Free Troy Letters

Dear Mayor Tutunjian,

As an artist yourself, you must understand the importance of both freedom of expression and the role that artists play in the culture of any place.  I am sure, then, that you are horrified as I by the recent turn of events regarding The Sanctuary for Independent Media.

Troy’s much-ballyhooed revitalization is inextricably linked to the vitality of the arts community here, a community that is currently feeling a considerable lack of respect from the City’s administration.

I look forward to hearing your public condemnation of Mr. Mirch’s behavior as soon as possible.  Your constituents are awaiting your response, Mr. Mayor, and at times like these we need a leader who will stand up for what’s right.

Respectfully,
Penny Lane

Dear President Jackson,

As a recent alum of RPI, I must say that I am horrified (thus far) by
the university’s handling of the Bilal case. I am writing to share my
hope and expectation that the Institute might move forward in a more
just and open manner - a manner more befitting a world-class
institution of higher education.  I will keep this brief as I am sure
you are receiving lots of other emails related to this matter.

Firstly, I am expecting that RPI is planning to issue some kind of
official response to the irresponsible blog post that started all of
this.  This young blogger libeled Mr. Bilal by  falsely called him a
terrorist.   This is not how we treat visiting scholars.

Secondly, I am expecting that the Institute will re-open the exhibit
and initiate a community-wide dialogue about the art work and the
events surrounding it on campus.   The student body deserves an
opportunity to reflect on what has just happened on their campus.

Thank you for reading this, and best wishes for you and the Institute
as you move forward,
Penny Lane.

UAG Response <– click for PDF with spiffy UAG letterhead

March 14, 2008
Upstate Artists Guild
247 Lark Street
Albany NY 12210

www.upstateartistsguild.org
info@upstateartistsguild.org

Bob Mirch, Mayor Tutunjian and the City of Troy government,

The Upstate Artists Guild finds the actions of the City of Troy against the Sanctuary for Independent Media appalling and deliberately perverse. To hide behind spuriously inflated building code violations to temporarily disrupt a show and to attempt to permanently dislodge a local arts organization is an insult to your citizens, your many artists, and most of all to you, the government of the City of Troy. The recent explosion of the arts scene within the Capital Region and surrounding areas shows how strong and vital the area’s artists have become. The retrograde actions of the City run counter to a movement that up until now the City has supported and embraced. We remain dumbfounded as to how the City of Troy could allow Bob Mirch and his cronies to shut down an exhibit based on personal distaste stemming from misinformation and ignorance.

First, we consider this attack to be a direct violation of Mr. Bilal’s First Amendment rights. Second, we condemn Mr. Mirch’s scare tactics and believe that he has made specious use of City office in order to execute a personal witch-hunt against the artist. That Mr. Mirch’s personal interests are completely unconnected to the closure of the Sanctuary by his own subordinates the very next day after he organized his protest strains all reasonable credulity. Further, that this untoward tactic should result not only in the censorship of the work of several artists, but the closure of the Sanctuary for Independent Media is doubly regrettable and an inexcusable affront to the greater arts community. We call for public apology from Mr. Mirch and the reversal of Code Enforcement’s closure.

The UAG pledges to support Mr. Bilal and the Sanctuary for Independent Media and will continue to work to that effect until the issue has been resolved, the artists and venue have been absolved, and a public apology has been made. As the birthplace of Uncle Sam, a bastion of abolition, the forge for the War Between the States and one of the chief flash-points of the American Labor Movement, Troy has played a long and illustrious role in the preservation of our freedoms. Therefore, we are confident that upon reflection, the City will do the right thing and take a stand for Mr. Bilal’s right to Free Speech, and by extension, the rights of all.

Sincerely,

The Upstate Artists Guild Board of Directors

I appreciate his work and believe he has an important voice and perspective that Americans should investigate.

-Zeal in Los Angeles

13 March 2008

The Honorable Harry J. Tutunjian
One Monument Square, City Hall
Troy, New York 12180
Dear Mayor Tutunjian,

I am writing you to express my sincere concern over the closure of the Sanctuary for Independent Media in Troy, NY. I understand that the center was closed for violations of the building code; however, I feel that the circumstances surrounding the center’s closure raise very real concerns of denial of freedom of expression and procedural due process.

