Politics: How can creative practice be effective politically?

It is generally understood that all art is, to some extent, political. As artist Mark Vallen states, “artists do not create in a vacuum, they are indisputably coupled to the society and times in which they work.” (Vallen) While many contemporary artists deliberately position their art as political, for other practitioners this is just one of many factors inform their practice – but as Vallen also notes, “wilful unconcern regarding social matters is also a political position.” (Vallen)

At the crux of discussing how creative practice can be effective politically is an understanding of what “effective” may mean in this context. Literal interpretations of effectiveness – that an object (art work) engenders an intended or expected effect – work against ideas of fine art, and have more in common with the anti-art of kitsch. Practitioners explicitly seeking to provoke a particular outcome from a viewer are likely to find that their work becomes trite.

Imogen O’Rorke’s review of 9 Scripts from a Nation at War in Mute Magazine is generally positive – she praises it in that it is “confrontational and thought provoking without presenting images of death, destruction, torture and viscera and it manages to avoid political tub-thumping.” (O’Rorke) 9 Scripts avoids depicting the violence of “The War on Terror” that it discourses, thus carrying a charge of uncertainty, which proves to stimulate more critical thought than a more graphic representation of war. These scripts are effective politically – they are able to “generate a healthy climate of debate and ensure the subject matter never gets didactic.” (O’Rorke)

O’Rorke does criticise a script that presents web blogs about Iraq. She describes these as “boring,” and refers to a public with an immunity to “the endless flow of user-generated sludge which is peddled as ‘self-expression.’” (O’Rorke) It is implied that this work loses its impetus because of corniness in the medium: the reliance on elements of the information age to signify a work’s relevance has become tired and obvious, and audiences have become resistant. A work is likely to lose political effectiveness when a viewer feels they are being manipulated.

Academic Michael Taussig writes about Colombian artist Juan Manuel Echavarria’s Corte de Florero series, which uses human bones to illustrate flowers, and borrows its name from a form of torture practiced in Colombia during the 1940s and 50s. Like the 9 Scripts exhibition, Echavarria subverts the violence by not showing it – instead creating “something so beautiful people would be attracted to it.” (Taussig 190) In a world where violence and gore are routine, they no longer carry as much political thrust as a subverted beauty. By offering greater complexity of meaning, these works inspire reflection and break down resistance a viewer might have towards being politically manipulated.

References:

O’Rorke, Imogen. “Flipping the Script” Mute Magazine (15 August 2008)

Taussig, Michael. “The Language of Flowers” Walter Benjamen’s Grave The University of Chicago Press (2006) pp. 189 – 218

Vallen, Mark. “Why All Art is Political” Art For A Change (October 2004)