What is Art Activism Post- Ashleigh Hall

 

Soleil Levant by Ai Weiwei, 2017

Art activism, according to the textbook, is hard to explain because it can either look more like art or look more like activism. It is somewhere in between art and activism. In the space of tension, contradiction, experimentation, and generation is where the practice resides. It lives in the spaces of  being expressive and instrumental, tactical and strategic, timeless and timely. 

Soleil Levant

I chose this artwork because it creates awareness which is what art activism is supposed to do. It creates awareness about political and social issues of the dangers and treacherous journey that refugees endure and for this specific piece was to try and reach Europe. These were life jackets that the refugees wore to try to get to their destination, there were 3500 of them. Some of them were real life jackets that saved people but others were fake and many died in the ocean. This piece opens a conversation and makes people think about the problems that refugees face. 

"The Ancient Greek philosopher Longinus believed that the power of the sublime lay not only in its capacity to provoke awe, but in its ability to persuade. That's why when we are affected by a piece of art we often say it moves us."

I think this is a really interesting point and take on the way our emotions are captured through artworks and visuals within themselves. I think to a certain degree and extent we can somehow relate to the piece of art that had moved us and we can either see the positive or negative experiences/outcomes that the piece pertains to. I never thought of a visual art piece being able to cause persuasion but as I thought more about it, an example in everyday life is a movie trailer being shown for the previews and that preview persuades our idea of whether we think it will be a good movie or not and/or whether we wish to spend our money and our time to go watch it or not.

We're moved by affective experiences to take physical actions that result in concrete effects: affect produces effect. And concrete effects have affective impact, generating personal emotion: effect produces affect.

I never thought of the relationship between effect and affect before as pertaining to art and politics. I think it shows the complexity of human nature and human experiences. Everyone has their own paths to follow and their own reasons for making the decisions that they make and taking the steps that they take. You need one or the other for everything else to follow suit and there will always be a product and end result of affect -> effect/effect -> affect. The relationship will always be there in life and in the relationships you have with others and the experiences you go through.