“What artistic activist aims have in common is a faith that awareness can change the world without any specific follow-through. This is magical thinking.” [1]
While dreaming is quite fitting when discussing artists, the idea that there need not be a specific follow-through is ridiculous! Awareness is a first step but it simply isn’t enough.
Knowing about an issue does not bring about a solution, but it is a start.
According to Duncombe and Lambert, the success of an activist art exhibition can be judged by:
-How much press it got, which would bring public awareness to the issue, but does it automatically bring about change?
-Whether it made people think, thus starting a discussion on the issue.
-Revealing some hidden truth regarding social injustice or corruption, still there won’t necessarily be a transformation just because the cat is out of the bag!
-Expressionism; if the work triggers such strong emotional reaction then it is considered a success; but just because it made me shudder, was the problem fixed?
Activism in art is the reflection of the terrain of warfare having changed from the fields to the venues that provide a new battleground. The goal is social awareness in the hopes of engendering action.
Educating the public on political and social issues can bring about change, but it is only the first step.
Whether we are dreamers who believe in magic or whether we have a more concrete plan with a proper follow-through program that allows for a concrete solution or not, the fact is, we are all trying to bring awareness and make this a better world.
There are hundreds, if not thousands of art activism projects around the world.
The Fragments series is intentional art that aims to shed light on the issue of landmine clearance in post-war areas where military waste was left behind.
We need all the press we can get and hope that the public will reflect upon these issues and join us in this battle to put an end to the killing fields.
Still, for Fragments it doesn’t end there.
The exhibition is only the beginning.
Raising funds to clear the fields is the intention and I think we can safely say that we are succeeding.
– 2007, the Fragments campaign identified and destroyed 318 unexploded weapons in Quang Hung Commune in Vietnam.
– 2008, the Fragments campaign provided funds to the Canadian Landmine Foundation for mine risk education in Afghanistan.
– 2008 Fragments also funded a Landmine Survey that identified 522 Suspected Hazardous Areas in Moxico province in Angola
– 2009 Fragments took part in in funding clearing NATO- dropped cluster munitions in Kosovo.
– 2010, Fragments began support in Cambodia through The Cambodian Landmine Relief Fund.
We would like to see Fragments get back to work and are introducing the program in Canada.
We will see a Fragments campaign in 2015.
I am proud to be one of those dreamers and it is my deepest hope that this trend in art will continue because art is about humanity, it has power, and that, is magic.
If you would like to get involved please write us, we would love to hear from you, we can use all the help we can get!
- http://www.onlineopen.org/columns/activist-art-does-it-work/4
By Blake & Boky