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Obama’s America: Where Artists Are Terrorists
Exclusive: Marisa Martin sounds alarm over despotic loss of free expression
Mugshot: Geoffrey McGann
You know you’re a terrorist when you use paint thinner and digital clocks.
It’s rough terrain for artists in America just now, especially when fencing with airport security monsters, but there’s still some good news. Artists can emote, illustrate, declaim, wax political or remake themselves in edgy glorious couture. The bad news is that doing any of the above in a manner which in any way, ever, conceivably offends anyone (except rational human beings) may place you in a holding tank.
Or interrogated and publicly humiliated, as in the strange case of Geoffrey McGann.
McGann, a graphic artist working in the advertising and non-profit fields, was questioned, arrested and held for two days for the crime of wearing weird objects, or specifically a “strange watch.”
You may have heard of his Nov. 15 ordeal at LAX airport when the highly trained staff took umbrage at McGann’s watch. Taking a second look is understandable, as he had added extra springs, fuses and mechanical pieces, none of them workable or connected, as I understand.
