Richard Fleming + Guantanamo + GA Aquarium
Georgia Aquarium. Photo by Richard Fleming.
Walking to Guantanamo, in its incarnations as a book as well as the current photography show at Whitespace Gallery, has received glowing press. Although I’ve yet to toss in my own “two cents” on the exhibition (and I will), I can at least direct you to drama critic Curt Holman’s full-page feature in Creative Loafing and, of course, Jerry Cullum’s insightful analysis of the cultural/interpretive issues at stake in Fleming’s work.
But this weekend I also happened to discover Fleming’s blog, A Brooklynite on Ice. Fleming is of course a writer in his own right, and despite past adventures in Cuba, Antarctica, and touring his book around the country, he’s still busy at work—the man must never sleep.
Here’s an excerpt from Fleming’s impressions of the Georgia Aquarium during his short stay in Atlanta:
The new Georgia Aquarium in downtown Atlanta is billed as the world’s largest. It is spectacular, a place you absolutely must visit if you pass through. The tanks are so massive that one seems to be walking through a tunnel burrowed through distant oceans. It is also a Godawful, horrid representation of everything wrong with our consumerist, market-driven culture, an opportunity to stand in a long line like mutton at the abattoir, waiting to spend $27 to be assaulted by the sights and sounds of the food court at your local mall.
Wow. Fleming’s critique is harsh, but given with enough personality and panache that it’s hard not to take his opinion seriously. Long ago I dreamed of giving the aquarium a proper bashing, but it seemed impossible to do so without seeming like a prude or, for that matter, a rabid Leftist ideologue. Sometimes it just takes an “out of towner” to do the job right.
Other goodies on Fleming’s blog:
Lovely pictures of “semiotic malfunction” in New Orleans…
And a few exhibition snapshots of what’s still hanging at Whitespace now.
Walking to Guantanamo, photographs of Cuba today, continues all month through Feb. 28. Gallery hours are Wed–Sat. 11-5PM.
Wow…thanks for the tip. Fleming’s other remarks seem equally to the point, including “At the aquarium shop you can buy this creepy, burkaesque dolphin mask, along with thousands of delightful dolphins, simpering sharks, baby belugas and other stuffed, fluffy variants on the cuddly, but we could not find one inch of shelf in this vast store, in the world’s largest aquarium, given over to even one serious book about fish, oceans, or ecosystems.”
The ten trillion dollar note from Zimbabwe should give aid and comfort to those who seem unaware that large parts of the planet are currently on the brink of a deflationary spiral rather than an inflationary one…but I’ll leave explication of Keynesian theory to our Nobel laureate Paul Krugman, who told us five years ago what was going to happen…and why.
That was an overly abbreviated reference to the Zimbabwe banknote, partly due to my heavy edit of what was becoming an ill-advised attempt to explain monetary theory. Obviously the note is illustrated on Fleming’s blog, courtesy of an in-country contact.