Third World Magic - Captivation & Exorcism

    Whether we use the term "shithole countries" or not, it's often there in how we discuss these people seen or not seen - their options, their plight, the shrunken terms in which we think of their possibilities. Not that most of us have expansive lives - pretty mundane, limited existences however we try. But it takes someone special to capture the beauty, even if yes, it's a deceptive rendering as well - as Ken Kesey asked, "what does Superman do between phone booths?" what do these beautiful exotic people do between photo shoots or the one-off selfie - how are their births, their schools, their daily grind, their passing... Still, placed in their own online exhibition, it's something better than the dour focus on catastrophe and despair, and it's something past the catwalks of New York and Milan. They do exist. Thank Paweł Domurat for those he copies and retweets, all the other artists and archivists and sources and subjects themselves for the complex lineage of the image. The world's long been possessed by demons - praise to those who help to cast them aside. Appropriation or appreciation? How does one separate?

    [Note: I could link a photo or two, but I hate to bias the presentation, his timeline, his selection. It's already there. Just click, like someone else did.]

    https://www.facebook.com/people/Pawe%C5%82-Domurat/100006911313418/

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    When I was in the developing world, I won't say where, I was shocked to go inside several buildings and homes that looked downright hellish from outside, only to find that in the interior, their homes were about identical to how we live in the west. After colonialism, it's not in the interest of most of the world to have lavish kingdoms like they did before. It's a good thing if the west has leadership that thinks they live in shitholes - it makes it all the more likely that the west will stay away and give them autonomy.


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