Arts as a Social Practice: The Visual Poetics of Protest

Art and Activism are very similar acts. Art borrows strategies from activism where activism deals with politics and histories. The line between these two processes intertwine and create a social power, a movement to change mental, especially political aspects. We are living in a society where people post their feelings, thoughts or any activism that is happening around them via social media when even press corps, newspapers fall behind. Everything is instantaneous now. Social media platforms have positive and negative sides but they are more like weapons against the system, government. Any activist movements such as protests, gathering, announcements use social media to encourage, stand out and receive support around the world about their goal before they get obstructed. On these platforms they mainly show the truth and pain because there is no controlled, sold or manipulated news by the government. Therefore, social media is a great way to spread the power of art, visual activism, activist social practices, events. Social media is an easy way to change peoples’ opinions, there is no authority or bashfulness like old days. It is also a beneficial platform for artists who use art as activism. They can express the truthiness and emotions by their artwork and at some point, they’ll have a personal connection with someone who is even miles away from them. They can still put their name out in this atmosphere. Thus, social media also helps for me to agree with Grant Kester’s dialogical practices one more time. Art should be more than a ‘looking’, a canvas or an object in galleries and museums; with social media the viewers engage, have more a dialog with artwork and artist. In this case the underline message sinks into their deeper thoughts, it gives a chance to let them think from different perspectives. Art is to move people for action and in my opinion all art pieces carry activism (visual activism) for people who are seeing. A key component in visual activism is also constancy. You cannot make a one-day protest or one piece of art thinking you can change people lives, thoughts then disappear. Visual activism is like working out: you cannot go to gym 1 out of 365 days and expect to be stronger, healthier. Creating sustainability is very important because as you go to the gym, your good energy lifts up, this mirrors to your environment where people start to support, respect you, enjoy your company and take you more serious about your point. This is an exact same in artistic social practices in visual activism, development must be seen by you and people to become stronger not better where you will be able to raise international sensation, a voice more than government.

Figure 1. Diagram from Nicholas Mirzoeff, ‘Afterword: Visual Activism’, pp. 298

As visual activism diagram displayed in Nicholas Mirzoeff’s Afterword: Visual Activism text, we can summaries visual activism as a conjunction of two forms: pixels and actions. A great example for this is a lesbian visual activist and photographer, Zanele Muholi. She is working in photography, video and illustration where she uses images, photographs (pixels) with her cultural background, forms (actions) to express her individual acceptance. Frustration from issues of her choice in sexuality in South Africa led her to express her feelings with photography. Because it was an easier choice to take photographs instead of trying to talk, explain herself to others. She started using art, her skills as activism movement, her photography works are protests. The photographs carry a very significant meaning of a political and social way to tell “we are you” to society: no discrimination or division needed from community. At Zanele Muholi talk in Oslo, she elaborates this idea with these words: “…I always like to explore spaces with members of the communities, in that way it is not about Zanele it’s about us because I am one of us, NOT one of THEM.” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-QPzXYoZak) It is a fabulous development to see some museum, galleries or other cultural platforms to accept and display their (LGBTI) work just like other artists.

Visual activism or visual activist projects are collective, collaborative events to network with society because they seek to achieve. However not all visual activism appears as art at the beginning, some will be formed on the streets like a protest named Umbrella Movement. Umbrella Movement was a political movement started in Hong Kong where ‘Occupy Central’ mobilised people from any age, statue with love and peace under democracy protest in 2014. Umbrella was one of the materials used in this woeful protest as a protection against the police (government pawns), pepper spray, tear gas and weather. Umbrella rapidly became an iconic object of this activist movement which symbolised the resistance and the underlying social grievances. The other objects and materials such as: yellow ribbon, banners, tents, post-it notes, posters, road barricades, gas masks and many more held spiritual meanings more than physical use at the time. Disobedient Objects appeared as illustrations, origamis and fabrics, songs, caricatures, banners, umbrella man statues, words, photographs, videos and where Lennon Wall used as a message board, projection, lion rock had banners and tents were turned into preservation.

As many visual activisms occur the importance of documentary becomes significant. Throughout history until the 21st of century many movements documented. Documenting can be done by photography, recording videos, taking notes etc. It is about human being lives that is saved to either educate or manipulate the next generations. Such as: Middlesex University where they still keep the documents of past activist movement, protests of Hornsey College of Art that was technically against them. However, documentaries are infinite evidences, that’s a fact but many people concentrate only on the positive side of documentaries, do not create or evaluate after content. Documentaries use real human pain, lives as a tool and for me it’s like an experiment. Are documentaries really useful or were useful? Do they still keep contact with people who they used for recording? Did they help them? Or do they just use people and events as a step to rise in the sector?