Contemporary capitalism and art
Cultural Democracy in Art
Pierre Bourdieu believed that there are other forms of capital other than merely financial. He suggests that cultural, symbolic, and social capital all contribute to class systems and wealth divides in society. (Huang, 2019, p45) He considered the interplay of these forms. Cultural capital refers to knowledge, skills, and belongings which then reflect in behaviour, what Bourdieu refers to as ‘habitus.’ (Huang, 2019, p46) Social capital is the ability to have connections and networks within a group. Symbolic capital is simply the recognition of cultural, social, and financial capital which automatically adds a third dimension to an individual’s status There are examples of cultural capital in the film, “Saltburn.” The main character, Oliver, while trying to fit in with a wealthy family, secretly teaches himself facts about some ceramics in the home, to gain favour with the father. This is how he is attempting to circumvent the preconceptions brought forward by his economic class, and his lack of cultural capital in that space.
An original work of art is considered not only an asset but an investment. A similarity across many assets collected by the wealthy is that the original utility or goal of the object becomes irrelevant and instead its sole objective to the person or for-profit organization that owns it is its monetary value. The value of a work of art is partly determined by the fame and notoriety an artist has gained (i.e. their symbolic capital). In this way, authorship and reputation heavily dictate an artwork's ability to generate wealth. Originals by unestablished artists have little to no monetary value despite being physically similar objects. The value can also be influenced by external economic interests, “...board members are both Wall Street and the regulators tasked with policing the institution they steward and their stewardship at the same time.” (Halperin, 2019) In this article, it is argued that there is a contradiction here considering investment portfolios often contain severe ethical problems, and reconciling this with ethical, representational, and politically effective museum curation is impossible unless there is a separation between funding and governance. Helen Gorrill argues in
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‘Women Can’t Paint,’ “...the symbolic capital value of an artist’s inclusion within the museum collection can be said to significantly impact upon the economic value of an artist’s work.” (Gørrill, 2020, p75) This is reflected in financial capital too, “Tate director Alan Bowness observes that ‘it is only the museum artists whose work begins to rise to exceptional prices’” (Gørrill, 2020, p78)
Therefore, the whims of board members of museums not only dictate what is viewed by the public but also dictates the financial status of the artists themselves. This completely undermines the ideals of equality outwardly professed by arts institutions, and the goal of having donation-based galleries. Working-class artists are affected profoundly, “...I found it odd that nobody had asked me about the difficulties my social class presents, which, when intersected with other factors, has certainly been the biggest obstacle I have faced.” (Mahfouz, 2019) Working-class artists face exclusion based on geographical location, as well as access to connections, time, and resources to build their practice. Working-class people, artists, and viewers alike have been priced out of London, which, in turn, impacts their Tate inclusion. (Gørrill, 2020, p94)
In the essay ‘For Cultural Democracy: A Critique of Elitism in Art Education’ by Robert Berrson he argues that Art education should strive for the concept of Cultural Democracy, “Cultural Democracy equates with equality of opportunity for all persons, classes, and groups to create, study, and enjoy the arts.” (Berrson, 1983, p29) Berrson argues that the Reagan administration, though I would apply this concept to the capitalist art establishment more widely, would have made their decisions based on the fear of allowing marginalised people and particularly workers to share their experiences. (Berrson, 1983, p94) According to the paper, “Social Class, Taste and Inequalities in the Creative Industries” by the project ‘Panic!’, workers from ethnic minority backgrounds in music, performing, and visual arts made up 4.8% and working-class workers made up 18.2%. (Brook, et al., 2018, p12) In this way, capitalism can often influence and interact with art alongside sociological issues such as racism, patriarchy, and other forms of historic and current oppression. There is a slow improvement with a more diverse group of artists being included in galleries like the Tate (Tate, Black identities
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and art). However, this is often tokenistic and not reflective of real intersectional approaches to equality in art. If true equality was to be achieved museums like the Tate would not have to draw attention to it through performative press releases. (Gørrill, 2020, p75) These trends mitigate the potential for the art world itself to be more egalitarian, which in turn, reflects its impact on wider society.
