Thanks for spreading the meme, Clive!

De nada, sir!

I strongly suspect the whole "covering the 'Guernica' during Powell's presentation" deal is a myth. FWIW, the conservative Weekly Standard ran a story attempting to debunk it (link below). Since none of the accounts I've read actually name any of their sources, it's still hard to say what actually happened. But when someone calls Powell a "warmonger"-- this being the guy who tossed out half the wonky intelligence given to him the Bushies as "bullshit", and insisted against great resistance from the Cheney/Rumsfeld camp that they seek an international imprimitur from the UN in the first place-- I'm guessing he isn't interested in accuracy.

http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/002/556paocc.asp

Tuesday I asked a British diplomat assigned to the Security Council what had actually happened. A spokeswoman for the U.N. Secretariat independently confirmed the diplomat's version of events in all its particulars. I paraphrase:

Early this year, as the Iraq drama was playing out at the United Nations, the press corps covering the Security Council swelled. The usual press stakeout, where ambassadors routinely take reporters' questions outside the Security Council, simply couldn't hold the numbers--expected to reach 800 for Powell's address on February 5. So the Secretariat moved the stakeout down the hallway.

As over 200 cameramen were setting up, they complained that the background at the new location didn't work for them. Powell would be speaking in front of the tapestry, of which only indecipherable shapes would be visible. Couldn't a plain background be provided, like the white wall the cameramen were used to outside the Security Council chamber, which is ornamented only by the words Security Council / Conseil de Securite in brass letters?

The temporary solution, provided by the Secretariat, was a U.N.-blue backdrop. Said the British diplomat, "The Secretariat did it, to meet the visual requirements of the TV guys."

JTU,
Great idea!
I noted on your site that part of the reason why you took this "open source" is because you've been sitting on it for over a year.
That got me thinking about all the projects I've been mulling over without acting on. It seems as though the curse of creativity can be a correlated high degree of apathy.
Perhaps your open source art idea is worth taking a step further - have people submit ideas to a community site (ideally along with a photoshop mock-up) and let enthusiastic members of the community go to town on them.
Of course, perhaps this already exists and I'm just too lazy to look for it...

WJA, yes, I saw that more-quotidian explanation too -- and being in the media and having done a fair bit of TV work myself, I can attest to the fact that wildly patterned backdrops are indeed something producers and cameraguys seek to avoid. So that's an entirely plausible explanation.

Then again, John Ashcroft was sufficiently annoyed the bared breast of the Spirit of Justice statue behind him during press conferences that he had that covered up, so sadly I can't entirely write off the possibility that Guernica actually did seem symbolically unruly to government officials.

I'd forgotten about this allegation. I think it likely that the TV explanation is the right one: after all, relatively few people would have been able to recognize the painting from the little bit that would have showed on the TV screen, and fewer still would have made the connection between the painting and its anti-war message.

What is chillingly ironic, though (at least to me), is that the destruction of Fallujah is being compared (with some justification) to the destruction of Guernica depicted in the painting.

WJA,

I'm entirely willing to conceed the point that the true motive for covering the tapestry might have been for the sake of the TV cameras. But like Clive, I also remember the incident with the statue of Justice. For me, regardless of the motive in both these acts, the acts themselves represent deep ironic truths. But hey, I was a poet for 15 years, so you know...

A minor correction to Clive's post might make you feel better: On my site, I wrote: "The following paragraph is not what inspired the idea, but I think it explains relatively well what one might hope to accomplish in this project: (insert incident here)"

The Guernica idea originally had nothing to do with the covering of the tapestry. It was when I was researching the history of the painting that I came across an article which reminded me of it, and which *further* inspired me to open-source the idea...

Garth: My idea of open-sourcing the project has more to do with time and money than laziness, I'm afraid. I just can't possibly accomplish everything I think up. In the past, I've just solved this dilemma by focusing on selected stuff and letting the rest wait or drop. But now I'm perfectly happy to give away as many of the dormant ideas as I can. In this case, I felt very strongly about the idea but just didn't have the resources to bring it off on my own...

Also, although I haven't heard of anyone actually installing a Guernica yet, the story has gotten picked up on a number of high traffic blogs. So even if it remains an idea only, I think that the discussion of the idea can accomplish much of what I hoped the actual project would. Not quite as effective... but certainly better than if I had just shelved the idea!

John -- at this point, even if you never do anything more on it yourself, it's essentially a Lazyweb project!

OMG: I was scooped! This'll teach me to post any new ideas without a heavy search on google...

Someone posted Guernica on a billboard at Sunset & Hollywood in LA way back in 2003. I'm still trying to figure out who actually did the billboard and whether it was guerilla or paid, but I'll post an update to my page as soon as I can find the info.

I still think it's a good idea to put up 100s of them though...

Clive,

Can't remember whether or not I've seen Lazyweb before... very cool idea.

I think I will spend more time on the gurnica project in the near future. People seem to really be digging it.