Concerned Citizen: Aden Batar

Artist Statement: Concerned Citizen

Religion has always been a rich source of culture. With it, there are some societies that are deeply rooted in tradition. Often times, different religions and different cultures clash when brought together. We see throughout history that different religions, especially between Christianity and Islam, conflicted one with another, often resulting in war and bloodshed. In the 21st century, these bigoted and unrighteous acts of zealotry have but faded. Now we are left with a giant mixing pot of different cultures, traditions, peoples, and communities.

            For our project, we wanted to focus on the religious aspect of our community. We live in Utah Valley, a predominantly LDS community. Within this community, we discovered another culture that so perfectly interacts with its surroundings that no conflict arises. The Muslim community in Salt Lake City is one that’s beautiful in its traditions, and acclimatable to its predominantly Christian surroundings. We called around and contacted Mr. Aden Batar, the President of the Islamic Society of Great Salt Lake.

           Our main focus of our piece was to see what he does to strengthen the Islamic culture in Utah and the community around him. Much to our surprise, we arrived at his work at the Catholic Community Services only to discover, to quote Mr. Batar himself, that he “wears many hats in the community.” Not only does he actively strengthen his Muslim community, but also works to help resettle refugees from different parts of the world. He constantly is striving to help the less fortunate around the world. Recently, he organized a service project with the LDS Church, and is planning another project with the Church to help those in need after the devastating typhoon in the Philippines. Initially, we had no idea that he is such an influential and inspirational figure in his community. He is a social servant, organizer and uplifter of the community. He is, in essence, a concerned citizen.

            We had to make a few decisions as to how we would produce this documentary. We felt that a visual documentary would further strengthen our piece so it could show how Aden Batar is a community builder. So we included footage of Aden giving a sermon to his Muslim Congregation and other footage of the Muslim people worshipping in this Utah community. We decided to juxtapose shots of the LDS Temple, Muslim Mosque, and Catholic Cathedral to show that there are more religions than we think living in harmony in Utah. We used the song “Untitled #3” by Sigur Ros, because we both felt that it added a sense of beauty and atmosphere to the piece. We guided the interview questions so Aden could focus on his specific involvement.

            In class we watched a video of people in Palistine dressed up as characters from Avatar to rebel against the army who was invading their land. This helped to illustrate that a similar plot that took place in the film Avatar was happening to them. In our piece we wanted to show that the Muslim people are good citizens, despite what media often depicts. The greatest thing Aden said was that he was a Utahn. “Utah is our home, we are Utahn before Somalian.” He and his community have embraced their society here in Utah and have learned to love the people here and work with them. Hurt Locker is an outside media piece that we wanted to relate our doc. In this film Americans are trying to survive in a Muslim community, mostly terrorist Muslim community. In this film we see the extreme side of Islam. The Concerned citizen reading for class mentions how there is a subtextual hidden fear of Muslims as terrorists because of 9/11 and so there are concerns for security. And one’s costume is associated with their bad image. We wanted to show the opposite. We wanted to show a Muslim living in a very American community as a concerned citizen, not an extremist. Aden exercises his agency and lives his life in service and peace despite the attacks the media and country has made on his culture. his congregation also blends in, but they also retain their religion. In the mosque, we witnessed many dressed in casual clothes and few in religious dress. This, again, surprised us, as we accept all too often what the media chooses to tell us. Aden, as well as his congregation, go above and beyond and choose to adapt to live in their American community, despite what the media and the country thinks. 

Artist Statement: Protest Poster

            Americans are in the habit of going to Walmart, buying lots of cheap stuff, rushing out, and leaving their cart in the parking lot, which ends up rolling into someone’s car. Then they return the following week to buy the same stuff because it all broke. The country is embracing consumerism. People are taking their eyes off the long term. They shop quantity over quality. This attitude contributes to greater laziness and an overly rushed way of living.

In my protest poster I explored how consumerism leads to people leaving their carts in the parking lot rather than put them back. People are in a rush and return again and again to the stores. So putting away a shopping cart after shopping is their last priority. They don’t consider that these shopping carts can easily roll into someone’s car or block parking spaces. It takes 30 seconds to return a cart. Those 30 seconds could give you time to reflect on whether what you just bought was worth it. I decided to frame the picture in front of the Walmart sign, since Walmart is a great example of a company that encourages cheap, quantity spending. The text is written in a spray paint like style to suggest the element of protest that the picture is trying to accomplish. After positing it on Facebook a couple people liked it and only 3 have commented so far. One comment agreed with the statement in the poster and the person is very annoyed by people who leave their carts in the parking lot.

“Often something that costs twice as much doesn’t last twice as long, it lasts ten times longer.” (Allen Tucker, Pay Too Much) Buying boots that cost 200$ but will last 20 years is better than spending 20$ for shoes that will last a year. Allen Tucker in his article explores living a simpler life. If you buy fewer items that you love than you won’t fill your house with cheap junk. He talks about how companies cannot afford to hire experts to make their stuff because the people are not willing to pay more money for quality. Allen Tucker says, “when we change our mindset from getting the best deal to getting the best quality, it changes the emphasis from shopping to deciding what’s important.” So we end up buying what we really want and need. We shop less and end up saving money.

            So far I’ve given a single story of the consumerism issue. In the TED Talk from Nigerian novelist Chimamanda Adichie, it’s dangerous to define someone or something through a single story. It is important to get many stories showing different perspectives to get a bigger picture of a group of people. Not all people in Africa have aids. Stories can be used to dehumanize or humanize. In class we talked about how seeing multiple stories does not eliminate our acknowledgment of good and evil, we are just complicating it.