How we talk about art
Language is crucial in how political landscapes change. The communication of ideas and the experiences of others is fundamental to furthering understanding and empathy between groups of people. ‘Artspeak’ is often used in fine art spaces to describe the way successful and renowned artists often use overly difficult vocabulary and academic language to talk about their work. This is a double-edged sword considering some of the concepts being explored through their artwork may necessitate this language, but equally, it may make the work inaccessible to large groups of people. This creates a culture around fine art that many would call elitist, given that the vocabulary needed is a form of cultural capital in and of itself. The ability to parse descriptions and understand them automatically grants someone a sense of belonging and therefore access to further forms of capital such as social or even financial if their career benefits from it. This use of language does a disservice to political art as it excludes people, and this results in a failure in communication between artists and the public. Lunchtime Gallery in Glasgow attempts to drive against this and create a space that does not intimidate and instead allows for connection and learning. This is an important part of grassroots arts spaces.
The Otolith Group, a London-based art collective I encountered recently uses incredibly academic language to discuss their work and themes. During a talk of theirs I attended, a common knee-jerk reaction in the audience was that of indignancy and disappointment. It does create an environment of exclusivity whereby an audience member may either feel as though they are not intellectual
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enough to understand art, or they may draw the conclusion that the art world is deceptive and pointless, leading them to disengage with it. A frequent defence of this is artists saying that they refuse to be patronising to art viewers, but this excuse lacks nuance. If the purpose of a political artwork in this space is to impact the psyche of the viewer, leading to shifts in awareness or beliefs, inaccessibility through language means that it fails in this. Artspeak or International Art English was shaped by 20th-century theorists, including Foucault and Adorno. Their concepts necessitated this language at the time. (Artspeak, International Art English, and how to avoid sounding like a pompus art snob, 2024) But these traditions in language are arguably less relevant now. The goal of all artists, but especially political artists (given the universality of their subject material) should be to ensure they are not intentionally alienating to others, despite often having to describe complex themes. There is no reason why art should not be for everyone.
Pushing back against the culture industry
Walter Benjamin’s essay, The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction is relevant to the relationship between politics and aesthetics considering he was a Jewish Marxist who wrote specifically on shifts in art within wider political contexts while living through the Nazi regime. Benjamin suggests that, due to the discovery of film and photography, art is losing its ‘aura’ which can only exist with a work of art’s physical proximity to the viewer, its uniqueness and individuality in space and time. (Benjamin et al., 2008, p22) The aura is, for Benjamin, a type of magic that is removed when a piece of art becomes a reproduction. It is worth mentioning, however, that the loss of the aura was not solely something negative for Benjamin. Mechanical reproducibility in art meant that art was more accessible to the average person. (Benjamin et al., 2008, p5) He appreciated the potential this held for the dissemination of revolutionary ideas within a population. However, the loss of the aura did not have the positive political effect Benjamin had hoped. In contrast, the aura is important to the monetary value of a work of art in the fine art world. As discussed earlier, originals are worth significantly more than reproductions.
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His philosophical successors Adorno and Horkheimer argued that in the United States, reproducibility was used to maximise efficiency and therefore profit, due to the commodification of reproduced objects They referred to this as the ‘Culture Industry.’ The mechanism for this, according to Adorno and Horkheimer is the mass production, and mass consumption of media in capitalist countries produced in service of distracting populations through mindless entertainment. They wrote that almost all media, film, radio, and indeed art had reached a level of standardisation (Horkheimer & Adorno, 2001, p128) meaning the function of these cultural objects served only to dull the senses and distract from dissatisfaction in the population. The other objective of this ‘sameness’ is the profit that results from maximising efficiency. These theorists suggest that art is being treated the same as all other industries under capitalism About movies and radio, they wrote, “They call themselves industries; and when their directors’ incomes are published, any doubt about the utility of the finished products is removed.” (Horkheimer & Adorno, 2001, p11) They argued that the reason for political complacency and opposition to revolution is the continued passivity created by the endless consumerism orchestrated by the culture industry.
All this to say that capitalism has been able to place a financial value on both art that sustains the aura and that which does not. (Horkheimer & Adorno, 2001, p152)
‘Low’ and ‘High’ Art
What I refer to as high art, a part of high culture, represents wealth, and champions intellectualism and aesthetic value. Low art is often considered amateur yet expresses a deeper level of politicisation and emotion. Both, in their purest form, involve artisanship, though low art tends to be more reproducible Under the conditions of the culture industry, both are commodified in different ways and their value is measured by what they can do as a commodity. Some low art movements act as a response to the commodification of art and instead get co-opted into the culture industry itself, dampening their ethos.
