Oh, by the way I have a new website up and running !
www.michellelevante.com
Wednesday, July 26, 2006
This is my letter to the editor regarding the story below in the NY Times.
Real Concern or Witch Hunt?
The real horror is your article.
“Twist on a Famous Formula: A Severed Hand in a Topless Dancer’s Jar”
I was appalled to read this headline from the NY Times on Tuesday, and the equally slanted article. But I am most appalled by the treatment of Linda E. Kay in the media and by law enforcement. It is reminiscent of the Salem witch-hunt where a person who did not fit with the immediate “norms” of their community (despite not committing any violent crimes) could be publicly smeared with ridiculous claims. I don’t doubt that they found skulls, and a human hand in a jar of formaldahyde. But where is the crime, except in the exorbitant bail of $100,000 for unlawful disposition of human remains? What exactly does that law state? I assume it is for public health concerns, but I can go to the Mutter Museum in Philadelphia, or the Bodies exhibit in South Street Seaport and see human remains preserved and not fear disease. I can also purchase human bones, and skulls from stores in Manhattan such as Evolution or Obscura. So why are we so shocked!
It must be that she is being persecuted for her aesthetic sensibility, which does not fit a “Judeo-Christian” model of social norms when it comes to the dead. We allow through our very constitution, a freedom of expression and a freedom from religious bigotry. Many cultures do not hold the same “sacred corpse” taboo that is prevalent in the West. Buddhist mediate over human remains and carve beautiful reliefs into skulls and the Parsees in India feel that the deceased ‘s body is only an empty shell of what was once a person, and should be given back to nature, by being eaten by vultures. Perhaps Ms. Kay’s appreciation isn’t so deep, but who are we to judge.
Your reporters insistence in adding ridiculous details such as Ms. Kay’s messy gardening habits, a seemingly biased accusation of pedophilia (you really want to smear someone, just add children to the mix) and that she might have been “normal” once because she was on her high school swim team only show how far we haven’t come since 1692. I hope that someone with a level head will find out the facts of this case, which should not be to hard to unearth (no pun intended), and we can get some sort of real perspective. Forensics and an unbiased investigation should be able to determine whether the hand was from a murdered victim or a grave robbery. If Ms. Kay’s claim is true that it was a present from a medical student, then give her hand back, and let’s move on to prosecuting real atrocities.
-Michelle Levante
Here is the lousy story:
Cuffed in hand find
SOUTH PLAINFIELD, N.J. - A severed hand was found at the home of an exotic dancer who decorated her home with skulls, and she was charged with improper disposition of human remains, authorities said yesterday.
Friends said the hand had been given to the woman by a medical student.
Police responding to a report of a suicidal person at the home of 31-year-old Linda Kay discovered the large, roughly severed hand in a jar of formaldehyde on a bedroom dresser, according to the police report.
The subject of the suicidal person report was not located, authorities said, but six skulls were found in another room. The Middlesex County medical examiner determined that all are human.
Kay was arrested Friday and freed on $100,000 bail pending arraignment today.
Two people who knew Kay told The Star-Ledger of Newark that the hand, which Kay nicknamed "Freddy," was a gift from a medical student who frequented an all-nude juice bar where she dances.
"She has a flair for the dramatic," said Kay's mother, Patricia Ann Kay.
The Associated Press
Twist on a Famous Formula: A Severed Hand in a Topless Dancer’s Jar
0. E-MAIL
0. PRINT
0. REPRINTS
0. SAVE
By JONATHAN MILLER
Published: July 26, 2006
SOUTH PLAINFIELD, N.J., July 25 — A scrawled note on the door read: “No!!! comment. Just stop knocking. You want a story read a book.”
Skip to next paragraph
Middlesex County prosecutor’s office
Linda Kay, accused of unlawful disposition of human remains.
But who could beat the story of the house in this middle-class town, where the police say an exotic dancer at a nude juice bar had a severed hand, nicknamed Freddy, preserved in formaldehyde, and six human skulls?
The police said it was unclear where the body parts had come from, but that did not deter them from charging the dancer, Linda E. Kay, 31 — who works at Hott 22, a strip club in Union — with unlawful disposition of human remains.
The police said they found the crudely hacked hand inside a Mason jar in Ms. Kay’s bedroom on Friday afternoon after answering a call from a woman who said that an owner of the house, Sean McDonough, had threatened to kill himself with a hammer.
When the police arrived, Mr. McDonough was nowhere to be found, but Ms. Kay answered the door.
She became uncooperative, the police said, and they proceeded to search the house based on the phone call and found the jar containing the hand.
