DESIGN LIKE KRUGER: Faceless Liberty
STATIC: Screen EthicsSept. 19, 2017
As my base picture, I chose an image of the Statue of Liberty’s face. This image was taken in 1886 when Gustave Eiffel assembled Lady Liberty. The Statue of Liberty has become a global icon for American democratic values, often articulated through the abstract terms of “freedom,” “equality,” and “justice.” The face, however, when detached from its body is almost unrecognizable. The unsettling quality of this close-up view suggests that the symbolic meaning of “liberty” becomes hard to recognize when we apply critical pressure to it rather than engage with it in a distanced, generalized manner. What do these terms—liberty, freedom, equality, justice—stand for when we consider America not simply as a benevolent force but as a global empire?
Inspired by Game of Thrones, I overlaid the image with the phrase “A Girl Has No Name.” This is the mantra spoken by Arya Stark when she trains to become a “faceless” assassin in the House of Black and White. She must renounce her familial lineage (“no name”) in order to train to kill those on her revenge list. When Arya finally becomes an assassin, she gains the ability to take on the “face” of anyone who has died. I hope to visually gesture to:
1. The historic amnesia of American Innocence and Exceptionalism.
2. The semiotic mask of patriotic words like “liberty.”
3. The imperial violence done by the US abroad under the name/face of “democracy” and “freedom.”
As my base picture, I chose an image of the Statue of Liberty’s face. This image was taken in 1886 when Gustave Eiffel assembled Lady Liberty. The Statue of Liberty has become a global icon for American democratic values, often articulated through the abstract terms of “freedom,” “equality,” and “justice.” The face, however, when detached from its body is almost unrecognizable. The unsettling quality of this close-up view suggests that the symbolic meaning of “liberty” becomes hard to recognize when we apply critical pressure to it rather than engage with it in a distanced, generalized manner. What do these terms—liberty, freedom, equality, justice—stand for when we consider America not simply as a benevolent force but as a global empire?
Inspired by Game of Thrones, I overlaid the image with the phrase “A Girl Has No Name.” This is the mantra spoken by Arya Stark when she trains to become a “faceless” assassin in the House of Black and White. She must renounce her familial lineage (“no name”) in order to train to kill those on her revenge list. When Arya finally becomes an assassin, she gains the ability to take on the “face” of anyone who has died. I hope to visually gesture to:
1. The historic amnesia of American Innocence and Exceptionalism.
2. The semiotic mask of patriotic words like “liberty.”
3. The imperial violence done by the US abroad under the name/face of “democracy” and “freedom.”
This page has paths:
- CLICHÉ: The Workings of Ideology Huan He
