Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei has mounted 1200 bicycles in a magnificent floor to ceiling installation as part of a solo exhibition in Taipei. The artist likely has no environmental statement to make with this installation, but these days it is hard to look at so many bicycles without being put in mind of the [...]
Archive of posts filed under the Social/Activist Art category.
Ai Weiwei – Human Rights Dissident – Environmentalist?
7 January 2012, 12:31 pm
Filed under Conceptual Art, Installation, Social/Activist Art.
Tagged Chinese, consumption, energy, trees
Comment
Money for Our Times – Artists Design Money
17 December 2011, 3:08 pm
This week The Guardian asked artists and writers to design images of money that would be appropriate for our times. As one can imagine, numerous themes have been explored by the artists concerned. John Gray (above) and Jonathan Frantzen (below) both take up the theme of endangered species, highlighting that, once gone, they will never [...]
Filed under Economics, Social/Activist Art.
Tagged Economics, endangered species, extinction, human culture
Comment
Gary Hume – Are the issues to big for any of us?
18 November 2011, 8:11 am
Gary Hume is a successful British artist who does not usually engage with environmental issues. He became involved with Cape Farewell and created some artworks in an attempt to engage with the issues. As reported in an article in The Guardian, he found this a challenge: “How do you depict global catastrophe?” he says. “I’m [...]
Filed under Painting, Social/Activist Art.
Tagged Climate Change, endangered species, pollution, technology, unsustainability
Comment
Wildlife Made Homeless – Born Free’s Ad Campaign
28 August 2011, 11:52 am
For many people it is difficult to understand, let alone empathize with, technical statements like “loss of habitat”. This advertizing campaign from the charity Born Free aims to bring this issue into the more human terms of ‘homelessness’. Using images of animals placed in the context of human homelessness, the campaign tries to make clear [...]
Filed under Advertizing, Photography, Social/Activist Art.
Tagged animal-human relationship, animals, endangered species, extinction
Comment
Cultural Response To Climate Change – David Buckland and Cape Farewell
14 March 2011, 2:00 pm
The creation, expansion and success of Cape Farewell maybe represents the most ambitious, most far-sighted and most successful effort to date to place the arts front and center in the debate about climate change. Created by David Buckland in 2001, Cape Farewell brings together artists, scientists, educators and the media in a series of expeditions [...]
Filed under Conceptual Art, Digital Art, Film, Literature, Painting, Photography, Poetry, Social/Activist Art, Video.
Tagged Climate Change, culture, Royal Academy, social art
1 Comment
The laugh that makes you cry – The Myth of Clean Energy
22 September 2010, 10:06 am
I wonder when it was that humor emerged as a method of interaction among human beings and, no doubt later, as an art form. Did neanderthal man make jokes? The video below is very funny – but the reality of the message is enough to make you despair. Enjoy – it only lasts 7 minutes. [...]
The Best Art Can Happen By Accident – Barbara Kruger and the End of Plenty
2 September 2010, 2:06 pm
Barbara Kruger asserts that her art may not be social commentary but simply ‘observation’. Intentional or not, it comes across as commentary to most people – and pretty pointed commentary at that. The artist has, over the years, addressed many issues including women’s reproductive rights, how development squeezes out lower income people, etc., etc. Our [...]
Filed under Conceptual Art, Installation, Social/Activist Art.
Tagged consumption
Comment
What does bullfighting have to do with the environment?
27 August 2010, 6:39 pm
Recently I came across this story which was stimulated by an outdoor performance art event as activism. One hundred and twenty five people stripped to their underpants, painted their bodies and created a giant, bleeding bull in front of the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain. They were protesting against the imminent start of the bullfighting [...]
Filed under Performance, Social/Activist Art.
Tagged animal-human relationship, animals, man and nature
2 Comments
Environmentalism With A Smile
9 August 2010, 2:35 pm
One of the issues with getting the environmental message across is that everyone is just too earnest and, frankly, often just plain boring. Maybe it’s time for a few smiles and laughs to oil the wheels. The art of the political cartoon and political caricature is an old one and it is a pleasure to [...]
Filed under Social/Activist Art.
Tagged cartoons
Comment
Trees In Concrete – David Brooks at MOMA PS1
1 June 2010, 3:14 pm
MOMA PS1 describes itself as a public exhibition space that “devotes its energy and resources to displaying the most experimental art in the world.” It’s current exhibit – Greater New York 2010 – runs until October and exhibits the work of emerging artists including an intriguing installation by David Brooks. The artist has assembled some [...]
Filed under Conceptual Art, Installation, Social/Activist Art.
Tagged deforestation, New York City
2 Comments
