Art+Activism

The relationship between art and activism runs deep, especially in the United States. Artists during the Great Depression era used exhibitions to mobilize citizens around themes like poverty and anti-facism. The beginnings of the environmental justice movement began with a group of artists eplling “OIL” in the Pacific Ocean after the Santa Barbra oil spill in 1969. And even today in San Francisco, local artists publish a bi-weekly newspaper called Street Sheet that is sold by homeless individuals who then use the income to help provide their basic necessities.

Though art itself doesn’t create tangible change it can serve as a vehicle to help rally people around certain issues, while also forcing us to internalize the faults that may exist in our society. On Thursday, the Massachusetts Institute of Art and Design hosted “Resistance Culture: An Art Show for Revolutionaries”, an event designed to do just that.

“I think art is a huge vessel for awareness,” said Stephanie Houten, a 26 year old filmmaker and student at MassArt. In a lot of these movements, the first people to come out of the woodwork are artists and musicians… Art is very accessible. It’s visual and it’s a communication method that isn’t like anything else. And I think it can speak way louder than just words can sometimes.”

Houten, who is a founding member of C.O.M.B.A.T (Coalition to Organize and Mobilize Boston Against Trump), was at the exhibition to display the puppet her and a group of other artists made of Massachusetts governor Charlie Baker. Baker has been under recent scrutiny for his failure to rebuff Trump’s policies, as well as for making major funding cuts to social and educational programs around the state. The puppet was used in the massive Inauguration Day protests this January and is meant to represent the idea that Baker, and politicians like him are no more than empty suits.

“The idea was just to symbolize that this is all an act. This is all puppetry,” she said. “They’re not doing things for people, they’re doing things for money and power.”

The election of Donald J. Trump as president of the United States is probably the most obvious manifestation of this point of view. Since November, he’s allegedly used his newfound power to help expedite foreign real estate deals, ban journalists from entering his hotels, and violate anti-nepotism laws by hiring Jared Kushner, his son-in-law, to a senior White House advisory role. While his presence in the Oval Office highlights the disconnect between our government and many of its people, it has also given the citizenry a common cause to rally against, helping raise attention to the inequities many groups of people face in this country.

But, it’s one thing to go to a protest or an art exhibition with friends who you know disagree with what Trump stands for. It’s an entirely different thing to bring that message of dissent to some of the 60 million Trump voters, who won’t necessarily be as receptive. To create change, we need unity among ourselves. And right now, we’re more divided socially and politically than at any other point in our history.

For some of the artists on display at MassArt, the fact that their message likely won’t reach those who need to hear it most hung over their creative process. At the same time, they understood the importance of making accessible art that at least challenges some of the power held by leaders in our society.

“I think the overt experience of just putting that counter narrative in the world and having that space to create a conversation about what these challenges or problems are is important,” said Dani Schechner, a 32 year old teacher from Jamaica Plain. “When we look at art, whether it’s a photograph, a painting, a drawing, a steel sculpture, or whatever it is, we want people to look again and again and again until we can make more sense of what that meaning is.”

Art’s ability to make viewers to draw meaning from it makes it an effective tool for activists because it gives them a platform to start the conversations needed to solve the issues that plague us. Through the portrayal of alternative perspectives, artists are able to depict problems like racism, income inequality or corruption in a way that isn’t just accessible, but also forces you to have a reaction.

Obviously it’s going to take more than reactions to change the course of our nation. But, every movement started somewhere.