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Street art is quite often free from both sustains its aura and resists reproducibility yet is not commodified. This gives it real potential as a political medium, and it is why radical political sentiments are often common within graffiti movements. However, street artist Banksy has not been immune to the commercialisation and commodification of his work. The way he has reached a level of popularity with the wealthy, and quite often the same people who would be in favour of arresting graffiti artists means that he does a disservice to the spirit of graffiti and historic street art in its most basic sense. He is now a household name with sold-out exhibitions and products. With the help of Pia Klemp, a German sea watch captain, Banksy sent a rescue boat to enable Libyan refugees to cross the Mediterranean safely. He wrote in an email to Klemp, “I am an artist from the UK, and I’ve made some work about the migrant crisis. Obviously, I can’t keep the money. Could you use it to buy a new boat or something?” (Waddoups, 2020) Whilst many have criticised Banksy for his arguable co-option into the culture industry, there is something to be learned from his simple acknowledgment that the main purpose of politically charged art should be in favour of improving human life. Although political art should never be about generating wealth, this act could be read as engaging in a level of wealth distribution, thereby attempting to mitigate the part he is playing in the commodification of art. However, this could be interpreted as white saviourism, and I would argue it is the bare minimum. We should hold celebrity political artists like Banksy to a higher standard.
Çeta, a group of Albanian street artists use their work to convey anti-capitalist messaging. Just like Bansky at the start of his career, they use anonymity to avoid persecution. Anonymity may be also frequently used to avoid playing a part in the culture industry and has possible benefits to the democratisation of political artistic messaging. “We can easily imagine a culture where discourse would circulate without any need for an author. Discourses, whatever their status, form, or value, and regardless of our manner of handling them, would unfold in a pervasive anonymity.” (Foucault, 1979, p28) Although Michel Foucault himself admits in ‘What is an Author?’ that he should have looked at the function of the author with a wider lens, thus including artists as authors, his ideas are
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still relevant to the discussion of anonymity in art. Graffiti culture exists, for the most part, within this ideal of ‘pervasive anonymity’ where both Banksy and Çeta originate. However, they both have authorship over their work to gain credibility in a world that is not tolerant of graffiti in its traditional sense. Their attempts to separate the artist names from their identities may be an attempt to utilise their author names purely as specific identifiers without the idolisation of the individual. Personal anonymity means it is less likely that artists are celebritised, normalised, and therefore have their political messaging diluted. This is what happened to Banksy’s authorship, despite his anonymity. On the other hand, Çeta remains an underground group not known globally. The lack of reach means their work can only have a certain level of impact. Therefore, anonymity can have varying results in terms of efficacy against the pervasive political narratives the artists are aiming to challenge.
Many artists who start with strong political beliefs and firm goals to make a difference can easily be absorbed into the culture industry through financial success. This can even happen after the artist’s death and even against their wishes. Famous pieces by Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring have been used in collaborations with high street shops such as Primark and H&M. Basquiat used imagery that was widely interpreted to be a critique of consumerism and in this way, the products contradict themselves. Although Haring was broadly supportive of Benjamin’s notion of accessibility of art through reproducibility, seen through Pop Shop and his slogan ‘Art is for everybody.’ (Cited from Keith Haring: Art is for everybody: The broad, 2023) While this may suggest he would be in favour of his merch being sold, he did hold anti-consumerist sentiments, ‘“I could earn more money if I just painted a few things and jacked up the price. My shop is an extension of what I was doing in the subway stations, breaking down the barriers between high and low art,” said Haring. The Pop Shops were a way of “taking art off the pedestal. I’m giving it back to the people.”’ (Cited from The Buyer's Guide to Keith Haring) Ironically, I accessed these quotes from a website designed to inform art collectors about their potential investments, something Haring did not want his art to do. This behaviour is not dissimilar to that of fast fashion brands, even if the profiteering mechanism is
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different. This too was argued by Adorno and Horkheimer, “Under monopoly all mass culture is identical, and the lines of its artificial framework begin to show through. The people at the top are no longer so interested in concealing monopoly: as its violence becomes more open, so its power grows.” (Horkheimer & Adorno, 2001, p121)
Reactions From the Powerful
