Chicken Little and the Culture of Fear

I guess I have always been a bit suspicious of the power of the media to manipulate society. As a young high school student I noticed how WBZ consistently over predicted the amount of snow that would fall, especially during the school week. The reason was obvious; WBZ Radio was the first place Boston turned to for “No School Announcements.” Nothing like building a market, one snow day at a time!

I spent 30 years as an industrial publisher. I took my responsibility very seriously to provide accurate reporting to my readers when a little “sugar coating” might have been better for advertising.

I was very disturbed by the obvious “scare tactics” of the media and by some government officials in the wake of 9/11. That’s why I was so intrigued by an exhibit currently on display in Providence.

Inspired by the fear and panic engendered by the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001, the Museum of Art Rhode Island School of Design’s current exhibition, Nancy Chunn: Chicken Little and the Culture of Fear, is a series of paintings that represents the media sensationalism infecting our current political and cultural landscape, feeding our anxieties, and distracting us from dealing with real dangers.

“Nancy Chunn’s very recognizable and humorous imagery from the childhood fable Chicken Little was created as commentary on the events of 9/11, but continues to resonate through current events,” says Interim Museum Director Ann Woolsey.

Chunn’s allegorical narrative features 339 cartoon-like paintings that reimagine the folk fable of Chicken Little. Chunn portrays Chicken Little’s exaggerated fears, (“The sky is falling!”), in a graphic style—adapting found clip art images to represent a Kafkaesque world in which danger seems to lurk around every corner. Mapped out in 2004 as a 10-year project, her 11-scene cycle—six of which are on view at the RISD Museum of Art—takes on such contemporary issues as environmental disasters, road rage, healthcare, poverty, and crime, and shows how coverage by print and broadcast media exacerbate our fears.

Despite the seriousness of her concerns, Chunn’s cultural critique is infused with a remarkable sense of humor and visual invention. “A self-proclaimed ‘news junkie,’ Chunn’s reworking of the Chicken Little fable makes us keenly aware of the foibles of our own time,” says Judith Tannenbaum who curated the show. “Infusing visual invention with great wit, she enables us to gain new insights about what makes our society tick, for better or worse—from everyday domestic incidents to the grand political themes of the day.”

For her version of Chicken Little, which is based on found images from different decades, Chunn appropriates imagery generated by the culture she is critiquing. The format of dozens of small canvases mimics the frame-by-frame channeling of the 24-hour news cycles.

Each scene is comprised of numerous canvases in different sizes, grouped on top of a colorful amoeba shape painted directly on the wall. The scenes on view in the Museum’s Lower Farago Gallery are The Bathroom (Scene II), with its products and accidents; The Bedroom (Scene IV), with the booby traps of the contemporary home; The Road (Scene VI), with its portrayal of road rage; The ER (Scene VII) and all its chaos; The Main Hospital (VIII), where, instead of safety, Chicken Little finds new fears related to the uncertainties of healthcare and medical research; and Poortown (Scene X), a poverty-stricken mirror of middle America’s worst fears.

It’s a very interesting take that will make you chuckle and make you think. Then afterwards, as an extra reward to your spirit do what the Fabulous Judy and I did. Take yourself up Atwells Avenue to Federal Hill and the city’s historic Italian district. It’s like Boston’s North End with parking.