From the readings of Chapter 2 in The Art Of Activism by Steve Duncombe and Steve Lambert, the first quote I have taken from it is “Creative people are observers. Observing simply means moving through the world with wonder, using our senses, taking notice of and capturing anything and everything that strikes us, without judgment.” (page 60). This research called the creative process as said by the authors has steps that need to be taken before successfully executed. Having the space, time, and proper setting to begin your creation process and there is more to be observed through the process. Creativity doesn’t just poof itself out of nowhere or is just given to people, it is something that is truly cultivated for and worked towards, trial and error being something happening often for it!
The second quote derived from the reading is “Perfection is the voice that creeps up while you’re working on a project and whispers over your shoulder, ‘that could be a little bit better’. It sounds like the voice of a friendly coach, so you listen.” (page 73). Like the examples stated in the book, there are many times where in art the project seems finished but the little imperfections get in the way of a complete project, so you spend an unnecessary amount of time to complete it. Most of the time, the project is already completed so now time is just being wasted. I used to love making music 2 years ago, and when doing so, there have been many times when I finished a project and because of the means of perfection, I would spend more unnecessary time on it and turns out, not much was changed anyways. Perfection can be the enemy!
Finally, the last quote I have taken from this reading is “Sometimes your creativity will result in something great, and sometimes in epic failure, and if you practice really hard, it will most often result in something good enough.” (page 83). The truth for any creative artist of any sort is that you will often see failure especially in the beginning. Works that don’t amount to what you expected or know you can possess. It is just a matter of picking yourself back up, and continuing the process because, as any process, there are projects that we will be disappointed with. Even myself, having created music that sounded like complete garage junk, it’s the journey that mold you. Trusting in the process and keeping moving forward are key for every artist to create impressive works in the long run.
To answer the final questions, the first one to “what is curatorial activism?” is that curatorial activism is the process of creating and running an activist project or event. Many results can be seen but taking control and making the effort for positive changes make for great curatorial activism. Now, what we can do to improve art and art history is becoming educated in these areas and sharing what we know with others. Through blog posts, small projects, or even in person or events are a good way of sharing our knowledge and educating others about art and art history. Exhibitions can be activist within each piece of artwork. Having some artists use pictures of scenes and events is one way of sharing activism. Another way is when artists draw a portrait of someone or something outside with a descriptive background. This is another way of activism as it displays different sceneries that artists had to visit to execute this type of art. Messages in the theme and inclusion of artwork can be seen in the artwork itself and depending on factors such as if the artwork is black and white or is drawn in a small brokedown neighborhood, shows the themes of that art trying to be displayed for the viewer. It can give off depressed vibes, or even the liveliness that still remains in these broken down neighborhoods.
The first quote I have taken out of “Towards a Curatorial Activism” is within the end of the second page which quotes “Indeed, the more closely one examines art world statistics, the more glaringly obvious it becomes that, despite the decades of postcolonial, feminist, anti-racist, and queer activism and theorizing, the ‘majority’ continues to be defined as white, Euro-American, heterosexual, privileged and, above all, male”. As referring to the artwork that the many museums that exist currently have, moreso identifying with and being curated to white men. Mainstream museums seem to have this in common and when in the search of a more gender mixed or racial mixed results of art, there is difficulty in doing so. The fight for equality in the art system is recognized at the Whitney museum, and the fight within these biased works are far from over but the more eyes that it can capture, the better the results can be with making our museums more diverse!
My next quote coming from this reading is captured from page five of the article, “Besides, Bell’s protest work has tremendous cross-cultural relevance. It speaks directly to racist stereotypes, colonial mythologies, land rights, commodification of indigeneity by the art market, violence against Aborigines, and to Austracism, in particular.” These paintings by Australian artist Richard Bell would capture the rest of the article as it tackles on the racism contributed by the Australian community and its cultural effects in the art world. Turning from the history of racism in Australia to the shameful history of slavery in America. The artist Bell would contribute many works dedicated to these periods of time that would greatly impact the people affected. “These works, and others like them by Bell, also have great relevance to Indigenous peoples, African Americans, immigrant communities and other oppressed peoples in the US.”
The first quote I have taken from “What is Curatorial Activism” by Dr.Maura Reilly is “There is an urgent need for a re-evaluation of mainstream (non-activist) curatorial practice, in particular. Most curators today don’t seem concerned with equality in representation or a diversity of voices.” This goes to show the author’s intense desire to challenge the art industry and be one of the numerous “curatorial activists” to create a nondiscriminatory atmosphere and an intelligent curation in the art scene. The article states that there are artists who have dedicated their work to challenge or change the system from a white systemic one to a more culturally, more sexually open, and a less oppressive one. From gallery representation, to solo exhibition programs.
The second quote I have taken from the reading is “Whatever the reasoning, mainstream curators propagating discriminatory practices must be held accountable, and curatorial misconduct criticized, to the point where it becomes unacceptable, for instance, to present women artists only 26% of the time—as was the case with the Venice Biennale in 2013, curated by Massimiliano Gioni.” In order for us to be able to see change, we will need more activists on duty making the changes! This includes more conversations about the subject, more curated artwork being created, challenging other people who are aware of the subject to become involved, challenging the leaders and organizers of art events and museums to place a theme around the subject, seeing more education based around this so we can see more change. “In the end, instead of denying statistics, or ignoring the subject of gender, race and sexuality altogether, we all need to stop making excuses and to face these issues head-on in order to come up with solutions, possibilities, and strategies for addressing these inequities.”
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