"All American Temper Tot" Analysis by Max Prybyla

 

              “All American Temper Tot” is a piece of instillation art created by Ron English for the Bowery Mural located at the corners of Houston and Bowery in SoHo. Unveiled on April 17^th, this piece is a continuation of his “Propaganda” series in which English criticizes American consumerism, specifically the mindless consumerism created by big company propaganda that turns every aspect of human life into a commodity. The satires within the mural include American currency, cultural and historical icons, brand symbols, and religious figures. Together, these satires create a critique of America’s past, present and future. The mural itself is a collage of posters, advertising various goods or ideas. The medium of advertisement itself is satirized within his piece because, rather than trying to sell the product depicted, he is criticizing the depiction of the product within the media and America’s relationship with media itself.

                The mural is a collage that creates an American flag. Originally, the flag’s stars and stripes represented the thirteen countries and the original thirteen colonies. In English’s mural, they now shows that the country is one of death (symbolized by the stars being replaced by the skulls), founded upon the principles of consumerism-driven advertisements (symbolized by advertisements making up the thirteen stripes). Located on a busy NYC street corner, this mural is itself an advertisement. The sheer size of the piece relates it to the giant LED screens and advertisements that are iconic of Times Square, located uptown. It also mimics the walls of posters, advertisements, and bills that are stapled to the sides of buildings and barriers; I pass one such collage frequently. Near my dorm, it’s on the side of an abandoned building on the corner of 57^th and 9^th. The red and white stripes are composed of posters advertising various propaganda. Raging out of the flag is a giant green baby, or the “Temper Tot”.

                The baby’s eyes are closed. It’s blind rage and green coloring is a direct reference to Marvel’s Hulk. The Hulk is currently an enormously popular superhero due to the recent success in the Avenger’s film series. The second movie in the series, The Age of Ultron premieres tomorrow, coinciding with the display of the mural. The infantile superhero emerging from the American flag connects the Hulk to America’s actions. The Hulk is the alter-ego of a brilliant scientist named Bruce Banner who accidentally transformed himself into the Hulk by saving a teenager from an experiment he was working on, much like the US changed when it began involving itself in saving people’s freedom around the world. Banner began as withdrawn and reserved, much like the country originally was when founded by the Puritans. Once angered though, Banner transforms into the Hulk and obtains near limitless strength and near invulnerability; the United States military is one of the strongest in the world. His powers grow in relationship to his anger, much like our country’s military response to anything. The Hulk acts contrary to Banner’s desires; like the military acts in regards to the population’s wishes. The baby shows that while we began as a country founded on principles, we were quick to draw arms and attack. Initially, this power may have been helpful, like Banner saving innocents, but we have since come to prematurely attack with a force often unnecessarily large, like the hulk at any point in time.

                While the posters range in their topics and their criticisms, the ones that stood out to me were those relating to religion. While Christianity was not the only religion satirized (There is also a poster of a crazed Mickey Mouse being called “Muhammed’s Little Pest”), Jesus is the most numerously depicted figure in the mural. Jesus is depicted in four unique posters and is referenced solely by name in, at minimum, three other posters. By his frequency, it can be read that Christianity is woven into the fabric of America. It can also be read however, as a vehicle of suppliers. The frequency turns him into a brand, or a public figure himself and further commoditizes him.

English is making a critique of American relationship to Christianity. Jesus is used as a selling point and as a commodity in his posters, like he thinks Jesus is in real life. He implies that you can buy Jesus, or your redemption. Jesus is also used to further materialism. While the use of Jesus as a symbol can be used to view the piece generally, the specific meaning of Jesus varies within each poster. From all of the depictions of Jesus, I found a form of a narrative in the respect that I found posters relating Jesus to our country’s past, present, and future.

America was founded by Protestants. The first people who came to this country were the Puritans. Later, many other forms of Protestants fled England to find religious freedom. These religious viewpoints are represented in many aspects of our nation from its Pledge of Allegiance in which people recite “One nation, Under God”, to its national currency which says “In God we Trust”. This refers to the Christian God because it is the most prominent monotheistic religion that refers to its god as God. Muslims refer to their god as Allah, and Jews refer to their god as Jahova. The above poster refers to this. He’s criticizing the belief that people have freedom of religion when Christianity is so heavily prominent in our nation’s origin. This country also has a history of religious prosecution which this poster references. Before and Post WWII, immigration of Jews was highly regulated and restricted. They were ostracized by most American society. Since 9/11 and other Muslim extremist terrorist attacks, Muslims have also been ostracized and are often, without just reasoning, profiled as terrorists. This country, founded on religious freedom for Christian denominations, oppresses other religious denominations.

Moving into the present, English connects Jesus to the recent increase in aircraft crashes and disappearances. He is criticizing the public’s blind faith in air-travel, just as he is criticizing our blind religious faith. We trust airlines to transport us safely from one location to another often without knowing anything certain about the history of the aircraft or the pilot, much like we blindly believe that God (or Jesus) will safely transport us through life. More poignantly, he’s criticizing our blind faith prayers to God before flying. Instead, the advertisement argues that it is Jesus who is the cause of the recent rise in airline crashes and disappearances; Jesus is killing people and taking them to Heaven with him.

Looking towards the future, English criticizes Americans’ false religious belief. He draws attention to people’s false religion, claiming that they’re religious when they truly aren’t. In his depiction of Jesus returning to Earth for Judgement, Jesus is flying over a town in a space ship. All of the buildings below Jesus are churches. This shows a mass production and consumerism of Christianity. Instead of the Church being a sacred place of worship, it is mundane and treated with profanity. Presumably, if every building in this town is a church then churches are being defiled by being used for blasphemous purposes. A further sign of consumerism, the text of the poster is designed in a neon-sign style. Neon signs are commonly used in New York to grab people’s attention to products being sold. Like what might happen in a neon advertising sign, one of the sides of the “U” in “RETURNS” is out, causing it to look like a “J”. The date of Jesus’s return is 6/6/6, or the number of the devil. This suggests that due to America’s increased consumerism that we have become such sinners that we now worship Satan instead of Jesus. “Look Religious” further refers to the false religiousness of the American population. Meanwhile, Jesus is offering a blessing within a glass-encased flying saucer. The barrier suggests that both Christianity is an ancient artifact, belonging in a museum and that there is a man-made barrier between us and God such that Jesus’s blessing cannot even reach people anymore.

In conclusion: English’s mural offers intended criticism of American consumer culture. He would argue that all American culture is consumeristic, even religion. Through the symbols he uses in his critiques of past, future and contemporary America, he provokes inward reflection on religiousness and outward reflection on the religiousness of the country as a whole.

                Other Religious references: