Prick
Where the arrow goes matters,
like the x that marks the spot,
the mark on the map that says
you’re here (or not), the GPS
blue spot. If the arrow pierced
a heart, it’d be hard to tell
the normal and the queer apart,
so the right can only think
about the other parts—the pricks
in suits, little flags affixed
on coat lapels, Bibles holstered,
locked and loaded, equipped with scripture,
pins to stick and fix us—quick, boys,
pin the tag on the faggot—
not for who he is or loves,
but for what he does with what he has.
Ed Madden, ©2011
Title: PrickWhere the arrow goes matters,
like the x that marks the spot,
the mark on the map that says
you’re here (or not), the GPS
blue spot. If the arrow pierced
a heart, it’d be hard to tell
the normal and the queer apart,
so the right can only think
about the other parts—the pricks
in suits, little flags affixed
on coat lapels, Bibles holstered,
locked and loaded, equipped with scripture,
pins to stick and fix us—quick, boys,
pin the tag on the faggot—
not for who he is or loves,
but for what he does with what he has.
Ed Madden, ©2011
Year: 2011
Duration: 3'00"
Type: Video Art / Political Activism
Poem by: Ed Madden
Music By: Max Simon
Saint Sebastian: Anthony Bellapigna
Camera, Photography and Editing: Stokes Piercy
Conceived and Directed by: Santiago Echeverry
IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/video/wab/vi1946657561/
Website: http://www.santi.tv/prick
Political video art piece based on American poet Ed Madden’s poem PRICK that uses Saint Sebastian’s image to explore the Conservatives’ bigoted attacks on the LGBT community, not only in the US, but also in countries like Colombia, Russia and Uganda. The word prick acquires a deeper definition especially when teenagers commit suicide after nasty words are being thrown at them like arrows. But like Sebastian, who actually survived his ordeal, things will get better when we expose and deal with these pricks for what they are: bigots.
Saint Sebastian, tied to an imaginary tree with imaginary ropes, is willingly attacked by words describing what a Prick is in today's culture: a double moral person obsessed with what Gay men do with their private parts, forgetting about who they are or who they love. The camera explores the Saint's body as the animated words from Ed Madden's poem attack it like arrows missing their mark. The private parts of his gorgeous body are never exposed, and the full body is only revealed at the end of a textual attack symbolizing the bullying that most of us endure quietly every day of our lives.
PRINTS