It is my understanding that the Sanctuary for Independent Media was closed for code violations after it agreed to host the artwork of Wafaa Bilal. I confess that I am not familiar with Mr. Bilal’s work; however, I gather that many people find it to be very objectionable. The fact that the work is objectionable, provocative—perhaps even repugnant—is what lies at the heart of the First, Fourth, and Fourteenth Amendment concerns raised by the City’s actions.

We live in a nation of laws. And the knowledge that the law applies equally to the sinners as to the saints, to the rich as to the poor, is what underlies the rule of law. There may well have been building code violations when the center was shut down, but I am certain you realize that closing an art gallery for a code violation immediately after a controversial exhibit opens reeks of selective enforcement.

This poses perhaps an even greater danger than were the City of Troy to close down the Sanctuary for Independent Media for obscenity or sedition. Where this the case, only abuses of power would be at issue. The use of benign law to an illegitimate end is an abuse of the law itself. The virtue of our system law is that we are all equals before it, but selective enforcement is a use of the state’s police powers to destroy that equality. It leads us to question the law and those who enforce it. It forces us to be suspect of any exercise of legal authority. The very building codes at issue have been used as a source of positive rights, by guaranteeing that everyone who rents an apartment has the right to a safe and habitable dwelling. But if we fear the evils that the law may do, it may force us to abandon the good that it can accomplish.

The Supreme Court has consistently stated that strict scrutiny is demanded when the actions of government impinge on our fundamental rights. I must therefore urge you to articulate why a compelling and immediate need to close the Sanctuary for Independent Media arose at the peculiar time it did, or that you announce the establishment of independent forum to conduct an open investigation of the Constitutional issues raised by the closure of the Sanctuary by the Department of Public Works.

Best Regards,

Ryan H. White
Candidate for Juris Doctor
Northeastern University School of Law

to: president@rpi.edu

I feel strongly urged to write you expressing great support for the
work of Wafaa Bilal. Having met him over fourteen years ago when he
was in the beginning of pursuing his Fine Arts Degree at the
University of New Mexico, I have watched this young talent, who at the
time spoke broken, yet strong English, grow into a very expressive,
poignant, and prolific artist/activist from extremely unusual odds.
Sure, his work crawls under the skins of cozy Americans, that may
prefer to insulate themselves from the reality of this war they
blindly support, but that is not what needs to happen at this point in
time, as indeed WE are responsible for the history that is being made
now.
The message he is providing is one of truth. Perhaps it is the other
side of the pendulum, and war and hatred is the constant. But
ultimately, it is as if his work acts as a metaphorical finger that
pokes a hole through the cloud of ignorance so that we Americans (who
pride themselves on intellect and wisdom) can see the blue light of
clarity and intelligence.
How many times do we voice our opinions about this war, in our
rhetoric banter over cocktail parties and classroom halls, endless
emails and cell phone calls? We have the luxury of discussing this
war. Meanwhile, there are those who are living this war. Day in day
out watching their homes, their families their history, their culture,
their beliefs, constantly having to update their identity for
survival, meanwhile, we complain about our mortgage crisis. And at the
end of the day, my generation, where my peers are going to school to
learn to build these games, they tune out and plug into the deepest
distraction known to man, to strategize and play out that in which
they can not process in their own reality. The generation that
preceded mine and theirs before them, as I am 33 yrs old, is a
generation that feels the tremendous burden of saving this injured
country, after surviving the Vietnam monstrosity. Seeing the
assassination of JFK, MLK, and watching the murders of the Kent State
kids, had a deep psychological impact that i could never imagine. From
waving flowers in front of guns to becoming a generation that placed
those flowers so far and down that all we can see is ammunition, must
have a low lying level of impenetrable unresolved guilt that needs to
be healed and transformed so that my generation can have a role model,
a guide, as to what to do when this war falls in our hands. Instead,
we are looked on without respect, and told subliminally that we are
unwanted in the resolution. No wonder we turn to our computers, and
find our identity on myspace pages, and act out our aggression through
video games. The bridge has got to be built.
We may not be stoned and protesting that our boys be brought home on
the steps of the White House, we learned from the baby boomer’s
generation that it doesn’t work. Our protests have more mechanics; the
emotive qualities don’t take the form of violence out in the streets:
mass pandemonium. We learned this, too, didn’t work.
Perhaps what we learned from the generations before us, is that our
tactics must change. We must get straight to the heart of ignorance,
and that pleas and cries won’t work, but perhaps hitting home, with
truth straight to the bone and marrow, will.
We are a society that unplugs and distracts in order to cope.
Intellect, logic and critical thinking are to be used in dealing with
our emotions, no longer can we use our feelings with our emotions.
We have to speak to those who feed this collective consciousness of
war,the hate machine.
Hatred has no ears, so this is complicated. Anger has no rational, so
this tricky. Fear has no compassion, so this gets murky.
Wafaa Bilal’s work, cuts straight to the point. He has utilized his
weaknesses, vulnerabilities, and stereotypical target and transformed
them into strengths, courage and education. Can you imagine being him?
Can you imagine what it must be like to come from that regime, family
killed, imprisoned, having nothing, coming here into the arms of hope
and promise. He beat odds that you and I can only read about, and may
use some other handicap in our own lives to dull down his experience.
He’s like a moving target that dares to sit still and says to his
enemies, i am here, and if you can not come here, i am online, i will
meet you there.
Look how many people wanted him to die.
The move your department made in shutting down his show was a symbol.
It was a symbol of fear that feeds into the powers that run off of
hatred. The root of hatred is ignorance.
I have much compassion at this moment for you and your peers, your
colleagues, your uppers, this supposed democracy, and this country.
I have compassion that fear and inferiority keep the truth from
flowing freely.
I have faith in the power of truth, that it will, by virtue of the
root of truth=LOVE, seep into your resistance and find it’s way,
disrupting your sleep, moving your consciousness and guiding your
impetus in it’s direction.
I don’t think it’s sad, as Wafaa has said, that you allowed the show
to be shut down. I told him to be glad, for it is really a glorious
day, because it means, his message IS WORKING. And now this is an
opportunity, for his work to undergo a metamorphosis, to transform.
May the light of truth shine into your darkness, for this message he
conveys WILL BE HEARD from the marrow of your bone, even if your skin
reacts otherwise.
Thank you for reading this. I wish you great transformation.

