#ah 343

[globalizedartnjunk]

After the class discussion about Theatre of the Oppressed I was reminded of an  NGO who also used performance as a platform for change. Afro Reggae is a NGO out of Rio de Janiero who as their mission statement says, “promote justice and inclusion through art, African-Brazilian culture and education, building bridges that unite the differences and are foundations for sustainability and citizenship. Started in 1992 with the aid from the Ford Foundations, Universal Music and others, this group, consisting primarily of a few members, sought to educate their community about afro-Brazilian culture through newsletter. As it progressed and moved into Vigário Geral in 1994, began to address the violent tensions between law enforcement, drug traffickers and a general lack of interest from the government.  As a result they began to introduce programs and workshops around music (percussion) and dance to encourage the youth to find alternatives to going to drug trafficking. Since that moment the organization as grown to include 75 projects and over 6000 active members and a self-sustaining financial base to fund their own projects, create job opportunities, teach work skills to community members and organize conferences. Some have made the argument that this is more of a business (empire) rather than a tool for reclaiming impoverished communities, but the amount of members, spheres of influence and continual community outreach programs seem to counter that argument. It is interesting that the act of producing dance, music and art is all this organization wants, they want to distract and encourage behaviors that don’t perpetuate violence, but they still have to produce things that are consumable to keep their programs running. I enjoy this group, their goals and how they understand that education and staying active can allow youths to have an alternative to drugs, prostitution and other forms of illegal activities for a lifestyle.

The following quote is part of the groups manifest and seems to summarize their intentions very appropriately.

  We AfroReggae.

Save the art that saves us.

In the midst of war,

trafficking of freedom and

cultural activism.

Changing people's lives

to change our well.

Save the art that saves us.

We AfroReggae.

Because no reason explains war.

[globalizedartnjunk]

I began this blog curious about how globalization has/does shape(d) arts education, but as the class progressed I realized that the more appropriate question to ask is how is globalized art and art history taught outside of the United States and Europe.  It seems as though we are taught that we are the colonizers, we are the influences that have marginalized the international community, but now we do not have that influence and now must address how we facilitate the new globalized community. Our education begins with, “what even is globalization? How did technology and economy provide a framework for a real globally connected community?”  From there we address a variety of techniques of addressing many issues that now occupy a globalized environment from identity, to cultural origin to activism, and most things between. We begin to align ourselves with the currents of globalization rather than being the force of globalization.

How does this education change in the context of a classroom in Beijing, Rio de Janiero, or Cairo? This their education the retelling of a struggle and strife for international visibility, accreditation and acceptance or how they continue to fight for rights and luxuries found in the west? How do they address institutionalized art if they have been excluded from it? Maybe I’m wrong and the difference does not exist, but there is something deep in my critical mind that says, “art education from the west and art education from the east has to differ on this subject”, but I’m not entirely sure how, why, or if it is an issue. 

[globalizedartnjunk]

Celebrities have a longstanding relationship with philanthropic endeavors, charity work and activism, so it comes as no surprise to read about Madonna and Vice collaborating on a hashtag activism campaign. #ArtForFreedom started last September aims to develop “a global initiative encouraging creative expression that brings awareness to human rights violations”. Artists, musicians, writers and other forms of creators can submit through the Art For Freedom website and image of their work as it responses to global rights of expression and other forms of human violations. Each month Madonna with a “guest curator” go through these submissions and pick a featured artist, who with the donation of $10,000, gives to a non-profit organization of their choice.

In theory the idea of fostering an international online community of creators who are all interesting in trying to fight, alleviate, dismantle, reconstruct etc.a plethora of human rights violations  through the production of a variety of art is ambitious but seems as though it could on some scale instigate critical thought, collaboration and even, possibly, change.  Theory is different than implementation. The website is full of promotions of Madonna’s video and secondary project, #secretprojectrevolution , art from featured artists and short bio on the celebrity guest curators, the website lacks any transparency in the structure of this project. Who all is submitting work, what are they critical about, where do these donations go, what is the background on the selected artists, why did they even pick those artists? The first red flag on this website was that Miley Cyrus was a guest curator with the following text,

           “Madonna has announced that Miley Cyrus will be the guest curator for Art for Freedom for the month of April. Miley will collaborate with Madonna to select daily submissions which will be showcased on artforfreedom.com.

  “Art can speak volumes - I’m glad to join Madonna in encouraging people to have their voices heard at artforfreedom.com. It’s an ideal home to see how each of us can participate in changing the world for the better,” stated Cyrus.

  Cyrus and Madonna will select the winning artist’s submission at the end of April and will award a $10,000 grant to a nonprofit organization of the artist’s choice. All projects must focus on the values of Art For Freedom.”