The fine art establishment succeeds in creating a gap between the political messaging and the people who have the potential to be politically mobilised by it. Many artists have the goal to challenge the status quo, provide new perspectives, and hope to draw attention to issues in society. This aim is less easily achieved when the system an artist is operating within is the same one, they wish to critique. This is shown either through censorship or criminalisation of art, for example, two members of the Russian Punk group, Pussy Riot were arrested on the charge of hosting a protest in a cathedral. Their sentence was in response to their overt stance against Putin, according to his opposition. One of the members of the group stated, “Our imprisonment serves as a clear and unambiguous sign that freedom is being taken away from the entire country" (Cited from ‘Pussy riot members jailed for two years for hooliganism,’ 2012). According to artist Ai Weiwei, “Political and cultural discourses are dominated by the need to make profits ... A complete system has been formed, spanning from the shaping of aesthetics under these conditions, through cultural education, art criticism and the curatorial processes of galleries and museums, to artworks’ eventual entry into the narrative of Western art history. This system reflects the values and aesthetic tendencies of capitalism in every respect.” (Weiwei, 2021)
Diego Rivera, a Mexican political artist, and communist became world-renowned during the 20th century. Whilst he was extremely successful and well-liked in the Western world, he was not immune to censorship. In 1932 he was commissioned by the Rockefeller family to create a mural fresco in the Rockefeller Centre. However, his work was plastered over despite protest and outcry
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due to the fact he had depicted Vladimir Lenin in the work. (Wolfe, 2022) This was too controversial because of the widespread anti-communist sentiment in the United States at the time. This is an example of an artwork that deeply challenged the comfort of the capitalist status quo at the time of its creation but did not threaten the system itself in any meaningful way. This is further evidenced by the fact that the reproduction stands untouched in the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City. Whilst Rivera is beloved in Mexico, it is still a country governed by capitalism, so it is worth enquiring why the reaction to the reproduced artwork is not the same. Possible factors are temporality, mortality, and historical context. Mexico was not as embroiled in the Cold War as the United States was and was not a victim of the level of McCarthyism present in the US. The fact that the USSR has fallen and is now a part of history, and the fact that Rivera is memorialised may also create the impression that communist ideas are less dangerous to capitalist countries than they used to be since they are considered by most to be firmly historical. A pervasive attitude is that it cannot be applied to the problems faced now.
Medu Art Ensemble was also instrumental in using arts and culture to stand up to the apartheid state. They utilised printmaking, posters, and other forms of ‘low art.’ to spread their message. At a conference in Gaborone, they stated, “Culture is a weapon of Struggle.” (Cited from Seidman , 2022)
They were targeted for their activism, “On 14 June 1985 the South African military targeted Medu members in Botswana in a cross-border raid. They killed 14 people and destroyed the art-making collective.” (Seidman, 2022)
When art is repressed and responded to violently from those it aims to challenge, it is an indication that it has the potential to succeed in what it sets out to achieve. There is no other reason resources would be put into curbing it. This tells us that if we upset those in power, we’re doing something right.
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Art and propaganda
Benjamin emphasises the revolutionary potential of artwork that can be duplicated (as shown below). This allows for the distribution of media to a much wider audience and thus is a good tool for progressive propaganda that has the potential to mobilise large groups of people. The fact that propaganda is effective proves Benjamin’s hypothesis but also reflects his concern that it matters what ideas are being spread, as fascism can utilise propaganda too. This also raises the question of whether reproduced art is automatically propaganda if it’s politically charged, and whether that removes its artistic quality.
Kazimir Malevich was a Russian artist whose work was responsible for significant transformations in abstract art, and art more generally in the early 20th century. He created the movement known as Suprematism. Inspired by cubism and futurism, Malevich’s intention through the Supremacist movement was to reject representational art. Suprematism aimed to remove the ability to see any real-world object and used only geometric shapes to evoke emotions and spirituality from the piece. The aim was to achieve “domination of pure feelings and perceptions.” or a “purity of form” through the work. (Meyer, 2023) While Malevich’s goal was more spiritual than political, suprematism inspired the movement of constructivism, whereby geometric shapes were used to illustrate the revolutionary aims of the Trotskyite factions of the government. The example of the movement from suprematism to constructivism is an intriguing example of the blurring of the concepts of art and propaganda. It was felt by the revolutionary government that the art of the time must shift away from Malevich’s intentions and instead be used to inject political messaging. This is seen in the famous example, Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge by El Lissitzky. This lithograph, heavily influenced by suprematism, but falling under the category of propaganda was created in support of the Red Army and the revolution. (Dr. Charles Cramer and Dr. Kim Grant et al., 2019) It was used as a form of agitprop (Fo, Agitprop 2023).
