Hair	Once

Gillion Grantsaan
NEGATIVE CHOISE?

I have a dream: Dream A, B and C

Dream A is for producing images for my political ideals and black socio-cultural informations.

Dream B stands for shocking the world with innovative images.

Dream C wants to inscribe my fellow immigrants in the course of European history.

Dream B is self-centered, motivated by an academic need to develop myself. Dream A is aimed at the ostensible consensus of contemporary society, from which I want to estrange myself. In dream C, I want to paste a niche full of images from my imagenation and that of the Suranamese community, or a part thereof.

In dream C, my wanting to inscribe my fellow immigrants in the course of European history, I want to be the representative of that Surinamese community (or a part thereof). But when and how an I their interpreter? In B, my shocking -the-world deram, suffice to say, I am your guide. (The revolutionary does not listen, but acts). But in dream C, the the inscribing dream, when I am directly talking about them, I am in need of their support. I need to hear them yell from across the street:"Right on, man, keep up the fight!" But when is it they will do this? When is it the Surinamese people yell at or even whisper after a black artist?

I claim they will see or yell at me when I have been approved by the "Dutch elite", as they representative of the contemporary immigrant; meaning, critical but not out of line. In simple terms, famous with the whities a hero with the blackies. So when I am that hero, the question is then: "Why?" Is it because they (the Surinamese) like my work, or just because I proved to them you can make it in a predominantly white society? (By the way the last part of the previous sentence could be a definition of a contemporary black hero). And what would this acceptance from both sides say about my work? Do I have a white idiom with black edges? So much for dream B, then, the shocking revolutionary.

And what if my art fans only support the idiom of the white majority, and the support for avant-garde in visual art is white and therefore forcing me to be a avant-garde in their context? Is there no one out there genuinely hot for that real black thing? That dream B thing? And am I, a black visual artist, capable of generating that drive that gave birth to Calypso, Funk, Hip Hop, Blues, Mambo and of translating this drive into visual art? Consequently, dream A, B and C.

Voet	John

Am I, an immigrant living among, eating and laughing with Europeans, able to overthrow the idea of a universal-European art idiom? Can I stop being a servant to this idea and create a new form? An idiom that includes me, my mother, as well as my grandmother, and still be Funky and avant-garde? Isn`t that my quest - truly dream A and B. Mind you, I am not asking myself to make art which my grandmother understands. But she somehow must be in it together with my western education. Because some of my best friends are white and I want them to understand it too. Not in a way that they can lean back in their soft leader armchairs and watch this newcomer perform their old tricks, slightly worse but charming, nevertheless.

A problem classified in dream A. Being an immigrant and translating your exotic ideas in a middle-class European idiom falls short, as in all dreams, but mainly in B and C. Because? Because I would not be able to make a true portrait of my self. Because it would only cover me in a European context.

So you need your own idiom (who doesnt). But again, why? Because without it, the only thing I am really doing is enriching the Dutch cultural heritage with exotic ethnic stories. A bit of dream A - you know thw political ideas imbibed in the social context I come from and am living in now. But nothing of dream B or C. Not B because it isnt innovative. Not because to inscribe something in art history you need to be noticed, you have to make noise to be heard and maybe remebered.

I need dream B - academic progress - to realise dream C, inscribing history. Could I invent a new idiom and say it is a black thing, so that everything made in or influenced by this idiom would be black, or at least stained? Could I do this? Yes! If I am talented and bold enough. (We are talking about the form not the content.)

Okay, but can I do this alone? Can I , as suggested in dream B, say: "I am the leader and this is new, better, this is in fact you, get used to it." No, a revolutionary is something else than a dictator (although most end up being one). Every revolution needs support no matter how small.

That is why I need to get famous within the European community so my fellow immigrants notice me, trust me, support me and follow me in my quest, the realisation of dream A, B and C. Because, if I just get famous and do not take up the whole quest, I probably realise an iddy bit of dream A - producing images for black social and political ideas. But the innovativeness in dream B is likely to be in a purely European context, and nothing will then come of dream C - changing the course of European history.

All I want to say is, that if I die famous without taking up the whole quest, they will print calendars, agendas and napkins with my most famous images and turn me into dutch folklore, erasing my skin colour, history and battle. They will neutalise me. Dream A and C must keep me awake and away from this nightmare and keep me on the rigtheous path of freedom, justice and fame.

Gillion Grantsaan udstiller i perioden 13 jan. - 17. feb. i Fritidsklubben Mogadishni. Pressemeddelelse...