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    Public Figures
    Public Figures
    Public Figures
    Ebook100 pages30 minutes

    Public Figures

    By Jena Osman

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    About this ebook

    Public Figures is an essay-poem with photographs and text that begins with a playful thought experiment: statues of people in public spaces have eyes, but what are they looking at? To answer that question, Jena Osman sets up a camera to track the gaze of a number of statues in Philadelphia—mostly 19th century military figures carrying weapons. How does their point of view differ from our own? And how does it compare, say, to the point of view of other watchful military figures, such as drone pilots? In this book, Osman combines the histories behind these statues with poetic narratives that ask us to think about our own relational positions, and how our own everyday gaze may be complicit with the gun-sights of war. Public Figures illustrates how history is transformed, and even erased, by monuments and other public records of events. Through poetry, those histories can be made visible again. Check for the online reader's companion at http://publicfigures.site.wesleyan.edu.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherWesleyan University Press
    Release dateNov 16, 2012
    ISBN9780819573124
    Public Figures

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      Book preview

      Public Figures - Jena Osman

      How did it occur?

      Was it this:

      One day, quite some time ago, I happened on a photograph of Napoleon’s youngest brother, Jerome, taken in 1852. And I realized then, with an amazement I have not been able to lessen since: I am looking at eyes that looked at the Emperor.

      —ROLAND BARTHES, CAMERA LUCIDA

      Or was it this:

      If you could see what I’ve seen with your eyes …

      —ROY BATTY, BLADE RUNNER

      Or was it this:

      Pausing before an 18th-century church cemetery you look through the locked gate. There, on a small hill, is a life-sized statue of the Virgin Mary. Her gaze rests on an enormous red and white banner for an athletic club franchise across the street.

      The idea occurred:

      Photograph the figurative statues that populate your city. Then bring the camera to their eyes (find a way) and shoot their points of view. What does such a figure see?

      To see the sigh of sighted stone you activate the idea.

      You find a way, jerry-rig an apparatus made from a mop handle, a disposable camera with a timer, some velcro tape.

      Out in the field, you observe and take notes. You set the timer and pull the pin.

      Erected in 1884 and located on the north side of Philadelphia’s City Hall, this statue of Major John Fulton Reynolds was the city’s first equestrian statue and first public monument in honor of a Civil War soldier. Reynolds was from Lancaster, killed at Gettysburg, and his nickname was Old Common Sense.

      possible new target    approaching target one building

      designate new target    target five    pilot copies    sensor

      And here is what he’s looking at:

      Reynolds was very well respected, but his career had few successes. For instance, once after two long days of battle, he fell asleep under a tree and was taken prisoner for six weeks. Was that tree like this tree? Is Reynolds being forced to look at an emblem of what was perhaps his greatest embarrassment? You’d like to get back in the air.

      copies    white pickup arrived in front of target building

      pilot copy    two passengers including target five have

      Next to Reynolds is another Civil War soldier, General George McClellan. McClellan was considered a good organizer, but not a particularly good general. He had a variety of nicknames, such as The Young Napoleon, Mac the Unready, and—because of his reluctance to attack—"The Little Corporal of

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