1/31 Rivera

 The piece that stood out to me the most was Leon Golub's, “White Squad V,” 1984

"White Squad V" is part of his series on Salvadoran death squads, depicting a militarized policeman subduing a civilian, reflecting current concerns about police militarization. Golub's technique, which he termed "barbaric realism," included painting layers of acrylic, applying solvent, and using a meat cleaver to scrape away layers, resulting in a raw and confrontational portrayal of violence. He dedicated nearly six decades to exploring the trauma of social violence through his art. He believed that for art to remain relevant, it must reflect and engage with the cultural events shaping society.

I chose this artwork because it stood out to me amongst the others. I think it is violent in a different way, and gorey without being so raw, almost like its leading up to it. I also appreciated how the artist chose to represent different countries struggling with police militarization, specifically those south america. Given the times, conversations we have had about the USA's policing system are spoken almost more than ever and I do believe we can extend this conversations past the borders of the US and to the countries that we are directly involving ourselves in. This depiction is of the brutalization that occurred in El Salvador also as a result of American involvement in government, however it also unfortunately reminded me of militarized police violence in Ecuador, where my family is from, as well as the surrounding countries.

Quotes

1. An Introduction to Activist Art: The Collector by Stephanie Graf

- "Just like Tatlin’s monument, which is still remembered despite never being built, Bruguera’s work produces a monument through the memory of the audience". 

Art begs to be looked at, but performance pieces, in a way, demand it and do not give you the option necessarily to ignore the art as it comes to life in the same room that you are also in. They also aren't meant for a viewer, but an audience. The art experiences the person almost as much as they come to experience the art in a sense, and its this exchange that makes it very memorable and almost stand out amongst the others when done well like this piece.

- "The anonymous artist Banksy seemingly agreed with the opponents of the wall and his graffiti showing a protestor throwing flowers instead of a Molotov cocktail appeared in the center of Jerusalem. With the apparent message calling for flowers instead of violence, the work has often been interpreted as a call for peace."

I think Banksy's art has always been a very powerful medium for social and political commentary, especially because by staying so anonymous and hidden, the work and meaning behind it will always be greater than the artist himself.

2. Why Artistic Activism? Center for Artistic Activism

-"Activism moves the material world, while Art moves the heart, body and soul. In fact, however, they are complimentary. Social change doesn’t just happen, it happens because people decide to make change. As any seasoned activist can tell you, people just don’t decide to change their mind and act accordingly, they are personally moved to do so by emotionally powerful stimuli. We’re moved by affective experiences to do physical actions that result in concrete effects: Affect leads to Effect."

I think we get very numb or desensitized by numbers or images that we see around us or in the media when covering certain humanitarian issues, which can confuse people or make them disconnect. I think activism art is so important for that reason it almost hijacks your mind for your attention, as it demands to be seen and if not seen, then it must be felt or transferred to its viewer in another abstract way that perhaps we may be too desensitized or unaware to take notice of.

-"Art and activism often conforms to expectations — and for many people those expectations are, unfortunately, negative. Artistic activism is activism that doesn’t look like activism and art that doesn’t look like art."

By showing up in unlikely places, taking unlikely forms, also as the article suggests, this is important as it continues to push the borders we have mentally set up in the effort of desensitizing ourselves.

3. The 25 Most Influential Works of American Protest Art Since WWII

-"we are experiencing, as Neshat pointed out, crises in every aspect of our 244-year-old democracy: about feminism, about human rights, about immigration, about poverty, about housing, about our health care system, about combating systemic racism, about the environment, about our very belief in what is good and right."

-It could just be me but I feel like we have been experiencing a crisis almost since the beginning of democracy, perhaps since even the dawn of time, and that art has almost not only become a way to cope with that but to also create this awareness in others of the crises that we are all dealing with.

"The image had been captured by the Cuban-born American artist Felix Gonzalez-Torres, whose partner, a Canadian sommelier named Ross Laycock, had died the year before from complications of AIDS; the number of billboards correlated to the date Laycock died in January. The harrowing portrait of loss, which, like many of the artist’s works, was labeled “Untitled,” occupied the liminal, often uncomfortable space between art and advertising."

-I think a piece like this is not only meant to be of service to the public by spreading information, while also serving a much deeper purpose to help someone in intense mourning for their loved one, also going on to struggle with the same complications that ended their life.