DEMOCRATISING ART: AESTHETICS, POLITICS AND JUST DISTRIBUTION
Flectere si nequeo superos, acheronta movebo Virgil, Aeneid
'If I cannot bend the will of Heaven, I shall move Hell'
We cannot rebuild and renew the cultural environment through the institutional structure that sustains what is known as 'the artworld'. 'The artworld' is anathema to the production and the purpose of works of art. Artists are now joining together to democratise art and take it to where and to whom it belongs: to the streets, to the people.
Walter Benjamin examines the possibilities for artistic output through the practice of reproduction and distribution in his essay, ‘The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction’ (1936). His proposal is to debunk the conventional aesthetic notion of originality and authenticity. As a German Jew in the horror of Fascism during pre-war Europe, Benjamin’s thoughts about aesthetics are embedded within a personal context. For Benjamin, the freedom of artistic expression had been hi-jacked by ideological propaganda through film, newsreel, photography and posters. Under state control, these artistic disciplines had the power to ‘aestheticise politics’. In other words, they could portray war as beautiful. Instead, by exposing originality and authenticity as a Trojan horse, Benjamin strongly recommends politicising aesthetics through the means of reproduction and distribution.
Inspired by Benjamin’s essay, this project puts forward a case to democratise art by ascribing the principles of distribution and accessibility to artistic production.To defend these values and following the trend of creating manifestos as other 20th-century artists’ have done, I have shaped a number of ideas about artistic production into poster statements. From the Futurists, I have lifted certain details of graphic boldness. From the Dadaists, I have incorporated certain features such as the deployment of confusing layouts and an over-abundance of written information.
To accompany the poster art, I have created a version of domestic ‘wallpaper’. To manifest my theoretical commitments, I have created multiples of papercuts as contemporary wall decoration. The design for the cuts is available, free and easy to use. By using a QR code, members of the public can access my website and download a free template.
By combining ‘urban’ wallpaper – i.e., fly-posters – and domestic wallpaper, my project unites political activism about artistic production, and endorses that enthusiasm through the openly accessible nature of my practice.
WALLPAPER: DOMESTIC AND URBAN
Urban
FLY-POSTING Urban Wallpaper
STENCILS Domestic Wallpaper
FREE STENCILS
For the urban wallpaper consisting of fly-posters that I created for my final project, I used the Flying Birds motif as a stencil. Please feel free to download these designs in order to make stencils for your own use. Download here for the individual stencils, here for a panel of six repeating images, and here for the repeating pattern.
You will need: printer, stencilling paper (or acetate), cutting board, scalpel knife, paint, sponges, blu-tak. Once the design has been cut, carefully attach the stencil to where you wish to paint the design. Dip a dry sponge into the paint and dab through the stencil onto the stencil you want the design to appear. Apply the paint NOTE: ONLY FOR AGES 14 AND OVER |
Domestic
FREE PAPERCUTS
You will need: printer, paper, cutting board, scalpel knife. NOTE: ONLY FOR AGES 14 AND OVER
To make your own papercut of the Flying Bird design, download here. For its flipped counterpart, download here. These are my working templates for making papercuts of this image. Simply print the images and carefully cut the designs with a scalpel knife. The printed side, is the working side. In other words, once you complete the cut, turn the image over and this is the positive side or the side that will be displayed. You now have your own wallpaper which can be simply pinned onto your wall. |
|
|
|
|
|
Flying Birds, Digital/Papercut, 2013. This project is seeking to digitally project 'wallpaper' onto a public space. The objective is to digitise graffiti and as yet, I have not accomplished this task.
This project is a call to put into action the famous quote by Fluxus artist Robert Filliou: 'When you make art, it is art, when you finish, it is non-art, when you exhibit, it is anti-art'. My objective is to draw attention to what matters about art: making it, and as a further aspect to its production, distributing it. As Filliou puts forward, when art is 'exhibited' it ceases to be art. It ceases to be art because it enters the hallowed and cloistered world of private and public patrons. My project has sought to return art to where and to whom it belongs: to the street, to the people.
|