How You Make Present the Work is What Makes it Political
Buy Issue for $25 at JHUP- How You Make Present the Work is What Makes it Political
These are some of the points I take into consideration each and every time I conceptualize a new work or recreate a previously made one:
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❖ It's not the subject matter that makes artwork political.
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❖ Who is the work for?
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❖ Take stock of and responsibility in my positions of privilege when making the work, in regard to both subject and potential audience or participants in the work.
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❖ Community collaboration is never to be exploitative.1
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❖ Sometimes it's better to present all options as a tactic to reach more people.
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❖ Other times it's important too that the work takes a clear position.
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❖ Go to where your intended audience is. Often these spaces are not art institutions or galleries.
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❖ Try to pay everyone.
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❖ Try to imbed utopian and optimistic ideas to show the change you want to see.
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❖ Be humble and respectful if you get it wrong.
This list is not exhaustive but a start in understanding and creating work that supports, advocates for, and assists in bringing about social change.
DIANA ARCE is an activist-artist and researcher. She has discussed her work on NPR, BBC Outlook, Deutschlandradio Kultur, and ARD, and has been featured in Comedy Central's Indecision 2008, Metro New York, New Amsterdam News, IQ Style, and the Center for Artistic Activism. She has performed, lectured, and led workshops internationally on her work and artistic activism at Central Saint Martins, Open Engagement, European Alternatives #FixEurope Campus, and Open Knowledge Festival'14, among others. She has a BA in Cultural Studies and Experimental Film from Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts and an MFA in Art in Context from the University of Arts, Berlin, Germany.
She also holds degrees from the Academy of Rebellion and School for Creative Activism.
She has survived an apartment fire, lived in a commune, traveled internationally and multiple times across the continental United States, and once shepherded a flock of sheep in Hawaii. She is the founder of Politaoke, the nonpartisan political speech karaoke bar; White Guilt Clean Up, which provides online and offline services for individuals and groups on how to dismantle white privilege and supremacy; and Artists Without a Cause, a nonprofit that develops collaborations between activist-artists and social justice groups. Her work can be found at http://www.visualosmosis.com.
Notes
1. Diana Arce and Nine Yamamoto-Masson. (2017). "Activism//Be More Than an Ally: An Incomplete Guide to Working with Art in Communities," Berlin Art Link, July 5, 2017, http://www.berlinartlink.com/2017/07/05/activism-be-more-than-an-ally-an-incomplete-guide-to-working-with-art-in-communities.
