Georgia, Sweet Georgia (No Peace of Mind)

Finally saw Options 2005 for a second time, and I'll post my review on Monday. (Reviews should never go with the Friday dump.) But I wanted to note one gaffe in curator Libby Lumpkin's essay/catalog that caught my attention:

[George] Tkabladze, who began his rigorously classical studies in art at age nine, and who left the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic to settle in the Washington, D.C. area in 2003, is not your typical thirty-something M.F.A., 3-D artist. [emphasis added]

Even before the Rose Revolution in November 2003, Georgia was not a Soviet Socialist Republic, of course. Georgia SSR was renamed the Republica of Georgia when it staged its first democratic, parliamentary elections in 1990; the country formally broke from the USSR, oh, around when the USSR dissolved in 1991. In 1995, the Republic of Georgia dropped the formalities and became Georgia. Of course, Georgians call their nation Sakartvelo, so it's a little hard to know for sure.

If we could simply recognize the place as Sakartvelo, I wouldn't have to do a kabuki dance to explain where Susan's studying: not-Hotlanta Georgia; Georgia the Republic of; post-Soviet Georgia; Georgia by the Black Sea. (As if any of us could find the Black Sea on a map.)

An update for Susan-watchers: She's somewhere in Azerbaijan monitoring elections, her last known coordinates placing her in the capital, Baku. Azerbaijan is an immensely wealthy oil country sandwiched between Russia and Iran, a melting pot or proving ground for the unique cultural attributes of both. The nation's oil-rich designation grants it a certain degree of lenity from the U.S. government, despite the highly repressive regime currently holed up in Baku. The Azeri campaign season has seen its share of fingers broken by police during interrogations, shakedowns of demonstrators, government harassment of opponents and their sympathizers, arrests of opposition leaders and parliamentary candidates, and even one assassination—of a leading investigative journalist. (For sure, I don't love that Sue's there, but no one's tougher or smarter.) Freedom might have a better chance of reigning and marching and what-not if the world's leading democracy exporters—e.g., the United States, known for its Rose-sympathetic boutonnieres and purple finger–stained congressmen—would say a kind word for the teeming Azeri opposition; but, mmm . . . oil.

In other news, I'm sorry to report that Susan may have lost her wonderful camera. Nicked or neglected, she doesn't know, but it's not in her possession. I suspect she'll have another one soon, but it was a rough way to start what may not be the best vacation evar.

Posted by Kriston at November 4, 2005 10:39 AM