How can Creative Practice be Effective Politically?

Flipping the Script by artist, writer and new media consultant Imogen O’Rorke, talks about the exhibition "9 Scripts from a Nation at War" at Tate Modern Gallery in 2008. The exhibition looked at the American war on terror, by exploring written and spoken language and how this affects identity, (the citizen) in relation to power structures (the state). O’Rorke’s opinion is that generally art isn’t doing enough politically. The exhibition however did reflect a nation so obsessed with self analysis that a kind of paralysis has occurred.

Art can be effective politically. Etched in my memory is the photograph of a Nicaraguan man tortured and blown in half, his spine left clean of flesh. But this is visual, what of the other senses to escort political ideas. At the 2nd Auckland triennial in 2004 the Public/Private exhibition, I remember clearly a sound work. A head set on the wall with a small notice beside it, which I can only vaguely recall some explanation of ten thousand people being tortured (or was it more?) What I do remember was the sound of skulls being sawn into with water dripping. I couldn’t stop my ears from listening, the work entered directly in. It brought the experience very close and I had no buffer, my imagination instantly filled in the gaps. Having said that, I don’t think art has to be hard hitting to be effective, I can think of other ways that reach me, through emotional means or humour. The curators of that specific exhibition were attempting to use creative practices to promote debate, and Hanfling noted this in his article on the exhibition when he quoted from the publicity brochure.

...the curatorial aim is to make connections that will intensify the privacy debate. At the same time, we want to reveal art making as a vibrant and challenging platform from which to express powerful, poignant and disturbing ideas. (Hanfling)

It’s a matter of where you stand in relation to others, and the manner or channel in which you reach the audience you wish to affect.

Bibliography

Hanfling, Edward. "Current Affairs: Surveying the Second Aucklad Trienial ." Art New Zealand (2004): 62-65.
O'Rorke, Imogen. Andrea Geyer's "9 Scripts from a Nation at War". 2010. On Mute .

Manuel Castells, “Communication, Power and Counter-Power in the Network Society”, International Journal of Communication 1 (2007), pp.238-266

Manual Castells is a sociologist especially associated with information society and communications research. This article from the International Journal of Communication looks at public, private and commercial communication channels and communication systems globally. It attempts to map the effects, both personally, politically, and economically and discusses the shifts and convergence happening within the communication networks.

Consequently, the battle to control, own or manipulate this space is very competitive as the “new space” has the ability to not only reach mass audiences but to also shape public opinion.
This new shift in power channels is interesting as it can have the effect of decentralising control.
“as the new media systems have a global governance but governments remain national” (Flynn p. 258)
Politicians’ manipulation of the media, for scandal politics, goes to the extent where they will disrupt information systems with fabrications if they are out of scandal to throw at an opposition. It seems the information systems are akin to a brand with its associated perceived values such as trust being a factor.

As and artist I don’t expect to locate 300,000 books in the arts library, but through the web, choice is the norm. Therefore, filtering is necessary for information to be useful. Allowing the user to observe things globally – albeit virtually.
The term “electronic autism” (Flynn p. 247) is valid still, even though the convergence of information is changing delivery and access. It still doesn’t replace actual experience yet.
Foucault’s describes power as “Expressed rather than possessed” (Flynn p. 281) and this reflects the subtleties involved in the micro-physics of power structures, and relations. All this accessibility is two way, it also measures trackability, where we go, what and where we spend and phone is all collected, to be used by interested parties to improve marketing, attempting to shift our mindsets and behaviours. Being aware of the opportunities available,as both an artist and consumer within this new space and media is empowering.
Bibliography

Castells, Manuel. "Communication, Power and Counter Power in the Network Society", International Journal of Communication 1 (2007). pp.238-266.
Flynn, Thomas R. "Foucault and the Eclipse of Vision." Modernity and the Hegemony of Vision. Ed. David M. Levin. Los Angeles, USA: University of California Press, 1993. 273-286.

Catherine David and Irit Rogoff. “In Conversation”, in Claire Doherty ed., From Studio to Situation, London: Black Dog Publishing, 2004, pp.82-89.

This article looks at the subject of place in contemporary art through the eyes of Catherine David, one of the curators for 50th Venice Biennale in 2003, specifically “Contemporary Arab Representations”, and Irit Rogoff a curator, theorist and Professor of Visual Studies at Goldsmiths College London.

The two curators agree that the subject of geo cultural perspectives cannot be mirrored by one voice, but should instead be mapped heterogeneously to give a ‘sample’ view on the politics of space, identity and belonging along with the rights that go with them. They suggest that such issues may not be critically reflected effectively by aesthetic visual practices. The structures that these perspectives function within , whether state or cultural, can sometimes limit or shut down a clear view to understanding ‘place’ whether that view comes from the inside looking out or vice versa.

I think curators can also be a filtering structure that can both hinder or escort an artwork. In response to the curators comment that aesthetic visual practices may not reflect accurately critical issues, I don’t think art has to fulfil the mammoth task of answering or reflecting ideological, political and culturally driven issues. Asking or finding the right questions may be more useful. Which is a view supported by Judy Millar in her statement
“Painting is a way of finding things out; for me it’s not a way of showing anything and that is why a painting is never complete.” (Were 92)

There will be pluralistic views as to what it means to be an artist in relation to a local and regional specifity. However some things will be a constant for artists in Aotearoa, such as the logistical and financial issues of participating physically in off shore events. Transporting work from New Zealand to the Venice Biennale and finding the funding to do so cannot be done without government assistance or private sponsorship. The State being one of the structures the curators claim may shut down or obstruct a clear view on place.
“New Zealand’s participation in Venice’s 53rd Biennale, curated by Daniel Birnbaum, requires a huge injection of capital by Creative New Zealand, which is kicking in $650,000, and a further $400,000 is expected to come from private patronage and sponsorship.” (Were 91)

Bibliography

David, Catherine & Rogoff, Irit. "In Conversation" Studio to Situation, 2009, London: Black Dog Publishing, pp. 82-89.
Were, Virginia. "Bringing painting to the church." Art News New Zealand Autumn 2009: 90-94.