–
may we crumble and fall into the arms of truth, love and compassion.

Dear Ms. Jackson,

I recently learned of your administration’s decision to close the
exhibition of Wafaa Bilal’s Virtual Jihadi. Rensselaer’s censoring of
this work is truly shameful. At a moment when critical thinking is
under assault and Universities are one of the few places in society
where dissenting ideas can flourish and intellectual ferment can take
flight, it is tragic that another university has taken us one more
step on the road to a high tech Dark Ages.

I too am an artist and am no stranger to having my art threatened
with censorship. I first received national attention in 1989 when my
art became the center of controversy over its use of the American flag
when it was on display at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
President G.H.W. Bush declared my artwork What is the Proper Way to
Display a U.S. Flag? “disgraceful” and the entire US Senate denounced
this work when they passed legislation to “protect the flag.” My work
is now exhibited widely including in the 2006 Whitey Biennial.

I have not seen Virtual Jihadi and because of your decision few other
people will. But from everything I have read about it, it is a vitally
important work now. The US is waging an immoral, illegal and unjust
war and occupation in Iraq. It is widely unpopular throughout the
world and in this country. As part of generating support for this
war, the Bush administrations demonized Saddam Hussein. The video
“game” that Mr. Bilal reinterpreted, started its life as “Quest for
Saddam”. It was made in the US and was favorably discussed on FOX
News, CNN, MSNBC and news outlets. There are many questions that Mr.
Bilal’s work raises that people in the US, including the students at
Rensselaer, should contemplate: “Is the American perspective on
question the only perspective and is it always right?” “What does it
feel like to be demonized and targeted?” “What role do video games
play in shaping our worldview?” “What would drive someone to feel that
they have no choice but to become a suicide bomber?”, are some that
come to my mind.

If Mr. Bilal’s art were in any way encouraging people to carry out
what his avatar in Virtual Jihadi does, it would be very harmful. And
if this were promoted as a means of progressive or radical political
change it would do tremendous damage to the actual development of
political opposition to the policies it would allegedly be against.
But that is not what this artwork does. It asks the viewer to think
about the world in new ways and for many it will challenge
preconceived notions and views. Isn’t that what great art should do?
Isn’t that what a University is supposed to support?

What kind of society do you have when America can wage war against a
country (killing hundreds of thousands, making millions of refugees
and driving many to Islamic fundamentalism) and respected artists
can’t raise provocative questions about it?

