Week Two - AESTHETIC EVANGELISTS

Week Two - AESTHETIC EVANGELISTS

1. The views of the public art administrative teams verses community groups.

There is broad relationship between “public” and “community” art and how it comes to intuition. One type explores the ethics of art in the community deeper than the other. In such cases of public art, artists works directly with city officials, architects and city agencies concerned with the delegation of city owned spaces. (Kester 2) The city is not concerned with the ethic of the artist’s goals, rather they are more interested in the impact the art will have on the city itself, not the inhabitants. Community art I feel explores and questions the ethical reasons behind such art that is built within community groups. The artist has the ability to take discussions on their own tangents to get down to the answers. There becomes reason to “community” art thats more than how it effects budgets and long term longevity of the city. 

1. Artists have trouble separating themselves with the norm definition of “community art” In most cases, community arts is “often used  to demarcate those works that are produced by, or address, subjects defined by their differences from a white, upper-middle class norm”.

A big misunderstanding of “community” art and which becomes a moral principle in society is the immediate definition it receives from the public, “In most cases, community arts is “often used  to demarcate those works that are produced by, or address, subjects defined by their differences from a white, upper-middle class norm”. (Kester 4) How is it that society labels community art has misprivilege and as a lower class? Most of the projects do end up overlapping and exposing both these issues, but how can community art portray itself to a better portrayal of community based art that is based upon boundaries, masks, and social issues?

1. In order for public art to become true to the community it is surrounded by, the artist is tasked with objectifying themselves into “feeling their oppression and to express their pain and moral outrage”.

Dedeau’x process of Soul Shadow’s exposed a side of prison life that no one would expect to image. The way that inmates opened up and creative a personal narrative of redemption shows the true value of art. A prison is not a community, its a forced gathering community brought together by the system. The fact that inmates created a community with themselves and furthermore created a total different community with Dedeau’x is a spectacle. In this work of community engagement and art, these inmates wear two mask, their mask that got them into prison and the masks they leave with that they themselves want to becomes. Forever, they will always carry both. Society’s perception of them will most likely be of the masks inmates most want to put behind them. Dedeau’x project presented a true journey towards self actualization for the inmates she discovered.

1. Politically motivated art as Kester discusses shows the trouble with the art creation process. The trouble with a lot of politically motivated art is a failure of nerve. (Kester 29) I feel artists should task the largest risk possible when producing to explore the outcome, or outburst,that society shows. When art is created without an know outcome, there is no exploration, no risk, there ends up being a forecasted conclusions.  Truly taking a risk means not knowing what's going to happen in the end. Taking risks coincides nicely with the battle between “public” and “community” based art projects. Risk is calculated when working with city planners and agencies, but a larger risk, or unknowns, can be achieved with community groups and the responses from society.