Category: Political

Life Drawing–that erases the received reality

I’m convinced that drawing is the mother of all the visual arts, and while that usually entails, figure, landscape… representational work. I’m interested in working outside of those boundaries. What we’re trained to see–is too politically constrained, that artist’s renderings of ‘realism’ recapitulate and reinforce multiple levels of the status quo, & claim by default to being the one and only and forever reality. When the ‘IS,’ when what we have, our political status quo, is hell bent on the way to ending human life on this planet.
I’m thinking… how to explore different modes of drawing–life drawing, that don’t ‘draw’ on geometric space or figurative realism… yet are as intensely involved in that visual transformation from eye to paper as traditional techniques?

This is an aesthetic dimension of my interest in the place of art in late capitalism. How… is something I’m working out my art, rather than theory.

End of Sovereignty: Bare Life and the Coming Civil-War?

This speaks to my anarchist heart. Yes and yes and yes–oh, and so much more! (see my comment following this post, for how this connects with my art!

Agamben at one point choses to explicate this notion in reference to the included/excluded people within and outside politics:

It is as if what we call “people” were in reality not a unitary subject but a dialectical oscillation between two opposite poles: on the one hand, the set of the People as a whole political body, and on the other, the subset of the people as a fragmentary multiplicity of needy and excluded bodies; or again, on the one hand, an inclusion that claims to be total, and on the other, an exclusion that is clearly hopeless; at one extreme, the total state of integrated and sovereign citizens, and at the other, the preserve-court of miracles or camp-of the wretched, the oppressed, and the defeated.6

Isn’t this the state of exception of migrant immigrants everywhere, a multiplicity outside the law, outside sovereignty, the inclusive excluded of the wretched, the oppressed, and the defeated?

And THIS:

“And in a different yet analogous way, today’s democratico-capitalist project of eliminating the poor classes through development not only reproduces within itself the people that is excluded but also transforms the entire population of the Third World into bare life. Only a politics that will have learned to take the fundamental biopolitical fracture of the West into account will be able to stop this oscillation and to put an end to the civil war that divides the peoples and the cities of the earth.7”
And THIS is why NONE of the candidates, of either party, will move us one footstep beyond square zero!

…is why not one of the U.S. presidential candidates, of any party, will move us one single step past ground zero!

S.C. Hickman's avatarThe Dark Forest: Literature, Philosophy, and Digital Arts

…the sovereign is the point of indistinction between violence and law, the threshold on which violence passes over into law and law passes over into violence.
– Giorgio Agamben, Homo Sacer

When one actually thinks about it, rather than just spouting rhetoric from some ideological mythology of the Left or Right the problem of immigration in our world is about Sovereignty. It’s about the emerging war against boundaries, limits, and finitude in politics, science, philosophy, the arts, and gender. In politics it’s about immigration, migration, and the sense of breakdown of nations and their paranoiac reactionism against imaginary and perceived threats to their own integrity and sovereignty. Same in the sciences we see explorations emerging in biotechnology, nanotechnology, and information and communications converging to form a global network society that will break free of political and social constraints and provide a larger framework and platform for such politically motivated notions as transhumanism that…

View original post 2,052 more words

#447 Subsummation of the Human.

This comes as a feeling that pressed to become a thought, or a thought that sought to become an image. I sketched a face in soluble ink. Efaced with watercolor. Still there. Subsummed

#447 Subsumation of the Human
#447 10×8″ water soluble ink, India ink, water color.

I seldom do figurative art. Not in my finished pieces. I draw the human figure… obsessively, from bones to flesh and back to bones–images of the human. But that isn’t what they are–the drawings. It isn’t there, the human, and in my finished work, what is human remains, not quite invisible, most often as little more than an unintended suggestion. Broken into fragments. Or traces and debris of our passing.