  Even though I do not like Miley Cryus, I am not critical of the website because she is featured, I’m critical because she is vague. How is the visibility of an artist showing how we can participate in creating change? Where is the dialogue among submitters? Where is the community?  I interpret this as celebrities using the possibility for social change as a tool for their career. As the internet would appropriately say, “STAHP!” There are mixed reviews for this project and for Madonna’s primary project #secretprojectrevolution, some saying that these projects are producing critical dialogue and others voicing opinions much like my own, is this really activism?

#secretprojectrevolution is a short film featuring Madonna as she uses sound bites from speeches at her concerts about various international socio-economic strife, but also her assuming the role of a marginalized, improvised international demographic who cannot voice their opinions, their expressions etc. Although this film is available online, it has only been shown in primarily urban global north countries, with the exception of Rio de Janiero. This makes me question the kind of conversations that result from this, and whether it instigates people taking into their hands global recognition of human rights. Are they critical? Are they REALLY critical?

I digress. The idea of fostering an online community of creators who aim to address socio-economic international problems as they relate to the violation of human rights is happening, is important, does allow for change, but is not present in this project. 

post-post thought: This will not be a totally complete thought, but something I thought of after posting this, this project also seems to reinforce the west as the center, as the only ones who can help out the disenfranchised, rather than actually allow for collaboration and input from the peripheral. 

[globalizedartnjunk]

About three months ago I started following Ai WeiWei on Instagram. His photos were often selfies of himself, sometimes of his friends, of this home and the environment right about him, however, since Wednesday my feed, as well as his 63,779 other followers’ feeds were inundated with hundreds of photos of people holding up one leg, thigh to their chest, calf pointed outwards. The first photo of Ai himself was captioned, “Beijing Anti-Terrorism Series”, and since then he has been posting submissions from his followers of them doing the same pose. What is particularly interesting about this project is that although it only lives within social networking there is no hashtag, movement title or even agreement of what the photos are. From what I found throughout the internet is four possible intentions and interpretations of the project.

  The 25th anniversary of the protests on Tiananmen Square happens (ed) this year. Ai who actively speaks out against the tyranny of the Chinese government could be attempting to critique the physical the subversion of propaganda that China has enacted since the 1960’s. And is also him showing solidarity with those who were active in the Democracy Movement.

With the recent school shoots across the United States many have begun to tag their photos with #againstgunviolence. Which I am critical of because although Ai posted the first photo on Wednesday, two days after a shooting in Portland, I highly doubt that an artist and activist who is currently detained in his own country due to speaking out against their policies is trying to instigate an international collaboration over gun violence.

It’s a joke or a dance move. The only small amount of validity in this theory is the pose is based off a 1960’s Chinese ballet, “The Red Detachment of Women”, in which the dancers held their leg to their chest. But again, is creating a joke or dance move all that important?

The final theory that I came across was this is the new meme. It is the new planking. I think to mistake the context from which this project is from and it integrate it into a short lived meme life is to undermine the importance of remembering that governing powers of China are relentless in their suppression of individual expressions, freedoms and communications.

  I think this project is unique compared to other hashtag activism campaigns that re popular right now because it’s not a hashtag, it does not have a specified end goal, it is growing international recognition even the entire language around the project is purely visual. At the same time it raises questions about how to you ensure audiences will understand and reproduce images that are authentic to what the artist intended? What are the consequences of misunderstandings and the perpetuating of these misunderstandings?  Is this in context with his own installation that is in currently working on in the United States? And most importantly, “What?”.

Being a part of internet culture, it is easy to overlook images that are similar, and I do, I will scroll by them on my home screen, and I assume that others do the same. How do you sustain this visibility on the internet in a culture where the lifespan of “memes”, if you consider this a meme, is short and once over, ignored?

Until Ai WeiWei discloses more information, I assume that none of these answers can be answered. 

If you would like to follow his Instagram please follow this link

[contemporaryhammer]

The message is being sprayed across the buildings in Brazil. With the world cup games taking up much of the attention the tourists walking the streets get another story. The people of Brazil are upset over the $11 billion spent on building a new stadium, which they believe would have been better served towards social programs and changes to public transport. The slogan “Need food, Not football” illustrates the social needs of the people are being greatly overshadowed by the hype and marketing of this year’s world cup. As had been seen before by the Faces of Brazil that decorated a neighborhood doomed to be demolished to make way for the expensive stadium.

            With many of the details about the poverty in Russia being exposed by the Olympics, it is interesting to see again the peoples need being outweighed by some international organization to make the biggest spectacle for people to watch. In a sense this disregard for human suffering in order to get more viewers reminds one of a dystopian world, a dystopian world that is visualized by the street art taking over the face of many buildings.

            Being taken up by many artists across the city the art attempts to create a message for the global tourists coming into the area for the games. Using the tourist trade to not only create wealth for the area this time, but to hopefully get people to think about the effects of the international market of sporting events, where the local populations needs can be set aside for the global populations wants.

