Art During Wartime

THE CLIMAX GOLDEN TWINS are an experimental sound collective whose sharp, dissonant collages can be heard on CD and accompanying dance and art shows. Robert Millis is a founding member.

Do you feel a responsibility as an artist to comment on current events?

There are no rules, and there is nothing special about artists[we have] no more or no less responsibility than other so-called humans. Though I might talk about it endlessly at a dinner party, I feel no compunction to comment directly on the war or current events with music. That said, however, a response is in the music somewhere, simply because the music and sounds we create are part of us.

How can art, made during a time of war, affect the larger culture?

I like to think that musicall artcan make people, or society as a whole, question and feel through melody, image, words, and laughter. Change or awarenessself-awarenesscan come through that. One has to make the connections oneself for it to really work. Thats the theory, anyway, but rarely do people think or feel that deeplyperhaps they do not let themselves. Throughout history there have been millions of exceptional artists, writers, and musicians, creating exquisite and timeless works, expressing, connecting, revealing, protesting, advancing our cultureand somehow we are still a violent, greedy, bigoted, and stupid race that needs more therapy than you can shake a stick at (if thats your idea of a good time). Of course, this war is awful and cynically perpetrated on innocents by a greedy and imperialistic and illegitimate government. But Dick Lon Cheney probably goes home and, while cracking open a fresh container of hearts, listens to Mozart just like the characters in A Clockwork Orange rob and kill while listening to Beethoven. We humans are ridiculously complex and conflicted beings, and I think our culture and society make us more and more so.

How does the chaos of the Climax Golden Twins relate to the chaos of war?

Our music is fairly abstract. Abstraction is the magic of music. It comes from chaos and goes toward chaos. As we all do. Our morals, our social constructs, our rationality, are flimsy tools for navigating this complexity, this chaos. Music might be a better tool, but it is one of those confusing tools with lots of tiny attachments, a lost power supply, and no manual. Laura Cassidy

TYRONE BARNETT is a comedian from Tacoma who has been doing comedy since he got out of the Army in 1996. Earlier this year, he made it to the semifinals of Star Search on CBS.

Is the war affecting your routine?

Its not really affecting it, cause I dont really have any material on the war. I just do my set. I dont do anything hard-core about peoples belief systems, because apparently you cant do that without having your career in jeopardy. Performers are like, You cant say anything. They see what happened to the Dixie Chicks.

What about audiences? What are they expecting?

I just did a couple cities in the Midwest. The audiences, I find, they want to forget about the war. Its everywhereyou cant be in your house for 10 seconds without seeing something on it. I think when they come out, they just want to forget about whats going on in the world. The closest joke I did about the war was, Man, this war is actually the best thing to happen to America, violence is down. Gas prices are so high, the drive-by shootings have stopped.

You were in the military for six years. Do you do any material about that experience?

No, cause I didnt really find anything in it that was funny. The last few years were so miserable, I just wanted to get out. And now it wouldnt be p.c. to do jokes about it anyway. I dont want my career to be over before it starts. Mark D. Fefer

ARTHUR S. AUBRY translates the silent language of industry into brightly colored photographs of decay, erosion, and rust. He showed often at the former Esther Claybrook Gallery.

As an artist, do you feel a responsibility to respond to current events?

I walk around and interpret what I see through a camera. This does not give me any special insight as to what is going on. I will no doubt process and eventually internalize it, I will no doubt change, but the work kind of does its own thing. I dont exactly know why I shoot what I shoot. Its an itch I gotta scratch, thats all I know.

How are art and politics related?

I dont think theyre related, or rather, I dont think they should be.

During the previous war in the Middle East, I was included in a group show via Artist Trust. The letter from the head of the organization at the time compared the group of artists efforts to that of the troops over there. For some reason, this enraged me. I stormed down to the gallery and almost got myself arrested removing my photos. This was a purely intuitive reaction; I could not say why exactly I had to disassociate myself from that comparison. L.C.