Word: mer
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Another piece that stood out is junior Elena Mer's untitled oil painting of a toilet that appears to be in the middle of a room, diagonally facing a couch that is almost entirely cut off by the border of the canvas. Although realistically painted in muted grays, blues and beiges, the toilet looks eerily out of place. Indeed, while the couch is hidden from view, we only see about three-quarters of the toilet itself, making the painting even more mysterious, so that finally the domestic legitimacy of the room is called into question. The excellent artistic technique...
...private pain of the Dahmer (pronounced DAY-mer) family was also a national tragedy. Vernon, a prosperous businessman, headed the Hattiesburg branch of the N.A.A.C.P., so the Klan targeted him with a "No. 3" and a "No. 4": shorthand for arson and murder. At his funeral, thousands of admirers poured into Shady Grove Baptist Church. President Johnson sent Ellie Dahmer a telegram mourning her husband and calling for a federal investigation...
...last track, the slow, electronic blues song Mer Girl, Madonna sings of searching: "I ran and ran/I was looking for me." She comes across a corpse: "I smelt her burning flesh/ Her rotting bones/Her decay." Madonna has suggested the song could have multiple meanings--it could be about AIDS, it could be about her late mother. In any case, the last moment of this CD is what makes it hit home. We have our body. We can empathize. That corpse at the end of Mer Girl could be Madonna, leaving yet another one of her public selves behind...
...Light. Indeed, Madonna equates water with redemptive healing, using it as a symbol for her spiritual awakening. Every once in a while, the results are strained. "Swim" has the singer escaping to the bottom of the ocean floor, but the lyrics seem immature against the brilliantly sophisticated melody. "Mer Girl," on the other hand, closes the album with a soft, edgy song that is certainly her most personal--the album ends on the painful note "And up to the hill / I ran and I ran / I'm looking there still / And I smell her burning flesh / Her rotting bones...
Motherhood, then, also plays a crucial role in Madonna's growth. While "Mer Girl" dredges up the aching memories of her own mother's premature death, "Little Star" embraces her future with baby Lourdes. "God gave a present to me," she sings in the album's most bare song, "Never forget how to dream / Butterfly / Never forget where you come from / From love / You are a treasure to me." Finally, her lyrics seem inspired and more than the giggly rhymes of the past...