Capt. Paul Brembt of the South Plainfield Police Department said that Ms. Kay conceded that she owned the hand, although she would not say where she got it. Nor were the police sure who owned the six skulls, which were found in an upstairs room.
The Star-Ledger of Newark reported the discovery of the hand and skulls on Tuesday.
Andrea Leipow, 25, an aspiring model, said she had lived at the house for a brief time, ending in April. She said that Ms. Kay had told her that a medical student who was a fan of Ms. Kay’s dancing had given the hand to her as a gift.
Ms. Leipow said that residents of the house had nicknamed it “Lefty” or “Freddy” or, simply, “the Hand.”
She said that the house’s residents scared her, so she left. “They had tons of weapons,” she said. “They had a medieval mace, a shotgun, they had another sawed-off shotgun, pistols, knives.”
No one answered repeated knocks on the door at the cream-colored, aluminum-sided split-level house on a quiet, winding street on Tuesday, but neighbors spoke of the home, at 28 Diana Drive.
“That house” was all the reference needed, said C. T. McClain, a next-door neighbor.
It was a house where weeds frequently climbed to the knee and higher, they said, and trash was regularly scattered on the front steps. There were parties that went on until 3 or 4 a.m., and that had recently featured fireworks.
Neighbors said they saw school-age children coming and going.
For the past several years, Ms. Kay worked at Hott 22, where she went by the stage name Zilla.
Ira Weiner, a lawyer for the club, said that he often spoke with her.
“She’s kind of an artistic person, with her own sense of aesthetics,” he said. “But she’s harmless. You know, what she collected was not a manifestation of her being vicious, it’s just simply what she thought was cool or had some artistic merits.”
Ms. Kay graduated from Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School in 1993. Her senior yearbook identifies her as a member of the swim team.
Ms. Kay was released on $100,000 bail on the day she was arrested. The police are not sure where she is.
The police arrested a second exotic dancer who lived in the house, Polina V. Nikulina, 26. She was charged on Friday with failing to appear in court on a weapons charge.
Real Concern or Witch Hunt?
The real horror is your article.
“Twist on a Famous Formula: A Severed Hand in a Topless Dancer’s Jar”
I was appalled to read this headline from the NY Times on Tuesday, and the equally slanted article. But I am most appalled by the treatment of Linda E. Kay in the media and by law enforcement. It is reminiscent of the Salem witch-hunt where a person who did not fit with the immediate “norms” of their community (despite not committing any violent crimes) could be publicly smeared with ridiculous claims. I don’t doubt that they found skulls, and a human hand in a jar of formaldahyde. But where is the crime, except in the exorbitant bail of $100,000 for unlawful disposition of human remains? What exactly does that law state? I assume it is for public health concerns, but I can go to the Mutter Museum in Philadelphia, or the Bodies exhibit in South Street Seaport and see human remains preserved and not fear disease. I can also purchase human bones, and skulls from stores in Manhattan such as Evolution or Obscura. So why are we so shocked!
It must be that she is being persecuted for her aesthetic sensibility, which does not fit a “Judeo-Christian” model of social norms when it comes to the dead. We allow through our very constitution, a freedom of expression and a freedom from religious bigotry. Many cultures do not hold the same “sacred corpse” taboo that is prevalent in the West. Buddhist mediate over human remains and carve beautiful reliefs into skulls and the Parsees in India feel that the deceased ‘s body is only an empty shell of what was once a person, and should be given back to nature, by being eaten by vultures. Perhaps Ms. Kay’s appreciation isn’t so deep, but who are we to judge.
Your reporters insistence in adding ridiculous details such as Ms. Kay’s messy gardening habits, a seemingly biased accusation of pedophilia (you really want to smear someone, just add children to the mix) and that she might have been “normal” once because she was on her high school swim team only show how far we haven’t come since 1692. I hope that someone with a level head will find out the facts of this case, which should not be to hard to unearth (no pun intended), and we can get some sort of real perspective. Forensics and an unbiased investigation should be able to determine whether the hand was from a murdered victim or a grave robbery. If Ms. Kay’s claim is true that it was a present from a medical student, then give her hand back, and let’s move on to prosecuting real atrocities.
-Michelle Levante
Here is the lousy story:
Cuffed in hand find
SOUTH PLAINFIELD, N.J. - A severed hand was found at the home of an exotic dancer who decorated her home with skulls, and she was charged with improper disposition of human remains, authorities said yesterday.
Friends said the hand had been given to the woman by a medical student.
Police responding to a report of a suicidal person at the home of 31-year-old Linda Kay discovered the large, roughly severed hand in a jar of formaldehyde on a bedroom dresser, according to the police report.
