Week 2: "Aesthetic Evangelists"

One particular part I found interesting was a quote about artists and politically motivated art by Joe Lewis.  Lewis wrote: “The trouble with a lot of politically motivated art is a failure of nerve. Artists who produce work that they know is not favored by our established regime are not necessarily taking risks, since they can forecast the results. Truly taking a risk means not knowing what's going to happen in the end. . . .”(Lewis p.29).  The point Lewis makes here is very interesting because it is a question on ethics and motivation.  Do artists fail because they aren’t motivated enough to make that political statement or fight that ethical line?  Is it truly failure or just a setback or learning experience?  Personally, I think all art makes a statement, whether good or bad, successful or not, it all says something.

Another ethical consideration artists have to make is those of political views and agendas.  When an artist makes a political statement for one side or the other they could be crossing an ethical line.  One example is when Kester says, “It is not coincidental that the two primary areas of conservative attack, at least until the recent assault on the ‘gay agenda,’ have been welfare and arts funding. Both of these areas of public policy provide conservatives with an arena in which to attack the moral pedagogy of the state” (Kester p.12).  For an artist, this kind of “conservative attack” on arts funding begs the question do we have to go against our ethics and follow those in charge just to keep going, to keep making art?

Owen Kelly makes another point specifically about art and money.  He talks about how the impact of art doesn’t necessarily affect the great of an artist.  He says, “The communities with whom we work are not really our customers, since an increase in their support and enthusiasm will not necessarily increase our grant, just as a decrease in their interest will not necessarily decrease our grant. In institutional terms, they [the community] are our 'clients,' and what that really means is that they are the raw material upon which we work, on behalf of our customers, who are the agencies tho whom we well the reports and documentary evidence of our work” (Kelly p.23).  In Kelly’s statement he shows how artists have to think about the ethical choices when it comes to their art.  If their audience’ opinion doesn’t affect their grant, then that get to make the decision of what their art will be and what kind of ethical or political statement it will be.

Finally, Kester talks about the “Soul Shadows Project”.  This project is a great example of an ethical consideration made my a group of artists.  Kester explains part of the project: “The monitors play video tape segments that Dedeaux recorded while working in the prison. These include a range of materials—for example, footage of a dance performance by juvenile offenders or scenes from a political rally in New Orleans. The majority of them, however, feature interviews with inmates and gang members. After passing by these video bays one enters a closed off area which features a large screen video projection of the young victim of a drive-by shooting” (Kester p.26).  This snippet of the project shows how artists can make a decision about an ethical issue and act on it.  They have created this project to make a statement and to fight the injustices being done.