Lecture 3 - Art, politics and censorship

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Art Matters: Illuminating Contemporary ArtShepparton Art Museum2015

LECTURE 3: ART, POLITICS AND CENSORSHIP

Marco Fusinato, There is no authority, Anna Schwartz Gallery, Sydney, 2012

Works by Banksy in the West BankPart of the West Bank Wall’s Street Art Takeover, 2010

“what types of relations are being produced, for whom, and

why?”

Claire Bishop, ‘Antagonism and Relational Aesthetics,’ October, Vol 110, Fall, 2004, pp.51-79

Installation view of the 7th Berlin Biennale, 2012

Gerard Silva, Art IV, 2012

Edward Kienholz, Art for Art’s Sake, 1959

John Heartfield, Blut und Eisen (Blood and Iron), 1934

Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry, theatrical trailer, dir. Alison Klayman, 2012

Ai Weiwei, Sichuan Earthquake Photos (detail), 2008

Ai Weiwei, Remembering, 2009Haus de Kunst, Munich

Political Approaches

• Postmodern politics• No universal sense of truth• Self-organising and local, but also fragmented

• Cultural materialism (materialist dialectics)• Requires cultural interpretation of art to consider a range of contexts:

Art theory Social practices EconomicsPsychology Technology Popular cultureGender Race SexualityGeography Urbanism Historical research

• Does not predict what form culture will take

Chantal Mouffe, “Art and Democracy:Art as an Agnostic Intervention in Public Space”, 2008

“Can artistic practices still play a critical role in a society where the difference between art and advertising have become blurred and where artists and cultural workers have become a necessary part of capitalist production?” P.7

“This has led some to claim that art had lost its critical power because any form of critique is automatically recuperated and neutralized by capitalism.” P.7

“According to the agonistic approach, public spaces are always plural and the agonistic confrontation takes place on a multiplicity of discursive surfaces.” P.10

Chantal Mouffe, “Art and Democracy:Art as an Agnostic Intervention in Public Space”, 2008

Four different kinds of critical art:

•Art which engages with existing political reality•Art which explores non-normative subject positions•Art which critiques its own political condition•Art which attempts to imagine alternative ways of living

Barbara Kruger, Untitled (Your body is a battleground), 19

Guerilla Girls, Naked, 1988

Shirin Neshat,Rebellious Silence, 1994

Santiago Sierra, 250cm line tattooed on 6 paid people, 1999

Helmut Smits, Parking for white cars only, 2006

Richard Lewer, I wish I was as lucky as you, 2013SAM Collection

Voina, FEAST, or wake in the Metro, 2007

Voina, Palace Revolution, 2010

AES+F, The Witnesses of the Future – The Islamic Project, 1996-2003

Jeremy Deller, Battle of Orgreave, 2001

Mark Wallinger, State Britain, 2007

Brian Haw’s original protest

Mark Wallinger, State Britain, 2007

Marco Fusinato, Double Infinitive 2, 2009

Raeda Saadeh, Vacuum, 2007

Deborah Kelly and Boat-People.org, Muffled Protest, 2010

Deborah Kelly and Tina Fiveash, Hey Hetero! series, 2001

Elmgreen and Dragset, Prada Marfa, 2005Chihuahuan Desert, Texas

Paul Yore, The Big Rainbow Funhouse, 2010

Paul Yore, Everything is Fucked, 2013

Brett Bailey, Exhibit B, installation view, Edinburgh, 2014

David Marr, Art, Ethics and the Law, ABC/Fora TV, 2009

Andreas Sterzing, David Wojnarowicz (Silence = Death), 1989

Some Key Ideas from this lecture

• Art is open to different readings depending on the viewer, and some viewers will interpret works in more political ways than others

• Contemporary theory increasingly argues that all art is political• Art either reinforces, rejects or renders invisible the status quo• Alternative argument is that art is just for art’s sake: aesthetics

• While art might be political, it could be argued that it doesn’t change the world; however, it does exist in a relationship with the world and can influence action

• Art under capitalism struggles to challenge the prevailing order since capitalism is dynamic (Mouffe)• The way to challenge this, according to Mouffe, is agonistic art

• Hal Foster says political art is about “actuality”, registering different levels of experience (aesthetic, temporal, social, historical) in a work

• It can be difficult to make challenging work without facing censorship