[-empyre-] the artist in conflict

[larissa sansour]

There is always an unease across
disciplines when a cross over happens between art and politics or art and other
disciplines for that matter. For me, I find it a limitation on the art world’s
side, because I firmly believe that art can metamorphose into something very
different than what it is expected to be. The paradox for me lies in the fact
that there is still a need to define and constrain an art practice for fear of
losing the concept altogether, which is quite contradictory seeing that art is
one of the forefront disciplines that constantly seeks to subvert and reinstate
itself. 

I find that this tension happens mostly
when art practice escapes its standard realm of commentary and reflection, be
it social or political, and enters into a role of functionality. When art
manages to flex its pliability, expanding into a mode of functionality is when
it is most questioned, I feel. It is something that I find most unfortunate. I
think that art practice is at its most exciting when it manages this crossover.

 

I find Horit’s description of the philosopher and political activist
Michael Hardt’s advice seeking from artists on how to engage in acts of
resistance to be very telling. I think the potential that art has for becoming
a tool for change is not to be dismissed. Even when artists crossover to a
practice more similar to that of activists, they still function in an art
context, their audience is different , their funders are different among other
things. The onset of art activist practice also, in most cases, has an
alternative launching pad. 



Larissa

> Date: Wed, 9 Feb 2011 08:39:10 -0500
> To: empyre at gamera.cofa.unsw.edu.au
> From: tcm1 at cornell.edu
> Subject: [-empyre-] the artist in conflict
> 
> >Thank you ever so much Horit and Nat for your forceful and 
> >compelling statements about your work and the challenges faced by 
> >artists and teachers in the throws of conflict.    I'm particularly 
> >thankful to Nat for honoring the memory of Ahmed Bassiouny, the 
> >sound and media artist who as killed during the events of January 28.
> 
> I can't help but note the commonality of Horit and Nat's posts given 
> their emphasis on "the situatedness of media" and how  "the politics 
> and aesthetics of mediation" impact, as Nat puts it, "accountability 
> and affect within an artistic context."   I can't think of a better 
> way of describing the interventionist work of Horit, which I've been 
> following and admiring for years as she has worked perilously with 
> other feminist artists at the Israeli Palestinian checkpoints, 
> checkpoints that imprint the very ontology of 'mediation' on those 
> passing through it.
> 
> I welcome more thoughts by Horit and Nat (and certainly by members of 
> the list-- recently subscribed members should know that they are free 
> to join in the conversation, and can do so by replying to this 
> e-mail) about how they understand the interrelatedness of 
> accountability and affect within the artistic context.  One wonders 
> whether such interrelatedness wasn't being practiced by Ahmed 
> Bassiouny on the day of January 28, when his capture of sound and 
> media would have been so crucial for the rearticulation of events 
> happening so rapidly.  Or perhaps, in this instance, his very 
> presence on Tahrir Square provided corporeal media through which such 
> capture was itself an expression of resistance.
> 
> >Then there's the flip side expressed by Nat, how to "teach a class 
> >on this topic
> >without the class becoming a seminar in political history or a lesson
> in activism only. " I must admit to having fallen under suspicion at 
> times over the years by students who have felt that both my choice of 
> artists under discussion and my emphasis on political topics crossed 
> the line into activism.  From my point of view, I feel that we are 
> imprinted with the ideological framework of our working conditions, 
> which in and of themselves might constitute the very political 
> histories or lessons of activism.  Conversely, I was recently 
> speaking with an American graduate who wishes to work on tactical 
> performance but whose professors urge her to select the oeuvre of 
> "artists" for evaluation.  Couldn't the performance of Tahrir Square 
> stand-in for such an artist?  Might mediation come into play when the 
> public stands-in for the private, in a way in which creative 
> approaches to social media might stand-in for more traditional means 
> of artistic expression?
> 
> Tim
> >
> 
> 
> -- 
> Timothy Murray
> Director, Society for the Humanities
> http://www.arts.cornell.edu/sochum/
> Curator, The Rose Goldsen Archive of New Media Art, Cornell Library
> http://goldsen.library.cornell.edu
> Professor of Comparative Literature and English
> A. D. White House
> 27 East Avenue
> Cornell University
> Ithaca, New York 14853
> _______________________________________________
> empyre forum
> empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
> http://www.subtle.net/empyre
 		 	   		  
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