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“By the early 1920s Constructivist art had evolved to accommodate the idea of Productivism which took the aesthetic principles of Constructivism and applied them to “everyday” art such as photography, fashion, graphic and textile design, cinema, and theatre.”(Ng, 2012) Avante-Garde movements flourished in the years succeeding 1914, spurred on by revolutionary fervour, considering pre-revolutionary art was emphasised by the tsarist regime and the wealthy as needing to intentionally lack social purpose. Many pro-revolutionaries felt that abstraction in art was still alienating to working people, Lenin said, "Art belongs to the people. It must leave its deepest roots in the very thick of the working masses. It should be understood by the masses and loved by them. It must unite the feelings, thoughts and will of the masses and raise them. It should awaken artists in them and develop them.” (Cited from Zetkin, 1934) Socialist realism sought to establish this connection to the worker. It worked as representation. Georg Lukazc endorsed the Stalinist doctrine of Socialist Realism as he believed that it served to represent human experience from a materialist perspective, Lukazc states, “For this reason, such works of art allow us to comprehend the universal aspects of our existence and to consciously participate in the collective life of humanity.” (Cited from Stahl, 2013) The general impression at the time was that avant-garde was decadent and reminiscent of Western Bourgeois art culture. The problem with Socialist realism as a strict doctrine is that it excludes the other objectives art serves for many people. It inhibits their freedom of expression, creativity, and spirituality as artists by enforcing materialism as a strict philosophical dogma. It also crosses the realm into propaganda given its idealist representations. In this way, it adheres to both the ethical and representational regimes, but rejects the aesthetic. The movement from Suprematism to Constructivism to Socialist Realism is indicative of a movement from the aesthetic regime, to the ethical and aesthetic to the ethical and representational.
The famous ‘Lord Kitchener Wants You’ poster by Alfred Leete released in 1914 aimed to encourage conscription into the British Army. By 1915, it had convinced over a million men to join (Conscription: The first World War - UK parliament) This is a clear example of how effective propaganda can be in
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affecting the actions and motivations of a large group of people. This is, in part, due to Lord Kitchener’s standing at the time, and the general effect he had on the public, "a figure of absolute will and power, an emblem of British masculinity" (Tynan, 2013, p35) Meaning, the message may be more effective if there is a level of respect or admiration for the person sharing it. It is difficult to find examples of art affecting people’s actions as strongly as this piece did. To expand on Foucault’s premise on authorship, “Modern criticism, in its desire to 'recover' the author from a work ... wished to prove the value of a text by ascertaining the holiness of its author” (Foucault, 1979, p21) In this context, this quote applies heavily to Kitchener’s reputation manufactured by the British military. This means that political art may need to emulate propaganda to affect change. This, however, could potentially strip it of its aura and take a lot of the complexity and symbolism out of a work of art. It becomes less of a creative, artistic endeavour and serves more of an advertising purpose. In opposition to this, the influential movement of Dadaism utilised nonsensical surrealism to promote its anti-war stance. Symbolically, this was to communicate how nonsensical war is. Dadaism became a well-known creative language in Germany and internationally. Whether it helped to promote anti-war attitudes or was merely a useful art form for protest and unity is unclear, but it did become well-known and influential to political art globally, “Dadaist manifestations actually guaranteed a quite vehement distraction by making artworks the center of scandal. One requirement was paramount: to outrage the public.” (Benjamin et al., 2008, p39)
According to Alain Locke, propaganda is reactionary and oppositional. It is responding to external forces. On the other hand, art for Locke is more intrinsic. He writes, “My chief objection to propaganda, apart from its besetting sin of monotony and disproportion, is that it perpetuates the position of group inferiority even in crying out against it. For it leaves and speaks under the shadow of a dominant majority whom it harangues, cajoles, threatens, or supplicates.” (Locke, 1928) Locke also suggests that propaganda perpetuates group inferiority by drawing attention to the injustices in
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society. In the context of The Harlem Renaissance, Locke felt that the propagandistic purposes of Black art were doing a disservice to purely making art about the stories, lives, and experiences of black art. He believed that the “fundamental purpose of art and its function as a tap root of vigorous, flourishing living.” (Locke, 1928) All this to say, the efficacy of propagandistic communication deserves closer inspection as I believe it can benefit political art. However, we must be cautionary not to allow it to cause problems, false assumptions, and negative social consequences.
