The
autobiographical videos of Jokerlately's 2009-2011 based Youtube
account mark a turbulent time in American politics, when Barack
Obama, the long-legged mac daddy emperor-in-chief, was rolling out
the threat of a three state boycott of Arizona to let racist,
drug-related Mexicans get over the border tax-free in order to rob
and rape us. This was before the discovery that Obama was a socialist
dictator funded by terrorists and actually the same person as Osama
Bin Laden, all of which Jokerlately (A.K.A. Arizona Gene) correctly
foretold back in 2008, along with the clairvoyant prediction that
America's rich would flee to Belize in tax panic. A sharp-tongued
satirist and partisan, Gene uses his videos to contrast his life's
simple homespun joys with the constant, lurking fear that informs his
devastating political paranoia.
We
are given a lucid experience of Gene's cartoon and cowboy hobby art
with sets of semi-linear explorations where computer screensaver
technology blends with physically drawn paintings and cartoons,
propped in a corner of a dull room, or perhaps held in the shaky hand
of the artist, who narrates, often passing over written dialogue and
a partially visible script he does not follow. Further perspective
dissonance is added by the facts that most of these videos are
verbally addressed to President Obama, who Arizona Gene angrily
reprimands in defense of Arizona and her gentle people. Gene is
comfortable in the role of accuser, confronting many objects as as
his enemies, from jibing a pair of Egyptian mummies he believes are
the Obamas to insisting the mountain he paints every day is hiding
terrorists.
This
clash of natural wild country with the conquering hegemony of
modernity is a constant theme in Gene's work revisited repeatedly,
from his constant portrayal of the wild west to his painting of
Columbus exploring the New World. Gene seems to have some awareness
of his idealization of the wild frontier, keeping a pet leopard statue
in his back yard, praying to the Great Spirit, and remarking at one
point that he disguises himself as a cowboy.
As
you may have guessed by now, Gene is not necessarily a reliable
narrator. Playing off his believable and gentle manner, Gene's work
actually contains many false clues and messages, such as his claims
that a video is short, about to end, that it's going to get more
interesting soon, that he has a pet duck, or a wife. Arizona Gene is
constantly exploring the role of spectator in his art, introducing
his audience to a new, confusing world which binds Gene's life and
art together in an indistinct juxtaposition, forcing his audience to
consider questions of the truth of identity and reality. We see life
through Gene's eyes, but not through his mind, as he publicly
confronts strangers, animals and inanimate things with his camera and
trembling, grandfatherly voice. The images we see are sunny and
peaceful, people smiling back and Arizona looking as beautiful and
serene as the folksy hobby art Gene paints with a friendly,
conservative hand, but the darkness of the mental landscape is
looming and ever-present.
