Tower of Hate
Lucinda Luvaas
Hemet, California
Tower of Hate, 2007
Video and Mixed media
“The Tower of Hate” is a movie that explores white supremacy using a combination of invented and historical material. Primarily, it’s a personal reaction to the philosophy and practice of groups that espouse bigotry and hatred. The Montana Human Rights Network sent me a number of books written by Ben Klassen, founder of the white supremacist group The Creativity Movement. These tomes provided background material for my contribution.
While reading Ben Klassen’s tirades about the Mud Races, the Jews, as well as many injunctions including foods and how we eat, it occurred to me that his words were a lot of babble…meaningless, senseless, unsubstantiated babble. This led me to thinking about The Tower of Babel, that wonderful Old Testament story about people speaking in many different, discordant tongues and of God’s decision to end the cacophony and destroy The Tower.
My take on the story is different from the actual Biblical account, but it served the purpose of my inspiration, which was to take the word Babel and change it to Babble and to make The Tower of Babel, The Tower of Hate. The movie has both a sense of the real and a sense of the unreal, a fable-like quality,which is how I personally grappled with such difficult material. It’s told as a modern fairy tale about white supremacy and, as with most fairy tales, there is a happy ending―the monsters and goblins are destroyed.
Bio
Lucinda Luvaas is a multimedia artist working in fine art and video. Her films and fine art have been screened and exhibited both nationally and abroad. Her work is represented by The James Gray Gallery, and StudioWest Gallery in Eugene, Oregon.