Context
Where, when, and by whom art is viewed is an important factor. In many ways, political messaging can be minimized by where and how a piece of art is experienced. By decontextualising art, we can incorporate elements that are sometimes missing in galleries and museums.
Community Art
Community art is usually good at driving against fine art tradition. It can have fewer restrictions than ‘high art,’ can reach more ordinary people, and can include those people in what is understood by many to be an exclusive, elitist world. This participation can promote passion and care for the project in those taking part. For example, Glasgow-based artist Steven Skrynka’s grassroots project, ‘Wall of Death’ defied the expectations of the art establishment and was constructed outside of the usual process that many fine artists go through to be able to create work, i.e., applying for arts funding, connecting with collectors, and seeking out commissions by galleries and art institutions. He constructed a Wall of Death (a large wooden cylinder used by motorcyclists often in circus settings.) This piece was created during the COVID-19 lockdowns, and with the help of members of the community, friends, and family, they managed to create an enormous, awe-inspiring structure. They raised money through donations and the entire process was done independently of arts funding institutions. While the concept behind the piece was not inherently political, the circumvention of
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the status quo created a profoundly political message, one that disavowed the perceived need for official capitalist structures to be involved in art. I believe that Skrynka showed to some extent, the ability to work and create outside the culture industry through his resolution to make the art happen independently of institutional recognition and official funding routes. Whilst Skrynka needed a level of monetary and social capital to achieve this, so it may not be possible for every artist, we can learn from the strong emphasis on community. Participatory artwork is helpful in the connections needed to pursue collective aims.
Another example is Udi Aloni’s version of Waiting for Godot performed by refugees in the Jenin refugee camp in occupied Palestine. While the play in its usual context is not overtly political, in this context the political symbolism was extraordinarily strong. An interpretation of this version could be that ‘Godot’ represents Palestinians waiting for freedom from Israeli apartheid and occupation that may never arrive. This example also links in with media and the way that changes the way an artwork is received publicly. Theatre can be a powerful tool for political messaging even if it often falls outside the remit of what contemporary art usually looks like. I.e. in gallery settings. Not only is this an example of participatory community work, but it is also politically charged, which allows for catharsis not only for the audience but for the actors themselves. It lets members of the community explore through art, a hardship and experience they all share. According to Benjamin, the stage actor maintains the ‘aura’ through the medium, “The aura surrounding Macbeth on the stage cannot be divorced from the aura which, for the living spectators, surrounds the actor who plays him.”
(Benjamin et al., 2008, p31) In this example, the benefit of the aura here is not monetary value, but community connection. This has real potential for the catharsis of the medium to transfer into action.
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Decontextualising Public Engagement
Martha Rosler is an American artist who now works predominantly with video, photography, and site-specific media such as installation and performance. One theme that has been present in her practice for a very long time has been the need to take her work out of fine art contexts. This is seen in her work, ‘House Beautiful: Bringing the War Home’ (1967-72) Rosler created collages juxtaposing images depicting the horrors of America’s involvement in Vietnam at the time with the niceties of wealthy homes in the states. She intentionally published her works in flyers, magazines and underground publications. Her intent was for her pieces to be more likely to be viewed by the American public. Her goal was clearly to create an awareness of the war and to promote anti-war action against the government. Because fine art is historically exclusionary of working-class communities, it would only reach a select number of people. Due to their social status, many may be indifferent to the war or even benefitting from it. In this example, it is evident how important the context of the publishing apparatus was concerning the effectiveness of her communication. It conceptually made sense, too as her intention through the depictions themselves was to bring the war into the living room. Both her subject matter and method of publishing achieved this decontextualisation.
A running theme through all these examples is a decontextualisation of fine art from the usual places and processes. The freedom found in collaborative work not tied by the constraints of commissions, governance boards, and critics is crucial to meaningfully progressive arts. In opposition to the idea of decontextualising art, the preconceptions of the viewer may also change the political meaning of an artwork. According to Rancière, a work that is intended to be political in one way may be interpreted very differently by someone with a different viewpoint. In reference to specific politically charged examples he states, “These plastic or narrative devices can be identified with an exemplary political awareness of the contradictions inherent in a social and economic order. They can, however, just as well be denounced as reactionary nihilism or even considered to be pure
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formal machines without political content.” (Rancière et al., 2011,61) This means there is a level of unpredictability when it comes to political messaging.
