America Monkey

Breaking news: I have been accepted with full support to the Universities of Notre Dame and of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign). This leaves only the slackers at MIT, who have not yet notified me of their decision. In any case, it seems likely that I will be spending most of my weekends in March flying around the country to visit various schools. Good thing the decision deadline is April 15 for all schools.

And in honor of last night’s State of the Union address, today’s piece is François’s “America Monkey” (crayon, 2002). This little guy is the most patriotic monkey. The American ideals of freedom and liberty can be seen in his open arms. Imagine thousands of immigrants and huddled masses running towards those welcoming arms. It almost makes you wonder if France should have built us a giant monkey statue instead of that dame with the spiky hair. If we had a giant monkey statue, I bet the apes would at least do their part and keep the sand off of it in the future, which clearly would not happen with our present monument, as many prominent historians have noted.

“America Monkey” foreshadowed the “one state, two state, red state, blue state” divisions that appeared (or were hyped by the media) during the 2004 elections and offered a solution ahead of time: out of many red and blue pieces, one patriotic monkey. It’s heartwarming to see such a symbol of unity and friendship today.

However, there exists an alternative interpretation of “America Monkey.” Some art critics believe it represents a critique of American culture and politics, although it should be noted that it was not nearly so fashionable to criticize the president at the time of this work’s creation, January 2002. Additionally, the first piece in the Fran Clan series was titled “Australia Day Fireworks,” so “America Monkey” may also be an allusion to that work.