I claim socially engaged art is DEAD. (Whether it ever lived or even existed beyond a category description is, of course, another question.) The Art World is DEAD. So, when the Art World subsumes the category description “socially engaged art” (and “social practice” and many more, for that matter) it must KILL the category…Read more SOCIALLY ENGAGED ART IS DEAD (Part Tw0): Who done it?
Month: May 2016
SOCIALLY ENGAGED ART IS DEAD (Part One)
I Like America and America Likes Me, Joseph Beuys, 1974 THEY killed it. Killed another word. (Three words actually.) Death by Art. Slowly. Slowly, THEY killed some words: A slow process. Drowning by "Culture". THEY killed socially engaged art. Socially engaged art was An EASY target. Art is always an easy target. The process? Slowly…Read more SOCIALLY ENGAGED ART IS DEAD (Part One)
Art & Life? Culture, (Anti)Aesthetics, Anti-Art, Activism & Social Practice
This is my full paper given as a lecture at Northumbria University in Newcastle on Wednesday 27th April 2016. It is the beginnings of an attempt to free radical social practice and activist art interventions from the ragwort-like sprouting of institutionalised and depoliciticised "socially engaged art". My research considers radical social practice: as praxis as theory…Read more Art & Life? Culture, (Anti)Aesthetics, Anti-Art, Activism & Social Practice