Performance Art: Social, Cultural ramifications. (original) (raw)

Characteristic subjects in my artwork are overlooked history, places, peoples and aspects that have been marginalized by the mainstream culture or narrative. My motivation in this art performance is the question: Can we relate? How can art performance make conscious change that may bring peace through human awareness? As a child of the 70’s I lived through the radical approach of peace making. Learning it is not merely a political process yet also an individual process. The United Nations can set precedent, for instance, yet it is the people who ultimately carry out the process. Dr. Anya Stanger, Doctor of Philosophy in Social Science, Syracuse University researched from 1980-2013. Her data shows that who performs the action deeply matters in terms of how the action is understood, publicized, legitimized, discounted, and mobilized—i.e., effective. On the most surface level, then, it can be said that our most general and visible identities impact the breadth of what we can do as art activists, who we can reach, and what we can change. In our initial critique this semester you mentioned being of privilege. Importantly, it is for me that privilege not only enables, it also motivates direct action. There is an important history of using privilege “for good” in U.S justice struggles, for instance; white student involvement in the Civil Rights Movement, U.S. citizens involved in the Central American Solidarity movement and white abolitionists working to end slavery. "Speaking as a privileged first world person who is responsible and able to act…. demonstrates at once an instance of acknowledging one’s social location, a political understanding of unequal relations, a powerful claiming of personal responsibility and a remarkable demonstration of commitment to solidarity as a standing-with others—as your own person. In these ways, enacting privilege power may be more than a paternalist retrenchment or reification of a colonialist savior complex, and rather become an important method of solidarity.” (Stanger) Art performance as activism is focuses on the issues that as an artist, I am genuinely responsible to speak for; as such the artist is doing their own “work.” “It is important how we act in accompaniment. Not to think of the artist as nonpartisan or neutral. The artist must be aware of the impacts of their political location, be direct and knowledgeable about their race and privilege, and forge purposeful connections through acts of solidarity with those we live and work with (2012, Stanger).” In other words, using privilege well, crucially begins in an understanding of oneself, one’s location, and one’s public/visible identity—and then builds from this place to responsibly work with others. This analysis does not seek to categorize the various understandings and deployments of privilege power as a binary (good/bad, effective/ineffective, sufficient/insufficient), but instead to illuminate the spectrum of understandings expressed by participants in the performance. It is what is so important about engaging with a developed level of personal consciousness. The identity of the group is important. They are representative of many immigrant nations. There are Syrian, Pakistani, Kurdish, South African, German and American. Their religious beliefs are varied, some without a name: “my religion is of the people” Catholic, Protestant, Jewish and Muslim. Part of my commitment in performance art is that it be more normalized and better understood as part of our history and as a part of the human condition—to see relatedness as essential rather than exceptional aspect of cultural emergence, with people who are intelligent, courageous and real rather than naïve, heroic or ideal. I found this commitment echoed in the participants’ sentiments. I spent time meeting with immigrants, listening to them, attending language lessons and visiting those who live in the refugee housing of working class and poor people to listen firsthand to the real effects of the Syrian war and poverty. My approach is personal without the “intelligence” gained by drones or journalistic research. “First, there are the facts, research showing that socio-cultural conditions and changes affect human development (therefore history) on the whole. Secondly, this human development affects the socio-cultural context and which may contribute to cultural stability and change.” (Trommsdorff, 2000, 2007). I use the theme of nurture in relation to nature. (Nursing Home, Kreuzberg Pavillon, October). We are a mirroring culture, we relate to and reflect on who and what we meet. There is a basic aspect within the human species to meet and then make choice to relate. “Can we Relate” is the question, the inquiry. As we meet difference in culture, in color, language and even ability, we are then given an opportunity to relate. It is also that as human beings, we are all related in our humanness of form. This performance asks us to consider if the other aspects of politics, nationalism, religion, gender and beliefs can melt into the oneness of a what human relatedness we experience with one another. Practically the event and response is what matters. This art performance speaks for the participants. Their actions a response to the public performance. The added artistic potential will be of a video from the art performance. A video would be an artistic expression of the event in form.