‘SHIELDS’
I see shields as representing more than defensive weapons of war, to me they are faces of defiance.
Like our faces also masks, hiding our real identity, our fears, our hopes, our true selves. They are how we
endeavour to survive in this complicated society ruled by money and power and greed.
In the context of and in relation to surveillance they are sometimes our only defence, poke
out our tongues, blow raspberries, gurn or take a more radical stance the choice is yours!
As Professor John Holloway writes;
We live in the shadows, behind a mask, our doing-in-againstand-beyond-Iabour invisible, unrecognised
even by revolutionary theory.
and…
We are not as one-dimensional as we seem: behind our onedimensionality stands a polyphonic,
polymorphous critic. Behind (or in-against-and-beyond) the personification of abstract labour stands the
doer, the daring dancing doer. Beneath the surface of domination is the seething of rebellion. Pushing against
and beyond identity is the endless restlessness of anti-identity. Inside the savage-converted-into-Iabourer
dances the savagein-Rebellion.
The possibility of radical change depends not on people assuming their character masks (the proletariat
assuming its revolutionary role), but on the contrary, on the ec-static distance between people and the
masks they wear, on the fact that people exist not only in, but also against and beyond their social roles.
If we must attach a gender to the doer, then certainly we should think of her as a ‘she’ rather than a ‘he’:
mulier abscondita.
and…
Revolutionary theory, then, blends with art, theatre, music, poetry: all, at their best, are attempts to break
through the world of character masks and give voice to and stir the passions and dignities that lie below.
Revolutionary practice has always blended with art, but perhaps never more than in recent years, where
artistic or theatrical expression has come to form an integral part of any demonstration of discontent: the
Zapatistas or the Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Clown Army24 are just two of the thousands of examples that
leap to mind.
And now my shields LOL!!!
Robert Anthony Ford 