Media and Emotional Experience
Storytelling and digital media
Through examining the way art reaches our senses we can tell a lot about its political impact. I would confidently argue that human beings have often been very receptive to narratives and storytelling to entertain and to gain an understanding of the world around us and the experiences of other people. The tradition of storytelling has been prevalent for thousands of years (Parkes, 2020) in various cultures and geographical locations. This ability to tell stories to connect with people engages focus and personal experiences in a way that other forms of artistic media are unable to do. Stories are much more likely to capture emotions than, for example, through statistics, “good leadership is the ability to communicate… to tell a good story” (Sinek, 2021) Often, human stories will elicit empathy in the viewer. Empathy creates the feeling in us that what is happening in the story is happening to us, we can feel it through hearing and seeing it. This reflects in our political motivations.
The story-telling abilities of film, particularly movies, outweigh the ability of contemporary art often found in gallery spaces. Film not only captures stories, but in a way where they meet two of our senses. Film was, for Benjamin, a big part of the revolution of reproducibility. He argued that mass production created a state of distraction, “Distraction and concentration form an antithesis, which may be formulated as follows, A person who concentrates before a work of art is absorbed by it; he enters into the work ... By contrast, the distracted masses absorb the work of art into themselves.” (Benjamin et al., 2008, p40) This mechanism of distraction has the potential for easy
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access to information and new ideas in the political sphere. This, along with the emotional component of storytelling allows to the viewer to care deeply about the issues being raised.
Music is also a very effective tool because it reaches people’s emotions in a very specific way through immersion and connection. This is evident in the film ‘Pride.’ (2014) Based on true events and set under Thatcher’s regime, it tells the story of The Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners group (LGSM) raising money for the mining community that is suddenly plunged into poverty after closures. At first, the town does not welcome LGSM due to their conservative beliefs toward queer identities, but when they all sing ‘Bread and Roses’ in the town hall, it brings them together. This is a watershed moment for them as they identify their shared struggles and unite against the true oppressor, “Plato contrasts a third, good form of art with writing and the theatre, the choreographic form of the community that sings and dances its own proper unity.” (Ranciére, 2015, p14) The message of the song itself acknowledges the right of every person to access both basic needs, such as food and water, but also to art, music, and culture. This is prescient in the discussion of the inaccessibility of the arts to working people. This scene had a profound impact on me and truly shows how music can unite and mobilise people to fight for their rights. Music is a tool not often utilised in fine art spaces and this may contribute to the liminal ‘soulless’ impression galleries sometimes have.
Conversely, music, film, theatre, and almost all alternative forms of art play a part in the Culture Industry. They are both heavily co-opted into serving capitalist interests and creating complacency and examples of both that go against this trend are few and far between. In this neoliberal landscape, even films that contain political messaging are often contained within a fictional world and allow ‘cultural catharses’ of any political frustrations without promoting action. This is frighteningly reminiscent of Benjamin’s hypothesis on fascism, “Fascism attempts to organize the newly proletarianized masses while leaving intact the property relations which they strive to abolish.
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It sees its salvation in granting expression to the masses but on no account granting them rights.” (Benjamin et al., 2008, p41) While neoliberalism claims to hold to the values of egalitarianism, it doesn’t reflect.
Photojournalism and Art
The link between photojournalism and political art is strong. Sam Nzima captured a photo depicting Hector Peterson, a victim of a police shooting during the Soweto Uprising in South Africa being carried by Mbuyisa Makhubu. It was instrumental in creating a movement towards the end of apartheid in South Africa, “It became the straw that broke the camel’s back, repeatedly used as a reference by both the ANC and PAC.” (Guest Profile, 2023) Documentation of pure suffering is not art, but, unfortunately, the crude display of it is sometimes necessary to promote anger and action in people. There are currently easily accessible photos and videos on social media showing the death and destruction Israel is inflicting on Palestine and I do believe they are having a political impact. Benjamin’s theory of dissemination and reproducibility in this case is working, though not well enough. There are mass protests all over the world calling for the end of the occupation, in reaction to this visual proof of the genocide of the Palestinian people. However, no singular photograph has been a watershed moment that helps to pressure powerful global governments enough to promote a ceasefire. As I am writing this, the horrific acts continue. This may be due to the over-saturation of images. Susan Sontag argues, “In these last decades ‘concerned’ photography has done at least as much to deaden conscience as to arouse it.” (Sontag, 2008, p.21) She promotes the idea of compassion fatigue, which is undoubtedly a side effect of a surplus of images of suffering. Though she does reverse this sentiment later in Regarding the Pain of Others (2004).