The subject of the suicidal person report was not located, authorities said, but six skulls were found in another room. The Middlesex County medical examiner determined that all are human.
Kay was arrested Friday and freed on $100,000 bail pending arraignment today.
Two people who knew Kay told The Star-Ledger of Newark that the hand, which Kay nicknamed "Freddy," was a gift from a medical student who frequented an all-nude juice bar where she dances.
"She has a flair for the dramatic," said Kay's mother, Patricia Ann Kay.
The Associated Press
Twist on a Famous Formula: A Severed Hand in a Topless Dancer’s Jar
0. E-MAIL
0. PRINT
0. REPRINTS
0. SAVE
By JONATHAN MILLER
Published: July 26, 2006
SOUTH PLAINFIELD, N.J., July 25 — A scrawled note on the door read: “No!!! comment. Just stop knocking. You want a story read a book.”
Skip to next paragraph
Middlesex County prosecutor’s office
Linda Kay, accused of unlawful disposition of human remains.
But who could beat the story of the house in this middle-class town, where the police say an exotic dancer at a nude juice bar had a severed hand, nicknamed Freddy, preserved in formaldehyde, and six human skulls?
The police said it was unclear where the body parts had come from, but that did not deter them from charging the dancer, Linda E. Kay, 31 — who works at Hott 22, a strip club in Union — with unlawful disposition of human remains.
The police said they found the crudely hacked hand inside a Mason jar in Ms. Kay’s bedroom on Friday afternoon after answering a call from a woman who said that an owner of the house, Sean McDonough, had threatened to kill himself with a hammer.
When the police arrived, Mr. McDonough was nowhere to be found, but Ms. Kay answered the door.
She became uncooperative, the police said, and they proceeded to search the house based on the phone call and found the jar containing the hand.
Capt. Paul Brembt of the South Plainfield Police Department said that Ms. Kay conceded that she owned the hand, although she would not say where she got it. Nor were the police sure who owned the six skulls, which were found in an upstairs room.
The Star-Ledger of Newark reported the discovery of the hand and skulls on Tuesday.
Andrea Leipow, 25, an aspiring model, said she had lived at the house for a brief time, ending in April. She said that Ms. Kay had told her that a medical student who was a fan of Ms. Kay’s dancing had given the hand to her as a gift.
Ms. Leipow said that residents of the house had nicknamed it “Lefty” or “Freddy” or, simply, “the Hand.”
She said that the house’s residents scared her, so she left. “They had tons of weapons,” she said. “They had a medieval mace, a shotgun, they had another sawed-off shotgun, pistols, knives.”
No one answered repeated knocks on the door at the cream-colored, aluminum-sided split-level house on a quiet, winding street on Tuesday, but neighbors spoke of the home, at 28 Diana Drive.
“That house” was all the reference needed, said C. T. McClain, a next-door neighbor.
It was a house where weeds frequently climbed to the knee and higher, they said, and trash was regularly scattered on the front steps. There were parties that went on until 3 or 4 a.m., and that had recently featured fireworks.
Neighbors said they saw school-age children coming and going.
For the past several years, Ms. Kay worked at Hott 22, where she went by the stage name Zilla.
Ira Weiner, a lawyer for the club, said that he often spoke with her.
“She’s kind of an artistic person, with her own sense of aesthetics,” he said. “But she’s harmless. You know, what she collected was not a manifestation of her being vicious, it’s just simply what she thought was cool or had some artistic merits.”
Ms. Kay graduated from Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School in 1993. Her senior yearbook identifies her as a member of the swim team.
Ms. Kay was released on $100,000 bail on the day she was arrested. The police are not sure where she is.
The police arrested a second exotic dancer who lived in the house, Polina V. Nikulina, 26. She was charged on Friday with failing to appear in court on a weapons charge.
Wednesday, July 12, 2006
Here is a recent version of my artist's statement. It is to be part of my Translucent Bone series.
I keep thinking of how rusty I am. Like layers of flaking material grinding against itself, trying to
get enough excess off that it can move freely. Like trying to run two blocks after sitting on your ass for five years. Hopefully exercising my creativity long enough, and it will become effortless. I am guessing about 25 years or so.
Translucent Bones
Photographs by Michelle Levante
2006
Bones are the last physical evidence that survives death, the remaining clue of any animal’s existence. It is the survivor, years after decomposition of flesh, skin, organs, and hair; the bone will endure for a while longer. So too will the metal infrastructure of our buildings, bridges, homes, fences and roadways. Like bone to the rest of our bodies, metal holds up our cities to enable the functioning of our modern physical civilization. And like bone, it survives the decay of the architecture it once supported. There is a similarity between the two objects. Each weathered, rough, and harsh, yet retaining some semblance to it’s original function. Placed together bone and rusted metal seemed almost logically linked.