To avoid a single story there are times when it is okay to buy cheaper stuff. For example, you should not spend 50$ on paper plates that are laced in gold and will last years. They are meant to be disposable, so just go to Walmart. Kids will outgrow their shoes in 6 months so they don’t need quality either. Also, we must be aware of buying something solely based on a higher price. Sometimes items of low quality are marked up just because of brand names. Doing our research will increase our good judgment and reduce frivolous spending.

The Everyday Minimalist, an online article, gives another perspective. It states that many people will buy 5 dresses that are cheaper and end up spending more than the one dress that was more expensive and higher quality. And they won’t love what they purchased so they will just go out shopping again the next year. You spend less time shopping when you have one thing you love. It’s understandable though that sometimes people need a chair for only the next year and don’t have the money to buy an expensive quality one. Decide what you want to be disposable and what you do not.

Companies are not always to blame because the customers actually want cheaper stuff. The LA times stated, “The whole retail model over the last 50 years has focused on keeping the industrial machine churning out items.” We want more stuff. Walmart: The High Cost of Low Prices is a documentary that I thought discussed in depth a company who makes cheap stuff that breaks. They exploit cheap labor to succeed. If people started buying the more quality items, Walmart and other companies would be forced to start making quality.

Bibliography:

Hsu, Tiffany. "A New Consuming Philosophy: Reuse, Remake, Refrain." Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, 29 June 2013. Web. 11 Nov. 2013. <http://articles.latimes.com/2013/jun/29/business/la-fi-circular-economy-20130630>.

Tucker, Allen. "Pay Too Much114." ALLENTUCKER. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Nov. 2013. <http://allentucker.com/pay-too-much/>.

"Why Do We Buy ‘Quality over Quantity’?" The Everyday Minimalist. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Nov. 2013. <http://www.everydayminimalist.com/?p=6132>.

Protest Poster: We rush rush, buy buy, and throw away

Artist Statement: Webspinna Battle

       "All you need is love." According to The Beatles, our lives are complete the moment we have obtained the highest point of a relationship-- love. But according to the Book of Mormon prophet Lehi, "it must needs be, that there is opposition in all things." How could we ever have love if we never had its petulant arch nemesis, hate? By exploring the contrast of these two opposing principles, we can find ourselves feeling the love, or burning with hate.

       In class we explored some different pieces of media to really exploit these contrasting characteristics. One piece we explored in class was DJ Spooky's "Rhythm Science." In his piece he took a group of random words and had them correlate in a not so linear way. He took different words, such as "Cool, Theater, The Idiot, and Vector," and put them all in the same space. By definition, none of these words really have any correlation with each other. The difference in this piece is that although they are not similar in definition, they are all linked by their occupation of space. They have all been placed together to convey a meaning. The meaning that came to us was pure confusion. In the Webspinna battle, we took a vast variety of media that came from all different sources, and put them in one place to cause some confusion. Is it a song of love? Or a song of hate? The contrasting elements come through and disorient any idea of a linear narrative.

       One example of these contrasting and disorienting pieces happened in the middle of our battle. "Close Your Eyes," a soft sultry ballad sung by the heartthrob Michael Buble was thrown to the wall by the harsh vocals from the band Three Days Grace in the song "I Hate Everything About You." While you were beginning to orient yourself in the milky twilights, you were quickly pulled in a different direction completely. 

        Another source of media that conveys this confusion is the piece Marie-Thérèse au béret rouge et au col de fourrure by Pablo Picasso. When you first begin to view the piece, you can see the expression is one of complacency, but as you continue to stare that idea is moved around and morphed into the chaos Picasso is so famous for. It's even hard to tell what emotion the person is trying to portray. At an initial glance you may see it as something mundane, but as your eyes shift you see traces of sorrow. It is just as the battle we held-- should you feel happy or sad?

            In our battle we wanted to explore different perspectives of love and hate. We brought in scenes from The Notebook, Moulin Rouge, and Titanic to show people expressing their love in different ways. Then we contrasted that with break-up scenes from the same movies. When romantic love is torn because of mis-communication or offense hate surfaces. The song, “Close your Eyes” shows the romantic magic of love and “Love Me Do” shows the fun, happy, dancy side of love. Taylor Swift explores immature teenage love while LOVE from Frank Sinatra sings the classic, mature love. And most of the hate songs reveal broken hearts. We wanted to visually represent these songs through our dress. Love is more pure so Chad wore white with a full heart on his chest. Hate is darker, so Hunter wore black with a broken heart on his chest. Most hate starts with broken hearts. Everyone needs to be loved, if someone is not, hate can develop.

       The battle of Love vs. Hate is legendary and will never cease to occur. While we make our way through our lives we'll find ourselves flip flopping between the two as we attempt to orient ourselves to the proper side. Until then we will continue to be at war.

Webspinna!

L: Elephant Love Medley

H: Bon Jovi- You Give Love a Bad Name

L: LOVE - Frank Sinatra

H: 500 Days Summer - Stop Seeing Each Other

L: Love Story - Taylor Swift

L: Love Quotes: 1.25

H: Forget You- Cee Lo Green

L: Close Your Eyes - Michael Buble

H: I hate everything about you - 3 days grace

L: The Notebook Love Scene

H: The Notebook Break Up Scene

H: Hate- Plain White T's

L: Power of Love

L: Titanic Theme

H: Joker- Hated My Father / Indiana jones: I hate snakes!

L: Titanic I'm Flying

H: Leave- JoJo

L: Grease- One that I want

H: Kelly Clarkson -Since You've Been Gone

L: Pride and Prejudice Love 1.35       L: Love Me Do

H: How I Met Your Mother