That isn’t a plan. I’m not rendering some idea I have… I don’t know what it is, other than it emerges from some primal conflict, deeply, inexorably personal. It permeates my art–how I work, how I think about it. I know that it has to do with how or why I spend so much of my private, internal conversation explaining, justifying–as though I stand before some perpetual tribunal–that has demanded, without asking (I just know)–that I’m called to account for what I make, for the very need I have to make art, in these conversations where I go endlessly back to the beginning. Do I even have a right to call it… art? To permit myself…?

How this is connected with using the human figure, I don’t know, but I know that it is. Had I all the years of a younger man ahead of me, I don’t think that a lifetime of analysis would be sufficient to uncover what lies buried, something powerful enough to have kept me away from the one thing I’ve always wanted to do–for almost 40 years.
But it’s more than personal… or should I say, more than my private demons. As though this most private struggle has reformed itself into the one subject central to everything I make. How I can feel human figures in the most abstract pieces that come from my hand. Has become their struggle. Something pressing to emerge, pressing toward freedom. Or is it the subsummation of the human back into that state from whence we came? My not distant death linking itself to the coming extinction of our species?

Once more: art and capitalism

This is a post I left on Wet Canvas– a great resource if they confined themselves to technical questions, or were free from beholden to the status quo when posts ventured into more substantive questions about “Art” I think my welcome on this webpage is likely going to be short lived.

I know I have to tread carefully here. We have to live, to find a way to support our art. That’s a given. What’s not a given, is how we go about that, and–living in this Empire of Money and Death–what that means. And what it means to be dependent on utterly corrupted and corrupting gallery to investor pipeline.

There have to be other ways. Especially when you think of how that has come to define “success.” A form of success guarded by a system of gatekeepers, programed to exclude all but those deemed, first and foremost, most likely to produce work that will accrue in monetary value–as a commodity. Aesthetics comes in second.

How can one blame the gallery owners? They have to play the game–attract people with the money, the “investor class,” and are pressured to select artists they think will pass that test.

And for artists, the pressure begins with the first sales. What if they want to change course? To experiment? Bring something so unlike what has passed the market test that the gallery has no choice but to politely suggest they do more of … you know, what they’ve been doing.

Unless, for the very few, whose names have become the brand, the commodity.

All of which leaves art as entertainment for the oligarchy that’s won its wealth by exploiting workers, stealing the raw materials from “underdeveloped” nations, and by the profit of endless war. I mean really.. what does it mean to earn one’s living producing work to decorate corporate Human Resources waiting rooms… other than to have submitted to being nothing more than another something-less-than human resource?

Is art only to provide decor to the killer class? And ‘success’ reserved only for those who are willing slaves to their masters?

How do we defy the gatekeepers–all of them? The critics who are no more than servants to this same predatory system? Who have so successfully restricted women, blacks–anyone outside the presumed Western canon?

Capitalism destroys art. Capitalism corrupts and destroys artists. How do we find a way out of this?

Why can’t we pool or resources–draw on, encourage and help to develop the artistic aspirations of our communities? Create collectives where we can control how our art is used, and provide mutual support as we develop alternative ways to distribute our work, and alternative ways to support us?

I have a limited interest in arguing these issue, though I will be patient to explain them. What I would like, is to find artists who get it: who know that the whole “success” system is rigged (like the American USA election process), and any one artist, no matter how talented, has about as much chance of being one of the ‘winners’ as wining the lottery. And the effort to be one of those, means making oneself into a brand, and one’s art into a commodity. A total betrayal of everything that it means to make art.

The only existing alternative.. is… to go commercial.

I would prefer to give my work away to whoever wants it. I can’t. So I offer it on a sliding scale. Art that is only available to the privileged is a perversion. Thing is, can’t do this one by one. We have to create collectives, work together to create a wholly different mechanism. To become a part of the revolution. Cause if we can’t replace this late, zombie capitalist system… we are doomed to extinction. Cause they are hell bent on destroying as much life on this planet their power permits.

What are your thoughts? Again, I’m not into arguing this. If your only take is defending the status quo–pass go, go directly to EXIT. But if you have some inkling of what I’m saying here, and share my discomfort… maybe we have stuff we can talk about.

