2013 • 48″ x 18″
acrylic, spray paint, fabric on panel
This piece equates the pretentiousness, hypocrisy, collective denial, and hollow ostentatiousness satirized in the Hans Christian Andersen’s “Emperor’s New Clothes” with the phenomena of “speaking in tongues” in Christian churches. Like the townsfolk in the tale, believers play along with the pretense not wanting to appear unfit for their positions or stupid.
Wikipedia offered some insight into the satire of the classic story, saying it:
…quite clearly rehearses four contemporary controversies: the institution of a meritocratic civil service, the valuation of labor, the expansion of democratic power, and the appraisal of art.
Folk and fairy tale researcher Maria Tatar points out that Robbins indicates the swindling weavers are simply insisting that “the value of their labor be recognized apart from its material embodiment”, and notes that Robbins considers the ability of some in the tale to see the invisible cloth as “a successful enchantment”.
This could be a satire of modern art and consumerism in general. We all tend to suspend disbelief when we begin to accept the artificial worth of objects that have no intrinsic value…much like we have to be taught to appreciate the power of symbolic meaning in general or any specific religious doctrine.
The story and this piece represent a situation where “no one believes, but everyone believes that everyone else believes.”
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