The beauty of the light penetrating through the bones I observed one day after acquiring several skulls and placing them near a window. It seemed sensual; the glow of light passing through what so strongly symbolizes death.
I am fascinated by the juxtaposition of seemly incongruent elements. almost a perverse play of what should not be, forced together and then I will try to find the similarities. This is a reversal of true science, which says a hypothesis must be formulated based on some observation. Then the theory postulated and the experiment conducted to prove that what is guess is now objective truth. I too start with observation, but the experiment is only to try to find a subjective, emotional truth. Then perhaps I can try to postulate a theory that can only gratify myself.
I am drawn to the aesthetic of scientific and medical photography. It is cold, sparse and meant to convey the subject accurately without opinion, free from the burden of a more romantic stylized image making. But it creates its own set of emotions that can be manipulated to speak about a perversity in the subject matter. Is science objective? Is nature something that human’s control, or should control? Are our bodies merely a physical, biological phenomena, or can emotions and passions control our bodies also? These are some of the subjects I would like to explore.
A shining example of why feminism is still needed, despite what some Western women who have
"made it" think.
I was about to write about my frustration at starting my artist's statement, when I came across this horror show.
I am glad I don't think like the majority. It is hard to imagine such wide spread stupidity. But here it is.
So if rape and sexual assault are so prevelent, why not go after the men, than the young girls? I guess there is a serious lack
of logic in North Africa.
YAOUNDE, Cameroon (Reuters) - Worried that her daughters' budding breasts would expose them to the risk of sexual harassment and even rape, their mother Philomene Moungang started 'ironing' the girls' bosoms with a heated stone.
"I did it to my two girls when they were eight years old. I would take the grinding stone, heat it in the fire and press it hard on the breasts," Moungang said.
"They cried and said it was painful. But I explained that it was for their own good."
"Breast ironing" -- the use of hard or heated objects or other substances to try to stunt breast growth in girls -- is a traditional practice in West Africa, experts say.
A new survey has revealed it is shockingly widespread in Cameroon, where one in four teen-agers are subjected to the traumatic process by relatives, often hoping to lessen their sexual attractiveness.
"Breast ironing is an age-old practice in Cameroon, as well as in many other countries in West and Central Africa, including Chad, Togo, Benin, Guinea-Conakry, just to name a few," said Flavien Ndonko, an anthropologist and local representative of German development agency GTZ, which sponsored the survey.
"If society has been silent about it up to now it is because, like other harmful practices done to women such as female genital mutilation, it was thought to be good for the girl," said Ndonko.
"Even the victims themselves thought it was good for them."
However, the practice has many side effects, including severe pain and abscesses, infections, breast cancer, and even the complete disappearance of one or both breasts.
The survey of more than 5,000 girls and women aged between 10 and 82 from throughout Cameroon, published last month, estimated that 4 million women in the central African country have suffered the process.
"You ask me why I did it?" said Moungang. "When I was growing up as a little girl my mother did it to me just as all other women in the village did it to their girl children. So I thought it was just good for me to do to my own children."
The practice is now more common in urban areas than in villages, because mothers fear their children could be more exposed to sexual abuse in towns and try to suppress outward signs of sexuality, the survey said.
Its findings have prompted a nationwide campaign to educate mothers about its dangers and to try to eradicate it. A similar campaign some years ago helped drastically to reduce rates of female genital mutilation in Cameroon.
"A girl...has to be proud of her breasts because it is natural. It is a gift from God. Allow the breasts to grow naturally. Do not force them to disappear or appear," said a leaflet from the campaign.
Moungang said she stopped ironing her daughters' breasts after one girl developed blisters and abscesses.
"I took her to the hospital and the doctor scolded me and advised never to do it again because it could ruin my daughter," she said.
The practice is most common in the Christian and animist South of the country, rather than in the Muslim North and Far North provinces, where only 10 percent of women are affected.
"Massaging the breasts with hot objects is painful, very painful, and can completely destroy the breasts," said Bessem Ebanga, executive secretary of women's rights group RENATA, herself a former victim.
"Some girls could be traumatized throughout their lives and their sexual behavior could be disturbed forever."
For Ndonko, the campaign is a battle to respect the physical integrity of young girls -- with broader implications for human rights.
"If nothing was done today, tomorrow the very parents may even resolve to slice off the nose, the mouth or any other part of the girl which they think is making her attractive to men."
"made it" think.
I was about to write about my frustration at starting my artist's statement, when I came across this horror show.