American (U.S.A) Elections: to vote or not to vote?

images

The U.S. is a world power. Our politics is not just about those within our gated borders. Presidential elections insulated from the consequences of our global exploitation and the MILLIONS who suffer and die because of U.S. policies and actions, are exercises in a kind of mass psychosis, a manufactured, hallucinate dream. We give all the candidates a free pass on this… “maybe we can pressure Bernie to do a little better on Israel” “So what if Hillary fucks war criminal Henry, she’s a woman!”
You want your vote to matter, make it matter for everyone! Until we do–it really doesn’t matter. Better not to vote, cause for the planet and most of the humans and animals, a collapse of the U.S. political system would be the real “lesser evil.”

This election reminds of those big protests in Israel a couple years ago. Israel’s occupation and brutality … like it didn’t exist. It was all bout jobs, economic inequality… la la la. Peas in pod.

Americans (U.S.A) don’t get it. The economy–all the good stuff Bernie stands for, bull shit, without including the rest of the picture, the rest of the world. It’s all one thing. A spectacle! The U.S. military occupations, the endless wars, the support of murderous regimes like the Saudis, Israel… all part of the same system that’s given so much power to so few, that’s fueled income inequality. If all of that isn’t tackled and dealt with, neither Horrible Hillary’s pitchy patchy incremental shit, or Bernies fake socialism are gonna be nothing but window dressing.
A great, tragi-comic farce.

Imagining Posterity

imagesOne response to the End of Posterity–making art on the brink of human extinction, is to deliberately make work that is fragile, perishable–even to incorporate its destruction into the art.
In thinking about doing silverpoint, I felt a small bubble of elation, in realizing I was doing just the opposite. Silverpoint is one of the most durable of mediums. It’s metal embedded in powdered stone, and can be done on wood or Masonite. It will hold up for centuries. Long after the last human as turned to dust. How satisfying!

I will make art for the posterity of my imagination.

Firefly Action Medical

Source

ABOUT:

We are a group of people in and around the Philadelphia area. We are trained street medics, nurses, EMT’s, wilderness first responders, artists, herbalists, trauma counselors and generally people interested in the health and well being of our communities. Members of this collective have been involved with providing medical support at direct action, activist camps, street protests, and disaster relief situations. Please take a look at our Points of Unity to learn more about our values and the ways in which we organize.More resources for taking care of yourself and others coming soon!

POINTS OF UNITY:

+ We affirm that demystifying and democratizing health care skills and reducing our dependence on profit-driven medicine and police-involved emergency response is vital to building long lasting movements for Liberation in our lifetime.

+ We acknowledge that the idea of “safety” is relative and complicated

+ We believe in building interdependent ways of being with one another that do not replicate the oppression that isolates us in the first place. We see our work as acknowledging and resisting intersecting systems of oppression — both in the world and in our relations with one another.

+ We believe in the principles of harm reduction and practice and support diverse forms of healing that are consistent with each individuals understanding of their own needs and values.

+ We believe our liberation is tied to that of others and we take on this work in solidarity with collective resistance.

+ In all these above points we stand in solidarity with the evolving international traditions of street medics.

CODE OF CONDUCT:

1. We do no harm. We make every reasonable effort to give treatment that will not negatively affect the health or well­being of our patients. If no such treatment is available, no treatment whatsoever is given.

2. We work only within our own individual scope of practice, while trusting and respecting the abilities of the other medics in their work. We explicitly inform patients of our own qualifications and limitations.

3. We obtain clear and explicit consent from our patients and anyone affected by our care for every action we take as medics, including any physical contact or while performing any procedure. If a patient in an emergency situation is unable to offer consent for treatment, as through a lack of consciousness, we strive to take whatever action we believe is most essential to their well­being. We respect patients’ right to refuse any treatment, advice or transport to any medical facility.

4. We maintain our work areas as Safer Spaces, and actively challenge the perpetuation of any form of social domination or oppression. This includes, but is not at all limited to sexism, racism, transphobia, ableism, classism, ageism, and other forms of oppression. We cultivate an awareness of our own privilege and work to create a welcoming, safe and comfortable space for all, while directly calling attention to any actions of other medics that perpetuate oppression.

