Art, Social Justice, and Culture Wars: Creative Practice in a Time of Change

“To write poetry after Auschwitz is barbaric. And this corrodes even the knowledge of why it has become impossible to write poetry today.”

—Theodor Adorno, Cultural Criticism and Society (1949) [1]

“At some point in life the world’s beauty becomes enough. You don’t need to photograph, paint, or even remember it. It is enough.”

—Toni Morrison, Tar Baby (1981) [2]

We humans thrive when engaged in meaningful and creative work. When we feel “on to something” creatively, we are driven by a sense of hope, freedom and connection. How do we measure the relevance of our intentions and the efficacy of our creative engagements relative to our shared historical moment? Some of us align our creative practice to the rubrics of social change and global justice. Western art historians have coined this “socially engaged art” and have tracked its development for well over a hundred years. From Dada, anti-art, Fluxus and Interventionist art movements, to Kaprow’s Happenings, Post Commodity, Joseph Beuys and the Guerrilla Girls, the alignment of artistic and social justice practices has changed the spectrum of whose voices are heard, whose stories are told, how and by whom. [3]

On another possible trajectory across the gradient of creative practice, we might find ourselves looking for capacious and solitary retreats in the name of creative self care, or private explorations into the depths of human desire and taboo. [4]  For example artist Nicoletta Darita de la Brown has unabashedly folded bathing, meditation, breathing and various pleasure fulfillment services into her creative enterprise. [5]  Whereas John Duncan produced “Blind Date” a film exploring personal shame and social isolation, in which the artist reportedly had sex with a human cadaver. [6]

So, whose stories are being told today in the art world and by whom? Whose voices are left out and why?

It’s important to also ask at this point, what happens if we feel too much pressure to create work that aligns with only one side of a collective struggle, or conversely, preoccupies us exclusively with the inner workings of rogue impulse? Do our creative productions then risk becoming self indulgent, diluted, losing perspective, lacking nuance or integrity? Can this pressure act as an incubator for complex and transformational work or do we experience such pressure as censorship and coercion?

And what do we make of the subtexts emerging from the above paragraphs; “public” vs “private”; “artistic freedom” vs “social responsibility?” How useful are these categories and why are they so often understood as being adversarial? What overarching social and cultural privileges do they carry and reveal to us about ourselves? [7]

The list of artists who have stood with or against creative or political ideologies is as long as the list of those who’ve been persecuted, silenced, or imprisoned for their work, even when their own intentions were not overtly political. One need only look at the 1937 “Degenerate Art Exhibition” (“Entartete Kunst”) organized in Munich by the Nazi Party, in which over 600 works of art, confiscated from German museums, were exhibited in order to advance Hitler’s declaration of his “merciless war” on so-called “cultural disintegration”. [8]  

Of the many examples I could have referenced, I chose “Entartete Kunst” because I keep an original catalog from this exhibit framed on a wall in my studio as a reminder of the power art is capable of wielding no matter how divergent its intentions. With this evening’s conversation we invite even more voices to the table with hopes to elucidate and celebrate the great variety of creative strategies we artists employ in order to bring meaning to our lives and to the richness of human culture in these volatile times.

Additional Questions:

• What artist has helped to shape your creative practice and how do they fit into tonight’s discussion?
• What is your definition of socially engaged art? Give an example?
• How does art that isn’t overtly socially engaged have social impact? Give an example?
• In what ways do practices in the arts and social justice differ and intersect?
• With what criteria do we evaluate the success of a creative work, socially engaged or otherwise?
• How much does an intended audience and prescribed goals influence the outcome of that work?
• In what ways can we contextualize creative and social justice practices in order to address the cultural landscapes in which they are rooted?