Art & Politics
How to Make EFFECTIVE Political Art: 6 Rules of Thumb
It’s one thing to move someone with a work of
art. It’s another thing to mobilize them. For centuries, artists have
used their canvases, sculptures, films, and other creative means to
espouse deeply felt political opinion. But within the genre of political art,
protest art (also commonly referred to as activist art, or in some
cases, useful art) seeks not only to offer commentary, but to initiate
real social or political change. The question is: how can political art best have an impact on the world outside of the white cube?
After looking at some truly productive political art
projects from recent history, we’ve reverse-engineered five rules of
thumb for creating—and disseminating—art as a form of social and
political activism. This election season, with the stakes higher than
any time in a generation, artists may want to take note of these
tactics.
1. Forget About the Art World
Exhibiting political art in galleries, museums, and other
art-world venues can be like preaching to the choir. Though we’re
generalizing broadly here, it’s usually safe to assume that most artists
share similar liberal aspirations for justice and equality with their
audiences (curators, dealers, collectors, critics, fellow artists.)
Positioning artwork in a setting that demands the attention of a broader
audience is key—either as a means of getting the word out to new people
who have different opinions (and may be persuaded to see your point of
view), or engaging the very community you aim to serve.
A successful example of the latter comes from Swiss artist Thomas Hirschhorn,
who is internationally known for two things: using lots and lots of
brown packing tape, and producing cerebral, politically charged
installations and public sculptures. For the fourth (and allegedly last)
iteration of a series of civic art projects dedicated to various
philosophers, Hirschhorn produced Gramsci Monument in 2013 at the Forest Houses in the Bronx.
Hiring residents of the housing development to help him, the artist and
a team of mostly African-American and low-income community members
built a complex of structures made from materials typical of
Hirschhorn’s oeuvre: plywood, blue tarps, two-by-fours, cardboard, and
of course, brown packing tape.
The complex—which was visited by community members,
art-world professionals, and media alike—included a library of books
pertaining to political and social theory, a production house for a
daily newspaper, a performance stage, a café, a computer room, and a
radio station. In theory and in practice, Gramsci Monument provided
a platform and dissemination strategy for voices largely unheard in the
art world, and in mainstream media at large. Many who were involved in
the project said afterwards they were grateful for the enriching
conversations it unleashed in the community.
2. Know Your Community
Tapping into personal experience can certainly inform an
artist's studio practice, but leaving the studio altogether to spend
time in the community might be more useful to others. Cuban artist Tania Bruguera
has a great track record when it comes to making visible the social
consequences of oppressive power and control, using what she describes
as “behavior art.”
For example, when the artist began living with five
undocumented immigrants in Corona, Queens, she became deeply concerned
with the obstacles facing New York's immigrant communities. In response,
the artist initiated a sociopolitical campaign called the Immigrant
Movement (IM) International, which is partnered with the Queens Museum
of Art and Creative Time.
The ongoing project involves a storefront that provides free education
and serves as a headquarters for activists and members of the immigrant
community. Mobilizing politicians, academics, activists, and community
members, IM International has organized panel discussions, led monthly
action days, wrote a manifesto, created a holistic medical program for
women, and tackled domestic violence, among many other useful
endeavors.
3. The Street Is Your Stage
In the early '80s, graffiti on the streets of New York
gave voice to an underserviced urban community. But if you think spray
cans and police evasion sum up a street artist's M.O., here are some innovative examples of artists making social issues visible in the public realm.
Conflict Kitchen by artists Dawn Weleski and Jon Rubin
is a food cart in Pittsburgh that serves cuisine from countries that
are in conflict with the United States. The kitchen currently serves
Iranian food, which the artists package in wrappers that have printed
information about the Iranian diaspora and interviews with Iranian
people on them. The cuisine is augmented by performances, discussions,
publications, and other events that engage the public to promote nuanced
understandings of cultures too often misrepresented in the U.S. with
prejudice.