5. We respect and actively protect the privacy of our patients’ and the confidentiality of their treatment to the greatest extent possible. Without our patients’ consent, we do not allow photography, videography, audio recording, or any other non ­private record of our patients’ care.

6. We practice exceptional sanitation and hygiene in our work as medics and in our working areas. This includes using appropriate protocols of Standard Precautions and Body Substance Isolation (BSI) in caring for patients through gloves and other means, as well as thoroughly washing and/or sanitizing hands, surfaces, supplies and containers when they may be contaminated. If a medic suspects that they may currently host any readily transmissible disease, they do not act as a medic until the risk of transmission is abated.

7. We maintain a continuity of care for all of our patients. We do not leave or cease caring for any patient until a treatment is completed, except to transfer the patient’s care to another medic of equal or greater qualification – or to prioritize the immediate and urgent care of a different patient in emergent need, when no other assistance is available.

8. We organize ourselves horizontally, without institutional hierarchies of command, experience, credentials, ability or level of involvement. Every medic has equal power in all decisions affecting them.

9. When acting as medics, we remain neutral. The primary role of a marked medic is to provide care for the injured or ill. We do not attempt to direct the actions or personal choices of anyone else for any tactical or political purpose. We do not participate in any ideological or political action while marked as a medic..

10. While working as a medic, we recognize our responsibility to maintain a positive and calm atmosphere.While on duty, our interactions with patients’, other medics, and passers­by are guided by trust, respect and solidarity, in the same way that those qualities are essential to our own standing in the community. Rather than telling others to do something, we ask them. We request rather than command. Patients in our care are treated respectfully and are spoken to or with. We do not gossip about or judge any patients in our care.

11. We all benefit from an orderly, clean working space, and we all contribute to keeping it in that condition. If we re­organize any materials in a medical space, we make every reasonable effort to inform the other medics of those changes.

12. We do not use intoxicating substances while on duty and we do not tolerate the use of intoxicants or smoked tobacco in any medical space.

13. We are all capable of learning and improving our skills, and recognize that we all make mistakes. Each of us remains accountable to any guidance or correction, and we receive the input or critique of other medics respectfully, with good faith that our common goal is to provide the best possible care.

14. We understand that when anyone is marked as a medic, they are considered to be on active duty, and their behavior is accountable to this code of conduct. Should we wish to act outside of the principles in this code, we remove all markings or other indications of our role as a medic beforehand. If any medic acts outside of this code, they may be held accountable to the other members of this group, local medical  protocols, and to the respective community.

This is the world, our only home

Refugees Don’t Need Your Pity

In a world where 1 in 7 people are displaced, your kindness is just condescension.

BY ANNA BADKHEN    Read the article HERE

Dispossessed is an identity of disempowerment, but it is a powerful identity. Borders may temporarily hold back the flow of humans adrift, but in a world where we are so tightly and dizzyingly interwoven, physical boundaries are far less obstructive than the lasting confinement of imposed narratives. Such is the double-edged power of stories: They can hold us together — and they can distort, isolate, and divide. The dispossessed: The tag’s impediment persists even after the bearer has crossed a border or town limits, settled in, become a neighborhood cop, a high school teacher, a daughter’s girlfriend, or a boat captain living next door. Unless the world finds compassion for this new communality, learns to make sense of one another’s voices, its humanity will perish.

Everything Wrong with Art & Capitalism

Experts expect a ‘severe correction’, particularly in contemporary and American art, after years of spiraling prices and celebrity and luxury obsession

Alicia Keys, Swizz Beatz
Musician Alicia Keys, right, and her husband Swizz Beatz look at an installation by artist Gabriel Dawe, in Miami. Photograph: Lynne Sladky/AP

in New York

Art Market in ‘Mania’ Phase, from the Guardian. Including this report and all its links

For my other posts on Art & Capitalism, alternatives to the market/gallery system, click HERE and scroll down.

Revolution now!