Washington Square News
4
MONDAY, AUGUST 30, 2021
ARTS
ARTS@NYUNEWS.COM
Edited by SASHA COHEN and ANA CUBAS
Dear Artists: Risks have rewards
SUSAM BEHRENDS VALENZUELA | WSN
The world is full of critics and people wanting to shut you out. That’s all the more reason to make your art.
By SASHA COHEN Arts Editor Let’s face it: people are insecure. Between balancing the desire for social acceptance and putting forth our most authentic selves, we feel as if ev-
ery decision we make puts our reputations at stake; we question whether our talents are good enough, if our images are different enough or when we will be cool enough. But, who decides what is or isn’t enough? While everyone experiences judg-
ment, artists get the worst of it — their talents and personal choices are constantly being examined and dissected. With social media, fans — and of course, haters — can now troll creatives’ choices from the comfort of their futons, which are covered in Cheeto dust. Meanwhile, outside of the virtual world, artists are bombarded with criticism from magazines and people on the street. Sure, such toxicity is part of being an artist, but it also influences some creatives to produce work that appeals to the broadest audience as opposed to what they f ind creatively fulf illing. Think about it. No one likes rejection. We want to feel love and acceptance. So when an artist receives hate, it feels personal — as if there is some sort of greater issue with who they are as people. Consequently, these feelings influence many artists to create too many songs about trucks, plays about star-crossed lovers and movies about mean teenage girl, becuase that is what sells. On the other hand, don’t we remember the outliers who challenged
the conventions of their artistic facets the most? Look at Pablo Picasso and cubism: critics despised his work, and yet his paintings decorate the walls of MoMA, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sof ía, Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris, and more. Toni Morrison fought to represent the Black experience in a whitewashed literary canon; with a net worth of 20 million dollars at the time of her death, Morrison’s novels f ill people’s bookshelves around the world. In the music video for “Like a Prayer,” Madonna kissed a Black saint and burned crosses, but that did not stop her from selling 15 million copies worldwide. If artists make safe choices, innovation does not occur. Without courageous creatives like Alvin Ailey Jr., Bong Joon-ho, Billie Eilish, Laverne Cox, Norman Lear, Mindy Kaling and many others, we would be trapped in a wasteland of homogeneous culture. Art is all about taking risks and expressing one’s genuine thoughts, emotions and beliefs, so creating something for the sole pur-
pose of appealing to the widest audience feels contradictory. With that said, now is the time for artists to trust their intuitions. They know if their talents are good enough, if their images are different enough or when they are cool enough. Art is about the work itself as opposed to ephemeral money, fame or appreciation, so who are we to use these measurements to determine which artist is the best? So, to the artists reading this article: not everyone is going to like your work, and that is OK — art is meant to disrupt the mainstream. Use people’s disapproving remarks to fuel your passions and ambitions. Take a risk. Dye your hair that color. Sing that song. Bust that move. Write that lyric, set or line. Listen to feedback, yet trust your gut. But most importantly, be willing to endure the growing pains that come with transforming into the artist you want to be. Then — and only then — will you truly feel like enough. Contact Sasha Cohen at scohen@nyunews.com.
Review: The White Existentialism of ‘The White Lotus’ By ISABELLA ARMUS Deputy Arts Editor Cradled by lapping tides, a boat full of white, wealthy and unreasonably attractive patrons arrive at the paradisiacal island of Maui as doting staff members wave from the distance, relegated to a mere speck within the frame. This is one of the first scenes of creator Mike White’s latest show “The White Lotus” — a moment that remains emblematic of the entire series throughout its six-episode run. The show’s opening concerns a mysterious corpse being packed into an outgoing flight and a man returning from his (presumably ruined) honeymoon. This image hangs over the audience as the series then loops back to the beginning, showing the events leading up to this untimely death. With this, we officially meet the primary cast of characters. First, a WASP-y tech family and their daughter’s friend Paula, then a lonely woman named Tanya mourning her dead mother (played with hilarious brevity by one Jennifer Coolidge), and finally, the newlywed couple — who have already grown to disdain each other — going on their honeymoon. These three groups each have equally fraught dynamics that bleed into one another and come to separate dramatic climaxes as the series continues. But what really gives the show depth is the eclectic staff that runs the hotel on the sidelines, including a bellhop named Kai, who begins a secret tryst with Paula that eventually goes south, and the powerhouse hotel manager named Armond, whose eerie ability to snap from drugged-out mania to a hospitable Cheshire cat should receive several accolades. Also on staff is the show’s center of rotation: a Black spa worker named Belinda, whose immaculate service causes Tanya to turn obsessive and demand that Belinda remain at her beck and call. It’s on these characters that the families wreak their havoc, as they belittle, disregard and even flatout insult the staff in a vain attempt to exert control over their situations.
