Reflecting on Sewing Seeds

To be perfectly honest, the sewing circles only represented art a as a practice of liberation, embodiment, and healing in a surface level way for me. It was as if I was hoping to find meaty flesh behind the paper I pushed the needle through, but found only empty air. The circles could have been more than they were, but were quiet meetings primarily composed of students and professors that were exposed long ago to these ideas of harvest. It was a drop in the Northland bubble.

I do not mean to say that the circles were worthless, just that they could have been more. This said, the end product of the project is what I have found to be most meaningful and most a manifestation of art as liberation. The Alvord is a wonderful place for the photographs and quotes to be, as I have already witnessed a curious audience. People that would normally have no interest in such a topic or no reason to look into it are being exposed to the ideas of our harvesters. This is tremendous! It is the first step with change.

Growing up I was a city dweller, and by the time I reached Northland my idea of food consisted of Lays potato chips and Kraft mac and cheese. I had never run into the concept of anything more than that, and Growing Connections changed everything for me. The point here is that if I had not seen or heard something that tipped me off to the fact that food is important, I would never have been able to know, or talk about it, or vote with my wallet. Those images and quotes certainly have the potential to plant seeds in people’s minds.

The circles certainly represented art as a practice of embodiment in the sense that the embroidery is a physical process, and that we took them physically into the community. The latter is what seems to be key, along with the fact that the photographs were of harvesters and of the harvest itself. This form of embodiment is nowhere near as powerful as Marina Abramovic’s work, nor is it vulnerable. However, it is important and essential in making oneself and oneself’s ideas accessible, visible, and potentially impactful. This is the second tremendous piece! Without this, there is no pebble thrown, and no outward flowing ripples.

As for the sewing circles representing art as a practice of healing, they do so in that they were not angry events. They were moments in which community was encouraged and participated in. This project was not inspired by anger at the wrongs of the world or by resentment. It was inspired by the passion of love for community, food, and Earth. The message of the project is one of love, wholeness, and healing. This may be most key of all.

Overall I see this project as one of the many stitches in the Northland/Ashland fabric of food consciousness. As I expressed in my post on art as a practice of liberation, each stitch is essential! I have found that our project displayed as a whole, and the fact that we did this in the first place, is beautiful and important.

Salvage Expeditions

Activism is a tricky task in many ways. What do you want to change? What are tangible ways to go about making that change? How do you make your voice heard? Once your voice is heard, how do you ensure that your message is palatable, clear, and impactful? These questions are asked and examined from every angle imaginable within every field at all concerned with activism. The Salvage Expeditions podcasts attempt to take a look at them, and acknowledge the advantages of utilizing pop culture in one’s mission. Pop culture is primarily made up of art of some sort, and is incredibly influential to the dominant culture. These things make it a point of great interest to the arts activist, even if their instinct is to discard it with disgust.

            The ways in which pop culture can be manipulated to the purpose of the activist are many, and several relevant modes of use were alluded to in the podcast. The most profoundly advantageous quality of pop culture in this respect appears to be that it allows ideas the freedom of palatability. The mini-sode on 50 Shades of Grey emphasizes this by demonstrating that the film takes something broadly considered to be deviant behavior (BDSM) and slides it into a highly normalized framework. While the characters are practicing BDSM, they are within a film that is not frightening but mainstream and reinforces other cultural values. The result of this is a sense of comfort among the audience. They are given the opportunity to explore the unfamiliar through the familiar, increasing the chances that a demonized practice may become normalized. While I disagree with using 50 Shades of Grey as an example of this, as the BDSM practiced within it is more akin to an abusive relationship within a patriarchal and capitalistic schema than anything else, the core point in this podcast is valuable.

            Meeting in the middle is a valuable thing for obvious reasons, and another way of doing so is discussed in the Billboard 100 podcast. While I do not believe that mainstream pop music is currently activism oriented, I do see the value in what the speakers bring up. The valuable quality of pop music is that it takes something familiar to the audience and adds a certain polish to it. This is what activists must do in their communications. No one is going to pick up a radical ecopsychology textbook and immediately run off to exist in a shamanistic culture. Palatable is the key word in much of what is discussed.

Lastly, social media and popular video games lend one the power of invisibility and anonymity. Both of these have power, anonymity especially so. The only thing I will say of invisibility is that it gives one the potential to observe what others might not, which always has power in it. When one is anonymous, they are treated as an equal until proven otherwise. Anonymity allows conversation and interaction that transcends the initial judgements of color, gender, and class. This strikes me as a potent vein of untapped potential, as could pop culture in general.

Art as a Practice of Healing

Art is inherently a practice of healing in my mind. Creative expression is one of the most healing things I have come across, whether it be through art therapy or a simple interaction between pen and page, brush and canvas, body and music. Most times that I have participated in art it has been an emotional experience, and art creates an emotional reaction in those who view it. As Michael Shank explains, art can express things that logical explanation cannot. It is moving in its creation, viewing, experiencing, and existence. It is intrinsically emotional, expressive of emotion, and emotionally impactful. With this said, it also has the potential for healing in its creation, viewing, experiencing, and overall existence.

            A key element in these truths is also discussed by Shank, and that key element is art’s transformative qualities. It opens a door into other possible perceptions, and has the power to move an individual intensely, thrusting them into a new understanding. To me, this is the root of art as a practice of healing. Because of the potential art has in this realm, communities should begin to tap in. Art should be being used for this purpose as often as possible, and could be used to both create and strengthen community. In a world such as ours, one that is based on domination and exploitation, healing is necessary. Healthy societal change will not come about through people or communities who are fueled solely by anger, hurt, and resentment. These create the spark, but on their own can only lead to further confusion. If communities and individuals are to move forward into a sustainable and just world, there must be a foundation of calm purpose and love, which can only come to the hurt through healing.