Employing guerilla-style tactics and sporting gorilla masks to conceal their identities, the Guerrilla Girls were formed in 1985 by a group of anonymous feminist artists who wanted to raise awareness for issues facing marginalized groups in the art world, namely women and people of color. Intervening in public space by way of posters and billboards, their graphic, text-heavy images combated sexism and racism with slogans like "Do women need to be naked to get into the Met Museum?" Printed on buses, bumper stickers, billboards, and t-shirts, this particular slogan brought attention to the fact that women were (and still are) largely left out of the art cannon.
4. Social Media Is Your Soap Box
Throughout history, activists have used newspapers, radio,
zines, and pamphlets to disseminate radical ideas and reach new
audiences. During the Great Depression, leftist newspapers like the Daily Worker, New Masses, and Art Front
printed activist artworks as a recurring feature, focusing on issues
like labor strikes, poverty, and the lack of affordable housing. But
today, social media offers free and immediate access to global
audiences, and political messages have the potential to go viral. Use
social media to share your projects, connect with allies, and get
attention for your cause.
The virality of Pussy Riot,
a feminist punk-rock protest group based in Moscow, has brought
international attention to systemic homophobia, misogyny, and attacks on
free speech in Russia. Branded by their brightly-colored ski masks that
help protect their identities, the collective garnered global media
coverage with their unauthorized performance in protest of Russian
President Vladimir Putin, and in support of LGBTQ
rights, in Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Savior, which had supported
Putin’s election campaign. They turned footage documenting the
performance into a music video entitled "Punk Prayer - Mother of God,
Chase Putin Away," which spread like wildfire over the Internet.
Three members of the group were later arrested and
convicted of “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred” and two were
sentenced each to two years in prison. The widely reported trial helped
raise support from the West, and Amnesty International adopted the
case along with several other human-rights groups, eventually getting
the women released after 21 months of jail time.
Though breaking the law in the service of art is certainly
not prudent and can lead to prison (as many artists, like Bruguera,
have demonstrated), staging peaceful protests and performances in highly
visible public spaces, documenting them, and sharing them online allows
you to become your own media outlet, in the hopes that press will
follow your lead.
5. It's Okay to Think Small
You don't have to change the world to create change. Two
examples of relatively small-scale projects that prove this,
incidentally (or maybe intentionally) both involve cats. (Yay! Cats!)
For a colony of kitties living in the basement of Saint Petersburg's Hermitage Museum, Swiss-born Eirk van Lieshout made all the difference. Though he may not be considered a political artist per se, van Lieshout's project for Manifesta '14 entitled The Basement
improved the living conditions for a colony of cats who had inhabited
the museum’s basement for many generations spanning over 200 years. The
artist provided the cats with furniture and decorated their walls, and
suggested (to humans) that below the visible surface of culture (i.e.
the museum), we often find communities in need.
In another attempt to improve the wellbeing of the feline species, artist Darren Bader created an installation at MoMA PS1 in which the artist filled a room with cats
on loan from a local rescue shelter. The audience was invited to get to
know the furry residents, who, if lucky, could be adopted and taken
home at the end of the exhibition.
6. Go Ahead, Try to Make the Next "Hope" Poster
Sometimes,
very rarely, and even then often through a confluence of events utterly
outside of the artist's control, a powerful artwork can become the
banner of a successful movement. This was the case of Shepard Fairey's appropriated image of a press photo of Barack Obama that has since become accepted as the ne plus ultra
of political art for its role in stirring people across America to
recognize the swelling wave of the campaign. It was also, arguably, the
case with the famous ballerina-on-a-bull poster that Adbusters magazine
created for Occupy Wall Street. Though the odds are slim that any one
image (aside from a stirring photograph) will achieve a sustained place
in the political conversation, social media means that a potent picture
can light a thousand small fires—and may come to embody a zeitgeist.
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