The BANNED & RECOVERED Online Exhibit
"The Wall" by artist Clinton Fein. Referenced work: The Wall by Pink Floyd. Video installation
Artist statement: In 1980, the song “The Wall II,” from Pink Floyd’s album The Wall, with its haunting chorus of school children singing “we don’t need no education,” was adopted as a protest anthem by black students during the “Elsie’s River” uprising in South Africa, protesting against the institutionalized propaganda and racial bias in the official curriculum. The song, album, and movie were banned by the apartheid government.
While Pink Floyd’s album and movie contained numerous metaphors, the one that has the most resonance for me in terms of the notion of censorship has to do with education. Ironically, the commentary about education in Britain, which was very similar to what I experienced in South Africa, was what caused the government to ultimately censor the music.
I was able to get my hands on a bootlegged copy of the movie as a teenager, and was blown away by the music, direction and cinematography. It spoke to me on so many levels. I remember feeling immediate resentment that I was being deprived of this sort of critical thinking. How could this be banned? Why? (No official reason was given at the time, but in the movie, a young boy fantasizes about the students rising up and burning down the school after he is hit on the hands with a ruler by a teacher—a fate I suffered on numerous occasions.)
The recreation of the album cover, which was a white wall containing the words “The Wall,” speaks to the extent to which censorship builds impenetrable walls that separate expression from a speaker and his or her intended audience, through the mind of a child.
All Rights Reserved - California Exhibition Resources Alliance
"The Wall" by artist Clinton Fein. Referenced work: The Wall by Pink Floyd. Video installation
Artist statement: In 1980, the song “The Wall II,” from Pink Floyd’s album The Wall, with its haunting chorus of school children singing “we don’t need no education,” was adopted as a protest anthem by black students during the “Elsie’s River” uprising in South Africa, protesting against the institutionalized propaganda and racial bias in the official curriculum. The song, album, and movie were banned by the apartheid government.
While Pink Floyd’s album and movie contained numerous metaphors, the one that has the most resonance for me in terms of the notion of censorship has to do with education. Ironically, the commentary about education in Britain, which was very similar to what I experienced in South Africa, was what caused the government to ultimately censor the music.
I was able to get my hands on a bootlegged copy of the movie as a teenager, and was blown away by the music, direction and cinematography. It spoke to me on so many levels. I remember feeling immediate resentment that I was being deprived of this sort of critical thinking. How could this be banned? Why? (No official reason was given at the time, but in the movie, a young boy fantasizes about the students rising up and burning down the school after he is hit on the hands with a ruler by a teacher—a fate I suffered on numerous occasions.)
The recreation of the album cover, which was a white wall containing the words “The Wall,” speaks to the extent to which censorship builds impenetrable walls that separate expression from a speaker and his or her intended audience, through the mind of a child.
All Rights Reserved - California Exhibition Resources Alliance