We should be doing something in Darfur, right? I mean, Mia Farrow's fast didn't seem to work. How about an exhibit of paintings about the conflict to help raise awareness? Oh, wait, everybody knows already? If everybody knows why aren't we doing anything? I mean, this has been going on for over six years and over a half a million people have died.
I'm an artist, I have the power to help, right?
When I signed up for this cultural-worker gig, I was told stories about artists being persecuted by dictators - thrown into cattle cars along with the rebels and intellectuals in an attempt to "cut off the head of the revolution". In America today, would anyone even bother with the artists?
Hurricane Katrina inspired a lot of solid
artwork, having the advantage of being a highly visual catastrophe. But even so, did any of the artwork affect change? Did the artwork have a goal?
Andwhat about less visual political issues, like a banking crisis?
With all the media bombardment - television screens in elevators, websites, blogs, social media and Brangelina, do we really need artists to take a stab at these issues? Has political art become obsolete?
The reason I keep going back to
Rebel Sell is because they make the argument that the belief that you "vote with every dollar you spend" is a myth. It lulls us into complacency, thinking our hipster spending habits are changing the world. It's the same complacency as believing that through our very nature as artists, we're making a difference. Its the flip side of the same denial coin. I used to believe that my art could help bring power to it's knees, but I don't any more. Now I subscribe to the tedious truth that I need to do the same stuff everyone else does, get educated, write emails, get involved the old fashioned way. So in this spirit, I pass on this link to you
www.savedarfur.org/.
Will it help? I don't know, but it's probably more effective than doing an apartment gallery show to raise awareness about the issue.
Fight me on this one, people. Take me to task. Show me recent visual political art that's affected policy change, or a way that visual art could.
political cartoon attempted by Kathryn Born
photo from artfordarfur.org
"In my day artists wanted to be outcasts, pariahs. Now they are all integrated into society" --Marcel Duchamp
I think that it's a mistake to say that Art and Artists should somehow be responsible for solving the Darfur crisis. Why stop with Darfur? Why not make all the crisis' in the world the problem of the artists?
I liked the approach of the Prospect.1 Biennial after Katrina. Their goal was simple: to bring people to New Orleans thereby increasing tourism and revenue. They weren't altruistic about their goals, the city and the people there needed more revenue coming in and they created an art fair to do it. The ArtForum articles on it were particularly interesting.
To debate you a bit, I think artists have sold themselves short at just being attention getting, or an attraction. I believe two things about art
1. Art is powerful
2. Art is for everyone
And the reason I'm so sassy and tongue and cheek about this is that I think there is an anemic quality to art, and protest art that's not even aware of its potential.
When I was little, ok, just looked it up, when I was 12, the mini-series "the Day After" aired http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Day_After
Per wikipedia: On the night of its television broadcast (Sunday, November 20, 1983), ABC and many of its local TV stations opened several 1-800 hotlines with counselors standing by to calm jittery viewers.
IT WAS HUGE. The schools made lesson plans to prep us for this and disucss it the next day. There were news shows "The Day after 'The Day After'"
It was a TV show and it changed everything in the dialogue about nuclear war, and it changed everything for me as an artist to see the power of story.
You had to be around at the time to know the huge, history-changing effect. And it was a TV show that caused this nation-wide change of heart.
And in my formative writing years ... well, I won't start spinning yarns... but art has the power "to move men's hearts".
Right now, most of political art is bad.. but it doesn't have to be! It's untapped potential is vast.
well I had this great response but I wasn't logged in and the site lost it.
Abraham,
I will log that as a bug, it's happened to me too.
If you are willing to write it out, I could put it up as a post, rather than a comment.
K
I think that your talent, and directed passion to make a difference is powerful.
I am the Executive Director of Exhibit Darfur. We are putting together a new track that includes paintings from emerging artists, raising awareness to end the Darfur conflict. Do you want to provide work for this exhibit?
Please check out our site, http://www.exhibitdarfur.com, and email me at your convenience, jeffs@gristudios.com.
Cheers!
Jeff
Jeff, thanks for commenting. Yes, please send more information (arttalkchicago -at- gmail dot com). Let me know when this comes to Chicago, I couldn't click on the map link.
But while you're here, I want to ask you a question, in all seriousness.
How much of the problem about the world letting this tragic situation continue is due to a lack of awareness about the situation, OR about the lack of understanding about the global organizations we expect to "do something about it" being ineffective and unempowered? Why can't artist take the next, more controvercial step, and create awareness of WHY there is so much gridlock that keeps anything from being done. We make fun of our presidents, why can't we make fun of the UN?
I'd like to see an art exhibit about the International Crimes Tribunal being largely symbolic at this date, or an art exhibit about a vision for them being allowed to do what they were created to do, and ending war in the process.
(I'll also add, since I posted this piece,that the Holocaust Museum in Skokie is doing a show "Photojournalists Respond to Darfur http://www.ilholocaustmuseum.org/pages/exhibitions/13.php.)