Art as a Practice of Liberation

In my mind and my life, art as a practice of liberation can be present on many levels and can manifest in many forms. This is because art is ultimately undefinable, and liberation can be applied to many different things. The malleability of art as a practice of liberation is well expressed through Teaching to Transgress. Teaching is just one more form of art, and any practice can be an art, really. If teaching is done artfully, it can be incredibly liberating and lead to minds that are more capable of creating freedom and change in their world.  On another level, making art is in and of itself a practice of liberation. It is a cathartic experience that lifts a person out of their everyday experience and into the transcendent realm of creation. It allows people to exist and create. Another form of art as a practice of liberation could be as simple as a pair or group of people collaborating in any way to create or discuss art. On a larger scale, it could be making art that expresses political opinions or human truths for the world to see. The street art shown in Exit Through The Gift Shop is a perfect example if this, especially the artwork and motivations of Banksy.

With all of this said, I relate to art as a practice of liberation in an abstract and powerful way. Art is created by freedom, is itself freedom, and creates freedom. All of the levels that art can be a practice of liberation on are relevant in creating societal change, but I think that people are asking the wrong questions in this realm. It seems that what concerns people most in the context of art as a practice of liberation is how much tangible impact the art or artist makes. To me, whether a single artist or artwork creates something powerful for the viewer is not the end all be all. Yes, powerful and interactive artwork is important, as is largely expressed by Suzi Gablik in The Reenchantment of Art. However, a painting being displayed in a non-interactive manner and being separated from its creator does not have to and is not what Gablik describes on page 151. “…a hopelessly Cartesian construction, a map that is urgently out of date, because it is inextricably intertwined with the conditions of individualism and consumerism… ‘Most artists have political and social convictions… but these often do not transpire in their work. The more you become aware of this almost schizophrenic separation, which is normally not perceived as such, the more you have to deal with the problem.”

Art is not simply existent in its elite context (art galleries, art museums, auctions) as is suggested by the text and by dominant narratives. Art is everywhere. It constructs our values, beliefs, and culture. It is on the television, in advertisements, online, on the covers of books, on the walls of establishments, on crumpled pieces of paper blowing in the wind, tattooed on people’s skin, on the walls of alleys, scrawled in public toilets… Art separate from its creator is much more powerful than some narratives give it credit for. And this is why I truly feel that art can be liberating, create change, and make an impact. It can never be one artist that does it. Whether or not art is interactive or powerful, each piece of art will be a passing image or thought. Some pieces may linger in people’s hearts longer than others, but the feeling will pass and they will fall back into thinking patterns established long ago.

What truly has the potential to be liberating is art as a whole. The more artists that create powerful, political, and social art that inspires, or even makes an opinion clear, the more art has the potential to be liberating. If the images that are present in our culture are for the most part ones that express and encourage liberation, awareness, and activity, the culture feels it consciously or unconsciously. It is truly important, and has the potential to truly liberate.

Embodiment and Change

Embodiment as shown in The Artist Is Present is not a style of art that I have ever been familiarized with. Art as embodiment in my life has involved creating visual or written art in public spaces, along with including strangers in the creative process. At times this has involved addressing social issues, and at times it has not. While this way of relating to art as embodiment is important, I do not feel that it reaches the level of Marina Abramovic’s message and purpose. Gallivanting around urban areas flinging paint and poetry at people helps to bring us together and to bring out creativity, but Marina touches on something more deeply spiritual in nature.

The disturbing, awe inspiring, and transcendentally beautiful nature of her work is at the heart of societal change, and this is something unique to embodiment. What is happening before the audience is real, it is flesh and blood rather than an object on a wall, or as Marina puts it, ketchup and a plastic knife. It provokes something from deep within that cannot be contained by language. Philosophers and religious leaders alike claim time and time again that societal change requires a spiritual revolution. A prime example of this is the Dalai Lama’s narrative in his book Ethics for the New Millennium. If a spiritual revolution is necessary, then what better way is there for an artist to push for change than through embodiment, which has the unique quality of transcending logic and delving into something deeply human?

Logic is highly valued in our culture, while spiritual matters are minimized. Gablik frames this issue in terms of the world being “disenchanted.” She paints a picture for the reader of a mechanistic world that has too few outlets for the feeling of the transcendent. This issue is also addressed in Art That Heals, as Moore and Zehr describe the competitive and individualized nature of capitalistic culture. Both texts suggest that what we are left with is a need to shift to a paradigm that acknowledges the world’s interconnectedness and need for cooperative interaction. A necessary step in this direction is spiritual development.

If the goal is to reenchant the world, and reenchant art, then embodiment seems to be key. It is interactive, and more enchanting than most things I have beheld. Not only does it bring people together, it opens people up and brings them somewhere beyond the rat race of everyday life. It is something powerful on a deeply personal level, and encourages people to open their minds and mouths. On top of this, people are allowed to pass through the mind body divide that has pervaded our ideology since the Victorian era.

For decades people have shifted in a mindset that idealizes the value of intellect and disregards the value of the body. Embodiment, simply through the power of how it touches people, emphasizes the value of the body. Marina’s work shows us how powerfully one can be touched by the body. When we observe her cutting into her flesh we feel something indescribable. When we understand what she is putting her body through and look into her eyes to see the spiritual result, we feel touched by the transcendent. This the body can do, and logic and analysis cannot. Embodiment is a truly significant, useful, and empowering practice. It is captured with stunning clarity by The Artist is Present, and the lesson therein is something that goes beyond that which language is capable of describing.