#capitalistart

I admit that when I read the article I cringed a little, because some of his criticisms are spot on. I consider myself a socially engaged artist. I was aware that “The World Isn’t Listening,” because the only people who attend this kind of event are engaged artists, engaged critics, engaged journalists, engaged philosophers etc. We’re preaching to the choir. DHJ’s criticism that most of us come from a leftist background is true. Our point of view drives us into a tedious clichéd approach of illustrating some version of the “us against them” scenario, what Alana Jelinek would call a binary. DHJ’s complaint is that an artists knowledge doesn’t go far enough, that our methods aren’t thorough enough, that our voices aren’t trained enough in any other discipline to take it on as a subject for work.

DJH also tries to describe the true function of art in this way: “Of art one can expect new, unfamiliar images, insights, ideas and emotions that aren’t able to find place in the other societal pillars. Good art mediates novelty, disarrangement and unpredictability, beauty and surprise – attributes that are still largely found in the work of the ‘normal’ artists.” The issue with this description of art is that it falls into the ambiguous territory of artspeak. The terms used by DHJ have been appropriated by artists and critics in order to justify the existence of art practices without using reason.

However untrained we may be any other disciplines that are not arbitrary taste, we as artists have never not been part of wider society. Whenever the world goes through a shift, we are moved by it as much as the next person. We process and react and our reactions can become artworks. I see the politically engaged artist as someone who is experiencing a shift of some magnitude, and takes the time to react because the change affects them directly. The more precise a reaction, the more effective. On this point I agree with DHJ, that our reactions could use more nuance and less binary.

Anyway, in the holiday spirit, I want to share an advent calendar that describes dilemmas commonly experienced by artists and artworld workers, which could be food for thought. Click on the image to read it!