The action you have taken has consequences far beyond Rensselaer.
One clear indication of this is that at the time I am writing this,
the work has moved to another venue and been suppressed there as well.
You should reverse your decision to not show Virtual Jihadi
immediately. Furthermore, Rensselaer should invite Mr. Bilal to
reinstall the work and open in the originally intended location as
soon as possible and announce these intensions without delay. Though
this move would be opposed by some of the people you intended to
placate by suppressing his work, there will be tremendous support for
you if you take this step. I hope that you will do the right thing.

Sincerely,

Dread Scott

http://dreadscott.net

Dear President Jackson,

My name is Michael Rakowitz. I am an artist and an Associate Professor
in the Department of Art Theory and Practice at Northwestern
University. I am writing to you in support of Wafaa Bilal, who is a
friend of mine and an esteemed colleague who has produced many
fascinating works of art that deal with the Iraq War through his own
experience.

I urge you to overturn your decision to suspend the presentation of
Wafaa’s Virtual Jihadi project, an artwork that RPI bravely supported.
While not everyone may agree with the artist’s politics or the work
itself, it is imperative that the work be seen, from the very basic
reasons concerning free speech, to the discomfort that the work
creates in the viewer. Clearly, Wafaa’s work does not  purport to make
its audience feel good. The subject matter alone—war—should create
uneasiness. But the work also teaches us a number of other
uncomfortable  facts: introduced to Wafaa’s avatar, we learn that his
brother and father were killed in the war; we learn that fighters are
recruited, by the US Army and by Al Qaeda, using online video games;
we also learn how easily populations become radicalized, whether
through casualties incurred, or through the presentation of
information, as is the case with certain members of RPI’s community.

We all know that federal agents had already informed campus officials
that Wafaa was not a person of interest. There is no wrongdoing on the
part of the artist or of the artwork itself. It is raising a
complicated issue that draws passionate responses on all sides. This
country, and especially its learning institutions, need to accommodate
the resulting discourse and debate. It is what this country was built
upon. It is these liberties and human rights that Wafaa risked his
life to attain, here in this country. Please do not betray his belief.
Please do not betray our belief, that we can make our national
situation better by providing platforms for discourse, capable of
embracing all opinions and views. If it is these freedoms that we are
indeed fighting for, then now, more than ever, we need to see them in
action.

President Jackson, please be brave and do the right thing and reopen
Wafaa Bilal’s work at RPI with an admission that the school was wrong
to close it in the first place.

With best regards,

Michael Rakowitz

Dear President Jackson,

I strongly protest RPI’s decision to censor and close Wafaa Bilal’s
The Night of Bush Capturing: Virtual Jihadi show and ask that it be
re-opened. As an artist and member of the academic community at the
School of the Art Institute of Chicago, I am appalled that an
institution of higher education - the ostensible embodiment of
knowledge and enlightenment -  would infringe on freedoms of speech
and expression, not to mention grossly misinterpret, misrepresent, and
insult Mr. Bilal and his work. For the past two decades Mr. Bilal has
worked tirelessly to bring awareness and an end to injustice and
violence in both of his countries, the United States and Iraq. Both
RPI’s and the City of Troy’s decision to shut down the exhibition and
the “Art, Freedom, Democracy” series smacks of hypocrisy and irony,
not to mention that participant Professor Steve Kurtz in recent years
has suffered similar accusations though much worse treatment. Now more
than ever, in this time of increasing censorship and surveillance in
our country, it is of the utmost importance to protect these freedoms,
to reclaim our rights, and to support art as a powerful cultural force
and expression of freedom.

Sincerely,

Alicia Chester

–
http://aliciachester.com

Dear President Jackson,

As a graduate student in the Arts department at RPI, I am angry, sad, and
shocked by all of this.  I am horrified at such blatant censorship, in
principle alone, but my upset is heightened by the fact that all of my
encounters with Wafaa Bilal have shown him to be a kind, moving,
inspiring and humanitarian artist.

I do not know what could breach this divide now — between the arts
department and the college republicans, between the arts department and
the administration — but isn’t there a way that this conflict, as a
microcosm of larger ones, could be used as an opportunity for all parties
to together create a new possibility?  Try out different ways of relating?

“Virtual Jihadi” has served brilliantly to provoke revealing dialogue –
is there a chance that we can do something with this?  Instead of myself
remaining angry and righteous, and the administration protecting itself
from attack and the fear of controversy, couldn’t we experiment with some
kind of other alternatives?

Please consider what you can do.  RPI is now in the spotlight.  Whether
you are aware of it or not, people all over the world are paying
attention to you and how you respond to this.  You have a powerful
opportunity to model something new.

Stephanie Loveless