Watching privileged people spiral under the stylish and seductive atmosphere of a tropical hotel makes “The White Lotus” a late-summer catnip and daring satire of the American tourism industry that has taken over Hawaii — one of the more famous yet ignored examples of stolen and colonized land. However, as well-intentioned as this parodic rendering of the 1% is, the show’s constant focus on the hotel guests creates yet another piece of media obsessed with whiteness. Instead of opting for parts of the narrative to narrow in on the staff, who are predominantly people of color, White chooses to only skewer the problematic behavior of the new arrivals. We see the twists and turns of snobby newlywed Shane’s erratic behavior towards Armond as retaliation for Armond’s failure to give him the suite he wanted. We watch in horror as tech company girlboss Nicole espouses neoliberal Twitter lingo about cancel culture to her teenage children. Even more heartbreakingly, we see Tanya’s obsession with Belinda’s service culminate in her revoking an offer she made to fund Belinda’s wellness company, leaving Belinda in tears at the front desk. All of this is as wild as it is painfully accurate. Unfortunately, the hotel industry is curated to satisfy every demand of entitled white people. The working-class people of color employed at these establishments are seen as completely replaceable, perhaps best represented by the pilot episode in which a trainee gives birth in the hotel lobby — only to never appear in the series again. There’s a cruel cyclical nature to the hospitality industry that “The White Lotus” completely nails, as the white guests take over or even colonize the frame. However, it can be argued that the series leans too far into a realm of existential pessimism for its point to resonate. Though the series is spot on in its representation of overwhelming whiteness in the tourism industry, the plotlines are not nuanced enough to warrant embodying its own critique. The same points about
class, colonialism and race can be made while giving secondary characters an equal amount of screen time. Why can’t the audience know exactly why Kai told Paula that he was forced to take this job? How does Belinda recover everyday from catering to white people? In short, why are these characters not portrayed as interesting enough to legitimately be represented — even when the narrative is about them? A didactic history lesson about America’s colonial past isn’t even required here. Indigenous TikTok creators have already gone viral doing the free labor of explaining how Hawaiian tourism has gotten so out of hand. Even just an outline of these hotel worker’s lives would have painted a richer portrait of the gruesome effects of the hospitality industry, rather than merely showing the fiery entitlement we’ve already come across in HBO’s other popular outfits such as “Succession” or “Big Little Lies.” Beyond the way unlikeability is constantly performed and presented here,
the way some of the characters are written leans more toward caricature than complexity. Though played with gusto, Shane’s whiny condescension as he calls his new wife a trophy makes for more of an operatic villain than a legitimate breakdown of the male ego. “The White Lotus” could’ve created human or even slightly relatable characters that evoke the quotidian microaggressions that most people in the service industry have to face on a daily basis. Instead, the series seems determined to address all problems with tourism in Hawaii with a few crazed examples rather than as a nuanced problem with many moving parts. The finale of the miniseries sees the three parties swiftly making their exit as the murderous plotline comes to a harrowing conclusion. The families remain relatively unscathed, but the staff members go back to exactly where they started: smiles plastered on and waving to the horizon. This ending relays the hopelessness that “The White Lotus” was determined
to convey and presents the characters’ separate fates as inevitable. This sequence mourns for yet accepts tourism’s effects in Hawaii and makes the twisty plotlines feel more like an admission of obvious guilt rather than a revelatory exploration of underserved populations. “The White Lotus” is a series that is undeniably successful by way of entertainment. From its swelling score to the mesmerizing set design, the series begs the viewer to stay glued to the screen for whatever narrative sucker punch may approach the idyllic location. It was this aspect that most likely caused HBO to renew the series for a second season and possibly more in the future. However, as “The White Lotus” continues, it’s in the audience’s best interest to consider how much more self-indulgent critique from white creators is needed and if they should just move aside. Contact Isabella Armus at iarmus@nyunews.com.
MANASA GUDAVALLI | WSN
HBO’s The White Lotus was the streaming darling of the summer. The show attempts to probe America’s colonial past in this satire of the tourism industry.