I am glad I don't think like the majority. It is hard to imagine such wide spread stupidity. But here it is.
So if rape and sexual assault are so prevelent, why not go after the men, than the young girls? I guess there is a serious lack
of logic in North Africa.
YAOUNDE, Cameroon (Reuters) - Worried that her daughters' budding breasts would expose them to the risk of sexual harassment and even rape, their mother Philomene Moungang started 'ironing' the girls' bosoms with a heated stone.
"I did it to my two girls when they were eight years old. I would take the grinding stone, heat it in the fire and press it hard on the breasts," Moungang said.
"They cried and said it was painful. But I explained that it was for their own good."
"Breast ironing" -- the use of hard or heated objects or other substances to try to stunt breast growth in girls -- is a traditional practice in West Africa, experts say.
A new survey has revealed it is shockingly widespread in Cameroon, where one in four teen-agers are subjected to the traumatic process by relatives, often hoping to lessen their sexual attractiveness.
"Breast ironing is an age-old practice in Cameroon, as well as in many other countries in West and Central Africa, including Chad, Togo, Benin, Guinea-Conakry, just to name a few," said Flavien Ndonko, an anthropologist and local representative of German development agency GTZ, which sponsored the survey.
"If society has been silent about it up to now it is because, like other harmful practices done to women such as female genital mutilation, it was thought to be good for the girl," said Ndonko.
"Even the victims themselves thought it was good for them."
However, the practice has many side effects, including severe pain and abscesses, infections, breast cancer, and even the complete disappearance of one or both breasts.
The survey of more than 5,000 girls and women aged between 10 and 82 from throughout Cameroon, published last month, estimated that 4 million women in the central African country have suffered the process.
"You ask me why I did it?" said Moungang. "When I was growing up as a little girl my mother did it to me just as all other women in the village did it to their girl children. So I thought it was just good for me to do to my own children."
The practice is now more common in urban areas than in villages, because mothers fear their children could be more exposed to sexual abuse in towns and try to suppress outward signs of sexuality, the survey said.
Its findings have prompted a nationwide campaign to educate mothers about its dangers and to try to eradicate it. A similar campaign some years ago helped drastically to reduce rates of female genital mutilation in Cameroon.
"A girl...has to be proud of her breasts because it is natural. It is a gift from God. Allow the breasts to grow naturally. Do not force them to disappear or appear," said a leaflet from the campaign.
Moungang said she stopped ironing her daughters' breasts after one girl developed blisters and abscesses.
"I took her to the hospital and the doctor scolded me and advised never to do it again because it could ruin my daughter," she said.
The practice is most common in the Christian and animist South of the country, rather than in the Muslim North and Far North provinces, where only 10 percent of women are affected.
"Massaging the breasts with hot objects is painful, very painful, and can completely destroy the breasts," said Bessem Ebanga, executive secretary of women's rights group RENATA, herself a former victim.
"Some girls could be traumatized throughout their lives and their sexual behavior could be disturbed forever."
For Ndonko, the campaign is a battle to respect the physical integrity of young girls -- with broader implications for human rights.
"If nothing was done today, tomorrow the very parents may even resolve to slice off the nose, the mouth or any other part of the girl which they think is making her attractive to men."
Sunday, July 09, 2006
Artists statement:
-keywords,
rust, industrial, landscape, urban, rural, nature, un-nature, weather, weathered, elements, biology, time, violence, create, creativity, bone, skull, teeth, nerves,
skeleton, natural, organic, orgasmic, sex, coitus, copulation, penetration,
roads, highway, movement, stagnated, fear, emotion, desire, passion,
stale, slow, fast, hatred, power, injury, trauma, scars, forensics, science,
aesthetic, fetish, burns, cuts, lacerations, stitches, healing, survival,
strength, mechanized, mechanical, metal, objects, inorganic, paraphilia,
algolagnia, pain, pleasure, perversion, crash, collision, car crash, automobile, speed, velocity, g-force, insert, body, anatomy, sexual organs,
genitalia, sharp, past, memory, nails, destruction, self-destruction, male, female, feminism, translucent, winter, skin, veins, real, imaginary, truth, fact, lie, mystery, hypocracy, duality.
I am undergoing the painful process of creating an artist’s statement. I was advised by a website that creating a list of words is a helpful first step. I realize that these keywords might be appropriate to start this blog. Looking over this list I am slightly tempted to wonder where this is all going, or how it all started. Maybe I shouldn’t wonder to hard right now, slightly wine drunk and spending the day in front of the computer. My eyes hurt, I am in a panic. I wonder when I will make up my mind.
Just start I guess. I will end with the keyword… Stupid.
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