Activist Art
Activist Art
“To be critical isn’t enough.It’s a hammer. It can do much but it cannot build.”-Maria Hlavajova
In the a lecture I once attended, the speaker proposed a concept of art. The idea was this: Activism is art. It is no longer enough for art to merely critique social issues. It must combat them.
This concept had never before entered my mind and succeeded in provoking a paradigm shift in my creative conscious.For a few days, this new idea reverberated in my mind. I questioned my entire works up until this point and found myself asking why? What was my point and how did it help anything?
Initially, this development in creative perception caused a sort of existential apathy toward my work. But finally, I came to an epiphany. From this brief crisis in meaning I drew a powerful conclusion- The only way that I can oppose pointless art is by refusing to make it ever again.
And so I posed a new question -How?
My answer lay in doing more of the things that I already was doing but now, with more feverity and gumption; reading, thinking and hearing well informed people speak of the world's problems and their proposed solutions. Here in lay my starting point. Improving my knowledge and vocabulary regarding various global crises.
I then decided to go further.I realised that there were these huge intellectual talking points in the world now and then there were the things that make people want to cry on the train home from work. I don’t deny the connection between these things as I feel that they are intertwined- one stemming from the other.
But I also am of the opinion that preaching about oppression or colonialism is not going to make someone's bad day significantly better.
Loneliness, illness, heartbreak, apathy - these realistically are the epidemics plaguing people’s daily lives, the immediate things that are causing them pain. And how can I help that?
Here, my research into culture jamming plays it’s part. I began searching for ways to reclaim mundane and necessary public space in order to bring something of positive value to people’s days. I gathered inspirational quotes and messages from my past journals and from conversations with people in life and through social media. And I spread these messages via tear-off advertisements and bookmarks hidden in public library books.
And from here ,they take on a life of their own, lying in wait for whomever may come across them.
-Dervla McElvaney
“To be critical isn’t enough.It’s a hammer. It can do much but it cannot build.”-Maria Hlavajova
In the a lecture I once attended, the speaker proposed a concept of art. The idea was this: Activism is art. It is no longer enough for art to merely critique social issues. It must combat them.
This concept had never before entered my mind and succeeded in provoking a paradigm shift in my creative conscious.For a few days, this new idea reverberated in my mind. I questioned my entire works up until this point and found myself asking why? What was my point and how did it help anything?
Initially, this development in creative perception caused a sort of existential apathy toward my work. But finally, I came to an epiphany. From this brief crisis in meaning I drew a powerful conclusion- The only way that I can oppose pointless art is by refusing to make it ever again.
And so I posed a new question -How?
My answer lay in doing more of the things that I already was doing but now, with more feverity and gumption; reading, thinking and hearing well informed people speak of the world's problems and their proposed solutions. Here in lay my starting point. Improving my knowledge and vocabulary regarding various global crises.
I then decided to go further.I realised that there were these huge intellectual talking points in the world now and then there were the things that make people want to cry on the train home from work. I don’t deny the connection between these things as I feel that they are intertwined- one stemming from the other.
But I also am of the opinion that preaching about oppression or colonialism is not going to make someone's bad day significantly better.
Loneliness, illness, heartbreak, apathy - these realistically are the epidemics plaguing people’s daily lives, the immediate things that are causing them pain. And how can I help that?
Here, my research into culture jamming plays it’s part. I began searching for ways to reclaim mundane and necessary public space in order to bring something of positive value to people’s days. I gathered inspirational quotes and messages from my past journals and from conversations with people in life and through social media. And I spread these messages via tear-off advertisements and bookmarks hidden in public library books.
And from here ,they take on a life of their own, lying in wait for whomever may come across them.
-Dervla McElvaney