Protest art, art as protest, and protest as art

Posted by: sj7g09 on: November 11, 2009

• In: Artists | inside/outside & self-directed | Reflective Practice
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I’ve noticed that a lot of lecturers have been talking about students wanting a job in art after they graduate, and I’m never quite sure that’s true for me. I mean, if I can have a job in art, I’m sure I’d enjoy it, but I’m not taking an art degree for the career. In the art history lecture, there was talk about selling art, and I’d never really thought about it all that much, but it made me realise that that’s not the sort of practice that I want. I’ve found that my art is much more akin to protest art, which tends to be displayed in public rather than in galleries, and instead of being a commodity to be bought, it instead aims to impart a message.

Picasso’s Guernica

There are examples of fine artists who have used their art, some times in a gallery setting, to protest or give social commentary. For example, Guernica by Picasso has become a strong anti-war symbol, and brought attention to the Spanish Civil War at the time it was created.

image by Susan Crile

Similarly, Susan Crile has used art to comment on the torture at Abu Ghraib, drawing from the photos that documented the abuse of prisoners there. I found these particularly interesting, because images of real abuse, humiliation and torture in a non-sexual context are not illegal to look at – it was illegal for the acts to take place originally, but individuals looking at the images have no responsibility and are not breaking the law, whereas someone looking at staged, consensual sexual “abuse” or “torture” could receive up to 3 years in prison. Surely if it’s to be believed that images can make someone want to enact something, then seeing images of Abu Ghraib on the news could trigger people to want to harm others – should we censor the news?

image by Susan Crile

Particularly in regard to the above image, I think that BDSM pictures mirror images of torture like the one above, but one is actual, genuine torture that harms and degrades a victim, whereas the other is consensual, enjoyed by the participants, and is for the purpose of entertainment. And there’s always the argument that torture for entertainment is disgusting, degrading, but who’s to say that starring in pornography is more degrading than working a dead-end job? Why should sexual labour be seen as more exploitative than manual labour? Plus, if people are going to start worrying about exploitation, maybe they should start thinking about that when they buy their clothes, shoes, coffee, rather than just applying it to pornography.

I also started to consider the idea of protest as an art form – that not only is art forming a protest, but the protest itself can constitute as art. For example, the above protest utilises the common symbols of a protest by using placards, but also uses chains, which are symbolic of both protests (protestors chaining themselves to railings, etc.), but also of BDSM. The gags and chains can also be seen to represent the stifling of freedom of expression that has come about through this law.

Maybe I’m being too much of an idealist, but I don’t want my work to be in a high art setting, removed from society, because I make art to challenge social norms and values. I don’t even just want my art to be a commentary on the issues – I’d much rather be involved in a more indepth way, through implementing protest. But then, in ignoring the law as I have done to produce images that are outside of the new boundaries on acceptability, I hope that my pieces for this project can be classified on some level as protest art.