collections/object/58162?position=2
http://www.hauserwirth.com/exhibitions/70/paul-mccarthy-piccadilly-circus/view/
http://www.artbabble.org/video/art21/paul-mccarthy-piccadilly-circus
Hoffmann, Jens; McCarthy, Paul (2010). Berg, Stacen; Hoffmann, Jens, eds. Paul McCarthy's Low Life Slow Life. Ostfildern: Hatje Cantz Verlag. ISBN 978-3-7757-2573-6.: interview with McCarthy by Stacen Berg
"Transcript for Feb. 8th". MSNBC. February 8, 2004. Retrieved September 9, 2006.
Powell, Colin (February 5, 2003). "U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell Addresses the U.N. Security Council". The White House. Retrieved May 25, 2006.
Cambridge Idioms Dictionary, 2nd ed. Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2006. Reproduced with permission.