Epic Theater in My Collage for LMAC #226

When I was in my early twenties my sister splurged and took me to a Broadway show for my birthday. I had talked at home about Bertolt Brecht, the playwright, because I had studied his work in my German class. The show she took me to see was The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui. The play parallels the rise of Hitler in Germany. Brecht wrote it while he was in exile, waiting desperately for a visa to the U.S. Fascism was spreading rapidly across Europe. Not only had Brecht written plays critical of Hitler and the Nazis, but his wife was Jewish (which meant, according to the Nazis, so were his children). Germany was not a safe place for him or his family.

Here is a great trailer, which doesn't really tell you much about story line of the play, except it gives the idea that the play definitely has a message:

Brecht is known for his epic theater, which is a type of drama in which viewers are denied the luxury of escapism. There is no illusion, no suspension of disbelief. Brecht did not want members of his audience to check their brains at the door. He wanted them to think when they were watching one of his productions.

I've been thinking about Brecht more frequently recently. I get the feeling a lot of people are checking their brains at the door with regard to their civic lives. Instead of thinking about history, about law, about ethics, they seem to get swept away by theater, display. They seem to get swept up in the moment, in the energy of a crowd.

To me, it seems they seek pablum, to have their own views and own inclinations reinforced. They don't want to be contradicted, or hear unpleasant truths.

At least it seems that way to me.

My collage is about that, about carrying on as though nothing is wrong. People go to the carnival. They want to have a good time. They somehow are able to put on blinkers and look past the grotesque images around them. They don't see...refuse to see, the garbage, the pollution.

It seems to me that people don't seem to concern themselves with long-term consequences of their actions, of our actions. Many decide that climate change is a farce, because dealing with the possibility that it is real means they have to make hard choices.

They don't want to pay for cleanup of lead from water pipes in some distant city, because their children are not drinking that water. They don't want to think about the consequences of having a generation of children whose intellect is compromised because of early exposure to lead.

Regulations are annoying. They impede economic activity. Requiring manufacturers to limit pollution that factories spew into the air is irksome. It slows down progress. There seems to be a refusal to think about the consequences to health, even our own health and the health of our children. The short-term economics, and convenience, are more compelling than long-term effects.

It seems a lot of us leave our brains at the breakfast table and go about our days making money, pursuing careers, having fun.

When I see people shrug off breaches of civil rights, I think of Brecht and Arturo Ui. When I see people urge war, applaud aggression, tolerate massive loss of life, I think of Brecht and his play, Mother Courage and Her Children.

I learned a lot German translating passages from Mother Courage and Her Children. The play traces the fortunes of a peddler who follows the army during the Thirty Years War. In the play Brecht brutally indicts war and the mercenary motivation behind it.

My collage is not political. It's more theatrical. Think of it as a collage version of Brecht's epic theater. World events are quite dramatic these days. There are few people who feel certain they can predict how the future, even the near-term future, will go. I also want to avert my eyes, but I think we all have to pay attention. For me, that will take discipline.

My Collage
The collage today began with the template. I sort of destroyed it. My apologies to @quantumg, who took this evocative photo. The LMAC contest will run until this coming Monday, so get in your images. There will be prizes. More importantly, there will be appreciation.

Here is the template:

You see how lovely it was? The times we are in I'm afraid led me to a less attractive image. I borrowed from the LMAC library, LIL, which has more than 15,000 images in it. If you ever need a public domain picture, check out LIL. Every photo there was contributed by someone on Hive. It is the dedicated image resource for the LMAC community, and for all of Hive.

Here are the images I borrowed from LIL.

@donroberts
https://www.lmac.gallery/lil-gallery-image/4283
Ferris wheel

@donroberts
https://www.lmac.gallery/lil-gallery-image/4285
Ride carnival

@donroberts
https://www.lmac.gallery/lil-gallery-image/4296
Food stand circus

@donroberts
https://www.lmac.gallery/lil-gallery-image/4293
Food stand

@seckorama
https://www.lmac.gallery/lil-gallery-image/12907
Monster circus

@seckorama
https://www.lmac.gallery/lil-gallery-image/12909
Carnival creatures

@seckorama
https://www.lmac.gallery/lil-gallery-image/9469
Rainbow character

@tormenta
https://www.lmac.gallery/lil-gallery-image/8650
Mask

@tormenta
https://www.lmac.gallery/lil-gallery-image/8644
Mask

I also borrowed from Pixabay:
Sewage
https://pixabay.com/photos/pollution-sea-environment-waste-5402166/
MemoryCatcher

Garbage
https://pixabay.com/photos/scrapyard-recycling-dump-garbage-70908/
PublicDomainPictures

Chemical plant
https://pixabay.com/photos/chemical-plant-industrial-facility-1500879/
Timajo

Ground
https://pixabay.com/photos/dirt-mud-ground-earth-clouds-sky-2628030/
StockSnap

I used Paint 3D to extract images and place elements in the collage. I used GIMP to size and refine the image. Also, I added the smoke coming from the chemical factory with a GIMP paintbrush. Finally, I used a Lunapic filter to soften the edges of the picture a bit.

LMAC: A Community for Artistic Expression

Years ago @shaka had an inspiration. He thought it might be fun to invite people to make collages. I entered the third contest and have been associated with the community ever since. I don't enter the contest. I make collages. There is a kind of joy in letting go of my usual mode of expression, which is words, and to venture into another kind of thought. When I make a collage I use different parts of my brain from what I use when I write something.

Making a collage and writing something related to it is the best experience. A good example of how creative writing and collage creation can be synergistic may be found in @justclickindiva's collage blog this week. This wonderful artist did not enter the contest. She simply expressed herself through the art of story and image. Check it out here.

We invite everyone to enter this week's contest. Or, anyone can make a freestyle, as @justclickindiva did. Have fun. And, if you like photography, you can contribute to LIL. I get a kick out of seeing my contributed images pop up in the blogs of other people. Regulations and procedures for using this resource can be found on @shaka's blog, here.

Thank you for reading my blog. I hope everyone has a most wonderful weekend.

Peace and health to all.