Who Uses Puppets For Political Protest? Meet Elliot Crown

Above Photo: The ‘Fossil Fool’ at the People’s Climate March

My guest today is Elliot Crown, actor and concerned citizen.

Joan Brunwasser: Welcome to OpEdNews, Elliot. I understand that you’ve made political protest puppets and performances. I’m not really sure what that means. Can you explain a bit?

Elliot Crown: Hi Joan. I’d be happy to – OpEdNews is my daily source for information!

JB: Why, thank you! Always good to hear from an OpEdNews fan.

EC: I make highly theatrical puppets, employing familiar cultural icons, to spread progressive ideas in the mainstream and alternative press. It’s a formula. Since any artwork is open to interpretation, mainstream corporate media images can often SHOW what they will not, literally, SAY. I call it the “art loophole.” And I think most journalists privately lean left and are glad to publish a progressive image if given the chance. I operate in that space.

JB: That’s better, Elliot, but it’s still a bit abstract. Can you show us? Take an image and take us through the process: how you create it and how it transmits your message, from soup to nuts.

EC: OK. The Fossil Fool went all over the global mainstream at the People’s Climate March. I wanted to convey the idea that our dependence on fossil fuels is plain madness. Message in hand, I’ll work backwards to find an eye-catching image that best communicates that message to the widest possible audience.

In our media-saturated world, you have to grab attention with bright colors, large scale, humor and surprise using recognizable characters, real or imaginary, from our shared cultural language. It has a lot in common with advertising. Use Mickey Mouse, the Statue of Liberty, King Kong, apple pie, or George Washington to help “sell” your message.

 

Choosing a recognizable character is great because it provides instant context. A lot of my work has a clowny feel. I toured the US in a circus as a clown, and I love the purity of it. We all recognize clowns, but this one’s scary, with his large fossil skull, and a party hat resembling a spewing oil derrick. His flag toga reminds the viewer that the US is the big climate culprit. The Fossil Fool is about to destroy the world with dynamite sticks, but he looks like he’s having fun – madness!

Images go directly to the place where dreams and memories reside, so I avoid text whenever possible. I like to think these images insinuate themselves into people’s consciousness, and make a difference.

JB: Thanks for walking us through that one, Elliot. How about another one? This is really fascinating.

EC: Thank you! Well, during Occupy’s heyday, I kept bumping into Marni Halasa doing protest street performance. She was getting tons of media doing really funny, pointed stuff about Wall Street crime, in a sexy way that would never have occurred to me. She’s a lawyer, a graduate of Columbia journalism, a former legal journalist, a professional figure skater, and happens to be drop dead gorgeous, which never yet wrecked a photo. She lights up the frame!

We began to pose together out of mutual admiration, and finally teamed up one day. We suited up for “Christmas Cancelled” just before Christmas to join the City Hall COP-21 press conference. The message I wanted to convey was that climate change has arrived, cannot be ignored, and will intrude into everyday life. It had many of the elements I look for: recognizable characters, bright colors, humor, drama, and it was timely. Activist and friend Roland Marconi, a professional videographer/photographer and refugee from corporate media, got this great shot. Global media grabbed it, though I’m not sure what readers of the Malay Mail made of it.

JB: So, maybe one could say that protest art is a sort of guerilla art, as Robert Greenwald, of Brave New Films, is a guerilla filmmaker. That makes perfect sense to me, actually. How about one more puppet, please?

EC: Sure. Liberty/Skull was meant to evoke America’s failed promise and decline. I made her for the 2010 Village Halloween Parade. She pulled a guillotine trailed by four headless characters carrying signs: “Fox News Exec,” “Health Care Exec,” “Wall Street Exec” and “The Wrong Guy.” It was the year before Occupy, and we got a lot of blank stares – until pouring rain melted everything! Since then I’ve worn this mask at protests over the murder of Freddie Gray and NSA spying, with photos in the HuffPo and Guardian. Paired with a sign reading, “WARmerica” she was Reuters #1 global Picture of the Day on the eve of the Syrian war, and she turned up again recently in a Vice Snowden interview holding a crossed out “Liberty” sign! Now I’m hoping this outrageous Vote Hacking image proves irresistible to photographers, since reporting computer vote fraud is forbidden to the mainstream press.

JB: On another front, I understand that your activism extends to recently speaking before the NY Board of Elections. What was all that about and how did it go?

EC: An unexpected thing happened! After NY’s election fiasco, I went downtown to a BOE hearing, held up a black box representing the proprietary software that hides vote counting, and said “these computers are stealing votes.” Four versions were posted and the rant went viral, 425,000 hits and climbing. Now people ask if I’m “that guy,” and there’s no mask to hide behind! Experts are contacting ME, but my expertise is limited to knowing how to read, and I just read them. Like your Jonathan Simon interview.

Exit polling is never off by more than a couple of percentage points, but in NY State it was off 11.8%, in Alabama by 14%. Impossible. Across the country, the computer results are being flipped to favor Hillary. If exit polling is faulty, then someone please explain why it’s only off on the Democratic side but the Republican results match perfectly. Bernie won the nomination in reality, if reality matters any more!

JB: What a concept! And I’m quite sure Hillary and friends would not agree with your assessment.

EC: We’d probably get one of her big, staged laughs.

Honestly, I’m not concerned with originality. If a puppet or sign is effective, I’ll recycle it. I repeatedly paired a big “TRUMP Make America Hate Again” sign – not an original idea, with Marni in costume and different puppets at five NYC Trump protests. It got the NY Post, NY Times, Daily News, HuffPo, Yahoo, etc. and travelled to Belfast, Toronto, and FOX Las Vegas! Images out there get recycled too. We turned up on Slate last week.

JB: I always knew recycling was good but this is a new twist and I like it! What else would you like to talk about before we wrap this up?

EC: I’ve been thinking… everyone loves polar bears. I bet donning a decent polar bear costume and holding just about ANY sign – “Freeze the TPP” or “Free Healthcare is Cool,” or “We’re ALL on Thin Ice!” – would get covered. I may do it!

JB: Good point. You definitely should! I look forward to seeing what you have up your sleeve in the days to come.

EC: Really enjoyed this, thank you! And, if a skywriter appears over Philadelphia during the Democratic Convention with the message, “Hillary surrender…to the FBI” don’t be surprised.

JB: Thanks so much for talking with me, Elliot. It’s been a pleasure. We’ll be scanning the sky for you!

Check out Elliot’s website