Medina, Cuauhtémoc. "Contemp(t)orary: Eleven Theses." Jan 2010. e-flux. 10 April 2010 .

Cuauhtémoc Medina is an art critic, curator and historian, living and working in Mexico, his article Contemp(t)orary: Eleven Theses looks at what contemporary art is, what it means globally and whether it delivers on its promise to be contemporary.

Medina suggests that the term ‘Contemporary’ is not able to be objectively defined nor fixed chronologically, because we are too entangled within ‘the now’ to have a view of it clearly because an individual point of view will be affected by a position of view. Medina’s idea is that art has a double reception. First, as a practice in relation to its hosts society and location, and secondly, it’s positioning critically. Suggesting the process is controlled predominantly by the elite that fund it, along with the academic structures that escort it.

This idea is supported by Umberto Eco in his essay ‘Towards Semiological Guerrilla Warfare’ where he states

’When someone everyday has to write as much news as his space allows, and it has to appear readable to an audience of diverse tastes, social class, education, throughout a country, the writers freedom is already finished: The contents of the message will not depend on the author but on the technical and sociological characteristics of the medium’ (Eco p. 136)

This supports Medina’s idea that both the system and medium changes the message. suggesting the same is true for art and critical thought. Leading to the chilling thought that Eco voices “The mass media do not transmit ideologies; they are themselves an ideology” (Eco p. 136).

The concept of the contemporary could be viewed as a backward glance with a planned obsolescence process akin to Marxist philosophy and systems of control, entwining production and consumption with the media and power networks in an eternal grand circuit, attempting to redefine the now.

Alternatively, a more optimistic view is expressed by art critic Jan Verwoert (Verwoert), in that the contemporary is expressed as different gates existing in different locations and times, all sharing and trading different points of view.
Medina believes the arena that art operates within has been compromised and repressed, and so questions contemporary arts objectivity, whereas Verwoert sees hope in artistic intellectual discussion.

The globalisation of the art market has linked some of these gates or portals, whether this dilutes and devalues them may not be pertinent as Eco suggests, linking isn’t the issue, but the medium it’s linked by. I lean towards Verwoert view of contemporary exchange, I find value in that process.

Bibliography
Eco, Umberto. "Towards a Semiological Guerilla Warfare." Eco, Umberto. Travels in Hyper-Reality. Trans. William Weaver. London, UK: Pan Books, 1986. 135-144.
Medina, Cuauhtémoc. "Contemp(t)orary: Eleven Theses." Jan 2010. e-flux. 10 April 2010 .
Verwoert, Jan. "Standing on the Gates of Hell, My Services Are Found Wanting." 2009. e-flux. 10 April 2010 .

Meaning, Identity, Embodiment: the uses of Merleau-Ponty's Phenomenology in Art History

Jones, Amelia. “Meaning, Identity, Embodiment: the uses of Merleau-Ponty's Phenomenology in Art History.” Art and Thought. Ed. Dana Arnold and Margaret Iverson. Oxford: Blackwell, 2003. pp. 71-90.

Jones is a feminist art-historian writer and critic. This text comes from the section of the book Art and Thought and provides a feminist point of view to the problems of perception. Specifically, how we read, engage and interpret Gustave Courbet’s painting of The Origin of the World (1866).

Jones expresses, with the help of Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology, the notion of embodiment, a way of seeing and being in the world. Merleau-Ponty believed that we exist in the world perceiving through our bodies, our experience mediated through it has a corporeal element which tints our perception when reading an art work or an image. Because of this process it will mirror our own experience and we will project this experience back when attempting to make sense of and read an art work. The signifier or art work, and what is signified or read, is both a relational and fluid reciprocal circuit between the author of the art work, the art work, and viewer.
Merleau-Ponty puts forth an opposing view to French philosopher Rene Descartes, whose representation theory of perception was birthed in the time when ideas had to co-exist alongside, and not conflict, with the idea of God. Descartes put forth the idea of a Cartesian theatre “ideas appearing before my mind” (Hass p. 16), a reduction of the experience to ideas before the mind. Merleau-Ponty aimed to break down Cartesian thought by, instead of breaking down experience and looking at it in isolation and in doing so losing an essential part of how experience functions as a whole, believed that the five senses worked together with the mind to form important overlapping qualities that become the sum greater than the parts. So that experience, ideas and memory become a simultaneous synergy, a way of being in the world.

I find currency with Mearleau-Ponty's view on embodiement and am interested in perception as a 'whole' experience. This for me creates something visceral engaging both mind and body.

Bibliography

Barbaras, Renaud. Desire and Distance. Satnford, California: Stanford University Press, 2006.
Hass, Lawrence. Merleau-Ponty's Philosphy. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2008.
Jones, Amelia. “Meaning, Identity, Embodiment: the uses of Merleau-Ponty's Phenomenology in Art History.” Art and Thought. Ed. Dana Arnold and Margaret Iverson. Oxford: Blackwell, 2003. pp. 71-90.
Merleau-Ponty, Maurice. The World of Perception. Abingdon: Routledge, 2004.
Rubin, James H. Courbet. London, UK: Phaidon Press, 1997.
Steeves, James B. Imagining Bodies. Pittsburgh, California: Duquesne University Press, 2004.