Research- 'The joy of revolution'

The Joy of Revolution
Ken Knabb
http://www.theoryandpractice.org.uk/publication/joy-revolution

'In this book Ken Knabb presents a series of observations on the problems and possibilities of a global anti-hierarchical revolution. Beginning with a brief overview of the failure of Bolshevism and the inadequacy of reformism, he examines the pros and cons of a wide range of radical tactics, then concludes with some speculations on what a liberated society might be like. The aim throughout is to bring the real choices into the open and to incite people to make their own radical experiments.'

With ongoing research and reading into artistically linked aspects of politics, art and psychology it is important to keep researching how historically reform has taken place. Therefore I can become more knowledgeable with issues of how the modern reforms are more or less likely to take place. My artistic practice regards reaching people and becoming more involved with radical publication, poetry and people is encouraging this. This book reveals how change and movements spread, usually unexpectedly through time. Further to this, the people involved within the movement are not always the expected leaders of certain movements. 

'people are now so screwed up that they need to be psychologically or spiritually healed before they can even conceive of creating a liberated society' (K.Knabb)

This psychological/spiritual healing is a valid point and got me thinking much about how people react to protest in the modern world. This sparked research into protest, art and activism throughout history and in the modern day.  Establishing how this relationship is set may help my practice to progress. However it is also vital to follow the psychological path of producing aesthetically pleasing pieces to gain the respect of the viewer for the work as 'art'. 

' The best radical art cuts both ways. If it attacks the alienation of modern life, it simultaneously reminds us of the poetic potentialities hidden within it. Rather than reinforcing our tendency to wallow in self pity, it encourages our resilience, enables us ti laugh at our own troubles as well as the asininities of the forces of'order'.

The vitality of this view is the ability to not loose hope. The importance of creating art that allows people the belief that there is a point to their own action and participation. Why would they concern themselves with a cause that brings there psychological happiness down when if ignored they could continue the self indulgent life of before. To unite people collectively, humorously against the oppressive force is vital. Not always to criminalise them as they are forced into position by social pressure. 

Teresa Margolles-  Artist 

'But some political situations are more entrenched and art’s response more complex. The Mexican artist Teresa Margolles has created a number of works that demonstrate the West’s complicity with the drug wars of South America, bringing the violent deaths of young victims of the drug trade directly into art spaces. In Flag 2009, notably displayed at the Mexican Pavilion at the Venice Biennale next to an official EU flag and a Venice city flag, she hung material that had been impregnated with blood and dirt at drug cartelrelated execution sites in northern Mexico. 

The title of her show, What Else Could We Speak About?, reminded audiences of the luxury that comes from ostensibly being able to turn away from violence in other parts of the world. And yet Margolles’s work is also about the impossibility of ignoring global networks and the way in which one part of the world benefits from the other: the Mexican Pavilion’s card for that year, designed by her, had on one side the picture of a man brutally murdered and on the other the instruction: ‘card to cut cocaine’.'http://www.tate.org.uk/context-comment/articles/art-protest

This artists work is a real insight into a world that does not deserve to be ignored. Therefore this brings the work out of the realm of documentations and into the protest section. Making a statement and asking, rightfully so, for adequate reflection. Further tot this and contradictory of my own reflections, I am beginning to believe that the lines between, art protest, activism ad even psychology are so heavily blurred that they need not be catagorised and it is for the viewer too interpret. As long as this interpretation is taking place than the work has served such a purpose. 

'But political art sometimes raises another difficult question: what happens when beautiful images are made of terrible things? This problem is tackled in a recent book by David Shields, War is Beautiful 2015, where the author reflects on the relationship between art and the photographing of war for major news outlets such as the New York Times. In it, he suggests that:

'Art is an ordering of nature and artefact. The Times uses its front-page war photographs to convey that a chaotic world is ultimately under control, encased within amber. In so doing, the paper of record promotes its institutional power as protector of death-dealing democracy and curator of Western civilisation. Who is culpable? We all are; our collective psyche and memory are inscribed in these photographs. Behind these sublime, destructive, illuminated images are hundreds of thousands of unobserved, anonymous war deaths.'

The issues drawn here are reminiscent of appropriation. Something that comes with westernisation and the image as spectacle.  The spectacle is used by large corporate 'news' to gain following and slant the truth as the political elite wish it to be consumed. Here, therefore, art should not appropriate such shocking images due to the already desensitised public. A new approach is desired, by myself if no one else, to re establish less direct connections and allow the subconscious time to reflect before presenting any shocking imagery.