INFINITE WEST pivots around a central character – an athleisure wearing, fertilising cowgirl who wrangles phallic cactuses like cattle and harnesses the power of the Native American Indians through a dreamcatcher to pollinate them and produce eggs – yes, you can make this stuff up. Rebecca Agnew constructs a post male-female sexual reproductive world where beings are not born, they’re farmed. Much like in Margert Atwood’s dystopia Gilead, fertility is a blessing bestowed on few.

As with any of Agnew’s stop-motion animations, the symbolism in INFINITE WEST is extremely dense. To break down the narrative into its parts would be an injustice to the parable that is INFINITE WEST. Rather, this text responds to the two central themes Agnew is addressing, - the bigoted Country and Western genre and reproductive rights - situating these issues within contemporary pop-cultural discourse.

The cowboy-hero is a potent figure in American and Western culture. Cowboys supposedly embody many of the values associated with being a ‘good American man’: freedom, self-reliance, and independence. The myth, which revolves around this figure as a standard of masculinity – usually portrays a lonesome gunslinger, white, working class, a symbol of manifest destiny. In the twentieth century, cowboys became poster men for a new hyper-masculinity that emphasised ruggedness, aggressiveness, and physical fitness. The American image of the cowboy became a global export – adopted and transformed by European culture we saw the rise of the Spaghetti Western. In contemporary depictions, cowboys are portrayed as caricatures of toxic masculinity: sexist, gamblers with drinking problems.

The image of the Wild-West cowboy can be traced back to the European settlement of America and the confrontation they had with nature and the native civilisations. The narrative has always been one of racist divide and has been used recently as part of the rise of both segregation and anti-immigrant racism in America. It’s no surprise that this myth of the cowboy-hero and the culture it perpetuates has been adopted by far-right, Republican, conservative, White-America nationalists to appeal to voters. Trump even swapped his iconic red ‘Make America Great Again’ cap for a cowboy hat to address a group in Dallas.

Many non-western cultures from all around the world have the same horse-riding herdsman: gauchos of Latin America; the llaneros of Colombia and Venezuela; the vaqueiros of the Brazilian north-east; csikos of Hungary, or puszta of Spain; various others of the Cossack communities of south Russian and Ukrainian; the stockmen of Australian; and the Mexican Vaqueros, whom the costume of the American cowboy is largely based, with handlebar moustache, lasso, and chaps.

The Country and Western music and film genres are responsible for stereotyping cowboys against a ‘native enemy’. These genres all but erased the legacy of Native and black cowboys. But recent revival of the country and western genre in popular culture has brought up issues of racism and highlighted the othering and victimisation of native and black Americans.

Since the 1970’s the Country music establishment has been known for turning its back on musicians who blend its unique sound and what it stands for with other genres – such as pop, blues, rock and rap. It has rejected musicians that opened up the genre to more diverse audiences. In the 1980’s Country suffered a major identity crisis as Country and Rock n Roll were intertwined. By the 90’s a new wave came along and exploded any remaining barriers between Country, Rock and Pop – enter Shinia Twain and the line dancing movement that brought the genre to mass global consumption.

With popularity came backlash from the traditional Country music establishment, which felt Country music had lost its authenticity. They responded by establishing themself as an authority, by looking back to the genre’s ‘roots’ and working-class spirit – it became a genre unto itself.

In 2019, there was public outcry when Lil Nas X’s record Old Town Road was removed by Billboard from its Country charts. It brought up a long overdue conversation about racism in Country music. The song featured a trap beat, as many Country songs do. But its cowboy symbolism, Southern draw, and banjo-driven instrumental was unmistakably Country. It fuelled debate about what Country music is and who gets to decide. In a statement to Rolling Stone, the editors explained:

“it does not embrace enough elements of today’s Country music to chart in its current version.”

A lot of digital ink was spilled as critics widely recognised the double standard being applied to a black artist and dubbed the removal an erasure of black history. Old Town Road became the anthem for a movement known as the ‘Yeehaw Agenda’ – a new wave of black artists that have been reclaiming the cowboy archetype across music, film, fashion, and literature. The movement seeks to highlight the historical erasure of black cowboy culture and how the prevalence of white cowboy mythology continues to have an impact. Musicians such as Solange, Beyonce, Mary J. Blige, Lizzo and Megan Thee Stallion and movies like The Harder They Fall, They Die By Dawn, and Concrete Cowboy are all trying to re-write the narrative.

Despite seeing a step towards equality for women in the past few decades, we’ve seen falling birth rates, oppressive policies regarding contraception and abortion and a repositioning of women as workers, not breeders, in capitalist society. Women in the workplace are disincentivised and sometimes even held back or punished for choosing to have a family or even for just being of child-bearing age.

Globally conservativism calls for the return to ‘family values’ and the dismantling of health care services for contraception and abortion. The Middle East has long been a plagued with issues over women’s rights. In August 2021, when the Taliban took control of Afghanistan, some of the first news articles to come out related to the dismantling of women’s rights: travel, education, ability to earn an income, dress code, sexuality, and control of their own health and wellbeing. By September, the Afghani Women's Affairs Ministry was completely abolished.

While in Argentina, Ireland and the United States protestors have adorned outfits of red with white bonnets, the outfit of Margaret Atwood’s Handmaids, to protest changes to abortion laws and the oppression of women’s rights. It has become a powerful symbol of feminist protest in places where laws do not allow women to access birth control, emergency contraception or abortion. As Atwood explains the outfit is a symbol of ‘violent oppression and fertility’.

Texas which now forbids abortions after six weeks, has become the first US state to effectively eliminate most procedures, state wide. While in Mississippi, a case is currently before the Supreme Court that would see the end to women’s constitutional right to abortion as established by Roe V Wade in 1973. Other Republican-led states are racing to follow suit.

Is it any surprise then, that these southern conservatives that are dismantling women’s right to abortion, are the same states that perpetuate the narrative of toxic cowboy masculinity as portrayed in the Country and Western genre? Is it any surprise that the two overlap demographically and psychographically?

Although Rebecca Agnew’s INFINITE WEST does not directly address the examples highlighted in this text, the artwork uses the Country and Western genre to create a parallel dystopia rooted within the harsh realities of our past and present.

Whilst liberally minded individuals and minority groups across the world are amplifying their voices through the arts, social media, and protests – the conservative agenda is tightening its grip and strengthening its declarations. The divide between conservatism and progressivism grows.

It’s a new frontier, y’all.

Siobhan Sloper, 2022.

NEWS

In Conversation Panel on Thursday 11 August at 1pm at Macquarie University Art Gallery

In Conversation Panel
on Thursday 11 August at 1pm at Macquarie University Art Gallery