Next workshop Sept. 3:

What is ‘Activist Art’?

Does it have goals? Should it have goals? If it DOES have stated goals, what are they? 

Mostly the goals of so-called ‘activist art’ are to ‘activate’. To activate the viewer’s heart and mind in such a way that they’ll be more open than usual to new thoughts, and then, once they are more open, to drive a point-of-view right in there. To plant a thought.

In other words, to use art to persuade. And there’s a name for art that persuades, isn’t there? It’s called ‘propaganda’.

Here’s the definition of ‘propaganda’ I found on Google: 

“Propaganda is designed to influence public opinion, shape behaviors, or further a specific political, social, or institutional agenda.”

Keep that in mind for a second….

Here’s an engraving by Paul Revere that he created and distributed:

(PAUL REVERE PRINT)

“Revere issued this print fifteen days after the infamous confrontation between British troops and locals. With two thousand British soldiers billeted in the city to enforce the collection of taxes on imported goods, tensions grew. On March 5, 1770, a group of Americans began to throw stones and ice balls at a lone guard outside the Custom House. Once British reinforcements arrived, a standoff ensued and the soldiers eventually fired. 

Revere’s masterful piece of visual propaganda presents an unarmed group of about twenty Bostonians fired upon at close range by British soldiers commanded by Captain Thomas Preston. Contemporary accounts indicate events that night unfolded in a more disorganized way as crowd of over fifty Americans, armed with clubs and icy projectiles, taunted and threatened a small band of soldiers. The artist presents us with a scene of calculated aggression and communicates outrage through his choice of title and by labeling the Custom House "Butcher’s Hall."”

So it wasn’t quite true. It exaggerated and rearranged events to suit Revere’s goals of inflaming Bostonians against the British occupiers. The accounts call it ‘propaganda’, but is it NOT also a very effective piece of activist art?! Even if it played fast and loose with the facts?

A favorite piece of 100% factual activist art is this:

(A MAN WAS LYNCHED YESTERDAY)

From 1920 to 1938, in front of the NAACP headquarters in New York, a banner was hung on days when its message was literally true; and the message was: “A MAN WAS LYNCHED YESTERDAY.” It’s not clear how many times the banner appeared, but Wikipedia reports that it was flown “73 times in the period for lynchings in the state of Georgia alone.” 

This piece of activist art most definitely INFORMED folks to the ongoing horrors of racism, xenophobia, homophobia and pervasive hatred.

Here now is probably the most famous piece of activist/political art ever, Picasso’s ‘Guernica’. The problem is: I don’t think it’s really activist at all.

(GUERNICA)

By the time he painted it, the whole world was well aware of the atrocities of the Spanish Civil War. So….. does activist art need to be timely? Does it need to bring NEW information?

Here’s a famous piece by Felix Gonzales-Torres.

(TWO PILLOWS)

It appeared as a billboard all over New York City. Enigmatic. I saw it and loved it and then someone explained it to me…. The artist’s long time lover had died of AIDS and this was a sweet remembrance meant to also share with the public the horrible toll that disease was taking in NYC at the time. But I didn’t know any of that. For me, this also, was NOT a piece of activist art UNTIL someone explained the details of it.

How effective is activist art if it goes right over your head?

(TEETER-TOTTER)

(BORDER WALL INVISIBILITY CLOAK)

(ANTI-ICE IMPRINT SANDALS)

Does the activist art need to be easily understood? Does it need to be decipherable?

These three pieces are pretty clearly against the border wall and ICE.

DOES IT NEED TO HAVE A “CALL TO ACTION” TO BE ACTIVIST?

Activist art is a term used to describe art that is grounded in the act of ‘doing’ and addresses political or social issues

NOT ACTIVIST: ACTIVATIONIST

What does it mean? To activate. To activate what? That’s in the intentions of the artist and the eye of the audiencs

Does location make a difference?

OR IS IT MERE COMMENTARY?

‘does permission make a difference?’’

felix gonzalez-torres

“untitled”

bed billboard

activist art?

What if you knew that the artist is gay?

What if you knew the rest of the artist’s work?

Ai Weiwei has produced a five-column installation on the facade of Berlin’s Konzerthaus, a collection of 14,000 life vests from refugees who landed on the Greek Island of Lesbos after battling the Mediterranean Sea from Turkey. 

Activist vs art with a message

Do we need to be able to decipher the message?’’

We at the ASC! Project would say art is one of the most fluid, accessible, truly collaborative modes of getting people going. The words “civic engagement” can conjure images of boardrooms, business suits, and poster-boards, but what more and more people are seeing is that it can also mean street art and theatre, guerilla skit shows, folk music festivals, improve workshops. Artistic creation as a process asks us to reach into our selves, untangle what moves us, brings us joy, makes us shake our fists and scream at the world, and turn that reflexively outward. For myself, to create is to investigate, to illuminate, and to remind each other that we are not alone in the tempest. At the Center for Artistic Activism, based out of New York City, they share this rhetoric. 

https://www.artic.edu/highlights/28/art-activism

Communicating new perspectives, questioning the status quo, speaking out about beliefs, and inspiring others to take action—art and activism often share some of the same underlying motivations.

This tour looks at works across time and cultures to examine how art can activate ideas for both the maker and the audience, and asks you to think critically about different approaches to activism and how you can use your own voice.

Paul Revere, The Boston Massacre, 1770, engraving with hand coloring on laid paper, Rosenwald Collection, 1943.3.9042

DOES IT HAVE TO BE INFLAMATORY

(I CAN’T BREATHE)

The artists wrote: “How is land differentiated from other land by the way it is marked? Who decides what is worth preserving and what should be destroyed? What are the strategies for reclaiming marked land? How does one articulate an ethics and politics of land use?”

The Land Mark series was a civil disobedience campaign. Over 2001 and 2002, Allora and Calzadilla, together with a group of activists, encroached into one of the United States Navy Bombing range in a beach of Vieques, Puerto Rico. The U.S. Military and NATO have used this location for various military exercises for more than 60 years.