The clear effect journalistic images sometimes have is seldom found in fine art, though there is a phenomenon where after a period, they are viewed more as art than photojournalism This is seen in the way Nzima’s photo is now treated, as well as countless others; they are catalogued as art. However, if someone were to make the argument that this graphic imagery constitutes art at the
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time of its capture, that would be nauseating. Although artists attempt to be raw and depict real-life experiences as closely as possible, there is always a level of performance to it. The disconnect between the artist and the political events is likely contributing to a lack of political efficacy, but adding to its identity as art. I would argue more traditional modes of artistic expression such as painting, sculpture, and installation are more effective at helping an artist to express their own personal and emotional experience than evoking that in others. While there is nothing wrong with that, in the realm of politically effective art, these forms often don’t speak directly enough to political issues to create this type of impact. That leads to the conclusion that there are things these artists could learn from those who utilise digital media outside of the fine art world.
Political Art for Empowerment and Healing
Gerard Sekoto was just one of the influential artists creating art against Apartheid South Africa. His paintings both explored the strength and peace of black South Africans while maintaining a political fervour that is still remembered as impactful. His piece, Song of the Pick is a poignant depiction of black labourers working in front of a white supervisor. The use of colour, form, and composition gives inherent power to the black subjects. Through symbolism alone, the message is very clear; revolutionary action is needed for liberation.
The Harlem Renaissance was a pivotal moment in the Civil Rights Movement. There was an explosion of all forms of African American art, spanning music, sculpture, photography, and more. It was both an act of rebellion against the white supremacist state, and a cultural awakening for the black communities of Harlem. “Locke describes this rebirth as a “spiritual emancipation” and uses the analogy of “shedding the old chrysalis”.” (Cited from Harlem Renaissance art - a timeline of art in the harlem renaissance, 2023)
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Influenced by science fiction, Afrofuturism is a movement aimed at reimagining the past and future through the lens of the Black experience. It serves as a moment of connection for the African diaspora. It is an intentional imagining of a future not dictated by the oppressor. It aims to ““to create a space to breathe.” (Cited from Smith, 2023) The healing power of this type of art can be transformative in leading communities to feel empowered to fight back against systems of oppression.
Conclusion
The aesthetic regime is not a negative place to be, it provides artistic freedom and expression and the value of that cannot be overstated. However, it is important to keep the ethical regime close and utilise it to create a wider impact. Political artists have the potential to make invaluable contributions to political, social, and economic critique. Artists can positively add to progressive cultural movements. A core lesson is equality and inclusion of all groups in the arts, without having to shout it from the rooftops. It should just be. An awareness of this goal of equality in all spaces is needed. One way this can be done is to remember the power that comes with obtaining Bourdieu’s forms of capital. A potential break away from outdated forms of artistic communication to reach people from all walks of life must be considered. Too many fine art spaces attempt to promote an atmosphere of elitist ego sport while espousing progressive notions. Truly political art cannot be part of that and simultaneously create change from the ground up. Therefore, young artists should promote clarity and accessibility through language to create a new artistic environment. Whilst ensuring survival, an attempt should be made to mitigate the commodification of our work. We need to take legal risks, push boundaries, and create a meeting place between art and direct action. We can take lessons from art forms outside fine art, such as graffiti, propaganda, and journalism. Perhaps most importantly, we need to be working as a community, comprising artists and non-artists. Art can make a difference, but the systemic constraints need to be overcome first. Only then can we adequately
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respond through creative means. As Ai Weiwei reminds us in his Study of Perspective series, we need to remind ourselves that political opposition is within our power, no matter who or where we are, “When we can raise our middle finger, don’t forget to do so unhesitatingly.” (Cited from Dazed, 2023)
Political art can and must respond to suffering with immediacy and movement.
Reference List
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