[marytvest]

Maura Reilly, "Introduction to Global Feminisms"

According to curator Maura Reilly, what were the goals of the Global Feminisms exhibition?

The goals of the Global Feminisms exhibition were to look at contemporary work produced by artists for whom the heritage of feminism has long been a part of the cultural fabric. The exhibition also looked specifically beyond North America and Europe in order to challenge what is still a Westerncentric art system. Global Feminisms aimed to be more inclusive of all experiences and all ways in which feminism(s) can be defined based on different life experiences. 

What are 3 ways in which contemporary globalization has impacted the production of feminist art and the reception of women artists?

Globalization has urged artists producing feminst work to aim to be more inclusive of all women’s different lived experiences. While initially much feminist art centered on the experiences of white, western feminists, now feminist art is beginning to attempt to include other artists and viewpoints from different parts of the world, races, socio economic standing etc. 

Feminist art is utilizing the idea of “common differences” between women from various cultures, religions, ethnicities and sexualities - this way the different narratives and stories become a part of a larger narrative. 

Feminist art is also seeking to be more transnational (as opposed to international) - shows like Global Feminisms use thematic organization of pieces to highlight these ideas rather than arranging art geographically. In this way, themes can be explored (war, sex, motherhood, race, etc.) by feminists artists that are all coming from different perspectives but fit together with these common themes. 

Viewed from a global perspective, what are 2 challenges facing women artists in the early 21st century?

The intent to be TRANSnational rather than international - these are different because being transnational often means the narrative is more inclusive and seeks different perspectives in order to dismantle ideas such as the center/periphery and East/West. However, this is difficult within the world of feminism (and in the the world in general) as Patriarchy also privileges Western ideas as well as art - so ensuring that art and exhibitions are inclusive must be very intentional. 

Fear of censorship, imprisonment etc. While this may not be an issue for all women artists- many women artists have been imprisoned, had their work banned or censored in different countries around the world because the governments or ruling parties did not think it was suitable. Some work can be seen as offensive. However, many artists must place themselves in risk when producing politically charged art. While this may not be such a threat to as many ‘western’ artists - it is a real fear for many who work outside these spheres. 

Another challenge is how art is received and interpreted in different contexts - as much work deals with specific situations in particular locations around the globe and in different contexts the work may mean something different to all who view it. Global Feminisms seeks to underscore these complex interpretations and translations (and perhaps this is part of the power of feminist art - that it can mean something different based on individual experiences and context).

[globalizedartnjunk]

While trying to find information on Kara Walker’s most recent work, A Subtley, for the context of gentrification, I ended up on the developers who are going to tear down the Domino factory website. Apparently Two Trees has an art gallery, which is closely linked to A.I.R, a gallery that specifically caters to female artists. The homepage for the A.I.R Gallery’s website had the following image

  An entire biennial dedicated to self-identifying female artists. It is not simply the first, but the 11th.  The downfall to A.I.R, is that the artists that they work with fall into four categories; New York Artists, Adjunct artists, National artists, Fellowship artist. There is not much representation or alluding to the representation of women from outside of the country. In context with our discussions today regarding Global Feminism and the actual pursuit of equalizing female representation in all portions of the art world demands not only inclusivity but also detachment from previous notions of feminism. Although a little disappointed in this fact, I think the transparency of their biennial application process is interesting.

A forty dollar application fee, some photos or video and patience. Through our varied discussions on and about biennales we did not discuss the variety of application process and invitation processes between curators and artists to fill the venues. Are they all this simple? What are the protocols and systems in place for larger, more established biennales? Even though I think there are some portions to this site and their ideology that I find lacking, the general transparency in their processes of being a gallery are interesting and make me what to continue checking in during this biennale application process. 

[globalizedartnjunk]

Ai Weiwei is not a new artist to our class, but as become relevant to our recent discussions regarding Chinese art and their growing art market. Often at ends and by often I mean, constantly at ends with his government, Ai Weiwei seeks out critical ways to demonstrate the needs for basic human rights including predominantly, freedom of speech. He is currently not allowed to leave China, following a brief arrest in 2011, but that does not stop him from being openingly critical of this nations actions. Ai instead is working on a four room installation on Alcatraz. This is not only a reference to him being a political prisoner, trapped in a country that will simply take away powers from citizens than to be proved wrong. @Large, a nod to both his criminal record and active online life, Ai wants his audience to really think about what it means to be incarceration, and if to be a prisoner you need to be in a prison.  

The four sites are typically off limits to tourists; however they are being opened up for this show. This raises the question of access, well in all honestly, this entire show raises that question. Alcatraz is an island prison, one needs a boat (and also money) to get to. Ai is from a country and currently dealing with the frustrations of authoritative decisions to deny access to him traveling outside of the borders, but also cannot really access the site that he is installing in. I’m curious to read about the show after it opens, until then, I will indulge on the artist prisoner’s online presence.