The Art of Activism - Chapter 3
QUOTE 1: “We lose a lot more often than we win, and even when
we win, we have to fight again the very next day to hold on to the little we
gained. It’s easy to get dispirited as an activist.”
RESPONSE 1: The true activism is dealt with in a particular space where some or not all are not well accepted, and the people are often uncomfortable. It drains someone and only for them to get that constant criticism all your life. The actual real work here is done in a place where you have to push yourself of your boundaries and so and so. It is not activism to just limit yourself where people would just copy you on everything that you do.
QUOTE 2: “We bring the future into our present and normalize as reality a state that still only exists in our imaginations.”
RESPONSE 2: This shows our ability to shape the future by new ideas and transforming them into realities that the power of creative expression in social change events and the normalization of visions, which makes it real in our time.
QUOTE 3: “Humor is a key element in successful artistic activism.
Where polemics and assertions put people on guard, and ask them to either agree
or disagree, humor works more obliquely and doesn't demand that a person take
a stand, at least not immediately. As such, humor allows us to reach people
who would otherwise shut us and our message out.”
RESPONSE 3: I consider this quote important since humor can change
things if it is used correctly, and humor can be served in a convincing but a
respectful way.
Khan Academy Performance Art
QUOTE 1: “I could never go back to the seclusion of the
studio and be protected by the space there.” - Marina Abramovic
RESPONSE 1: What
the artists go through this performance art is a risk of enduring live
reactions and criticism from an audience. Some artists have been assaulted
while they were doing a performance and because of this outcome that are
happening it leaves artists exposed to the violence. One of the examples is
Marina’s Abramovic’s performance that included actual knives and fire and for
her doing this, it protects her and her artwork as well from people wanting to
do harm. She knew how bad it gets for artists with getting attacked. Sadly, for
painters, they are an easy target because they can’t use their paintings to
protect themselves.
QUOTE 2: “Shifting attention from the art object to the artist’s action further suggested that art existed in real space and real time.”
RESPONSE 2: This quote made me think about art very differently. I would often look at a painting or a ceramic works, sculptures and I would say “Oh this is nicely done, I really like this one.” Now thinking to myself about how I thought about artworks, I’m not really appreciating as what does this painting means and why did the artist create it. Was the art that was created, was it sentimental for the artists? These questions never pop in my mind and I missed out an opportunity to know more about art.
Yoko Ono
QUOTE 1: “Even though she was frequently criticized and even ostracized by the press and the public, she fought her way through all the hardships with her creativity and challenging artwork.”
RESPONSE 1: The key to be a successful artist is consistency and with everything that Yoko Ono had dealt with, meaning everything was going against her, she continued to create her stuff. She based her artwork on by questioning the status quo and she exposed the actual reality of being a woman in America.
QUOTE 2: "Yoko Ono has been, without a doubt, one of the most misunderstood artists in the past 60 years. It is her massive fame, association with the Beatles, and heal-the-world rhetoric that have obscured her groundbreaking contributions to the world of art of the 1960s and beyond."
RESPONSE 2: This highlights the misconceptions of Yoko Ono’s artistic contributions due to her affiliation with the Beatles and her activism. Sadly, it took a while for Yoko to receive any recognition and her artistic achievements has often been overshadowed by her status. Yoko Ono has used performance art to combine language of activism but in a different way. And it was used to close the gap between activism and art.
Performance, Pedagogy, and Philosophy
QUOTE 1: “For a white student, particularly a young white student,
seeing the mode of expression of an artist of color can shift as much of their
worldview as it does for a student of color.”
RESPONSE 1: I have seen many different types of art that made me look at the world in a different perspective. So, art can be used in a form of a protest against anything, even with discrimination, and it makes me wonder how the artist feels when creating their piece. Maybe the artist had a very bad experience that they went through, and they wanted to show it through their talents.
QUOTE 2: “However, it was in the mentality of striving for the best that
I was also taught that success meant economic stability and mobility.”
RESPONSE 2: This underscore how excellence is often linked with stability
and mobility of the economy. So, for you to succeed you need the stability,
meaning a job and money, to even make it in the economy, and economy has never
been nice throughout these times even with artists.
Yoko Ono's "Cut Piece" is a performance art piece that she first presented in Kyoto, Japan in 1964 and later in New York City in 1965. This performance became a significant work in the realm of feminist art. In "Cut Piece," Yoko Ono sat motionless on a stage in front of an audience and she wore a simple dress, and she had a pair of scissors. The audience was invited to come one by one and cut a piece of her clothing which it symbolizes violence or vulnerability. And as each of the person cuts away a piece of her clothing, the performance explored themes of power, gender dynamics, and the embodiment of women. So, the audience's participation in "Cut Piece" raised many questions about consent, control, and the relationship between the artist and the viewer.
"Cut Piece" is a
performance that confronts the audience with complex and uncomfortable
emotions, addressing themes of power, agency, and vulnerability.
QUOTE : “Her idea that the physical presence of the artist could communicate far more forcefully than a mediated representation influenced generations of future artists. Cut Piece was one of the best examples where the visceral presence of the author confronted the tension between exhibitionism and voyeurism, masochism, and sadism, between victim and assailant. The piece was lauded as an enactment of the physical vulnerability of women in a world where they are reduced to mere objects for looking at.”
REPSONSE: This quote is the influence of Yoko Ono’s artist beliefs to
inspire many generations of artists of what she has done. Cutting pieces of the
clothing it shows the power of her art to confront the dynamics that has been
happening and what women deals with the vulnerability around the world.
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