When it occured to me that The Rubberbandits [videos below for your viewing pleasure] could be interesting examples of multidirectional memory I thought I might be going mad, or that I was just really misunderstanding Michael Rothberg. And while I still wouldn't bet my house on it, I think there is possibly an argument to be made. So I am going to try and make it here...
Of all the models of cultural memory that we have looked at I keep coming back to Rothberg and I think its because it is an extremely valuable model for the creative. As I understand him, he is advocating for writers, artists, anyone who contributes to conversations around cultural memory to do it by looking through another culture, not in comparison, but in such a way that a new line of sight is drawn. In my opinion this is what The Rubberbandits do.
Brian Logan wrote of them in The Guardian:
Their act came about partly in response to Limerick's reputation as a poverty-stricken place (it's where Frank McCourt's misery memoir Angela's Ashes is set), riven with gangs, drugs and crime (it's also Ireland's murder capital). "The media portray Limerick as like Compton in LA," says Chambers. "We're taking the piss out of that."
I think that last statement is a case of misdirection - they're success is based on not being taken too seriously, so its not in their interests to be examined too closely. I think what they goes beyond parody, through a mixing of gansta rap and Irish social commentary they genuinely do draw new lines of sight on difficult cultural memory in Ireland, such as emigration [see Buddies in Boston below] or assimilation [see Black Man].
Whether they do create multidirectional spaces of memory or not, I am ultimately not sure enough to shout about it. But it does raise in my mind how artists can apply Rothberg's model and confirms the potential of the multidirectional space he advocates.
The Rubberbandits - Horse Outside
The Rubberbandits - Black Man
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