“I went from being an artist who makes things, to being an artist who makes things happen.” – Jeremy Deller.
“What strikes me is the fact that in our society, art has become something which is related only to objects and not to individuals, or to life. That art is something which is specialized or which is done by experts who are artists. But couldn’t everyone’s life become a work of art? Why should the lamp or the house be an art object, but not our life?”
― Michel Foucault
“Artists are the gatekeepers of truth. We are civilization’s anchor. We are the compass for humanity’s conscience”. – Paul Robeson
The last posts have come from the result of a 9 week period understanding and challenging an incident that took place on the 3rd of March.
I haven’t posted since the beginning of March because my work that I had been talking about in my previous posts had been derailed by weight of carrying this experience. My work had now turned into protest art not intended for a degree show but to question why a modern day cultural setting could respond to the comments said. The initial video that I had created inspired by the book invisible man was the beginning of a narrative where each response produced another question.
I have been continuing to re-valuate my thoughts on the whole matter over the past 2 months, from the sense of alienation to the actual comments and response made on the day, to the lack of support within the framework of my close surrounds, to the strength that I have found via the text of writers like Paulo Freire and Henry Giroux and Pierre Bourdieu whose words have given me a way to articulate and have shown me a clearer and larger incite of why like incidents like this occur and how ‘the strength of weak ties’ in power of social media can attempt to provide actions of a civic value. The most positive aspect has been seeing how some of my peers have started to question their own interdependence of the surroundings they are in via dialogue with fellow colleagues, friends or partners, which can only be a good thing because ‘awareness of other’ is key in the role of incidents like this not taking place in the future.
TAFTtalk – Henry Giroux
