Black Bucket Essays
Volume 1, Issue 5
"Ethics and aesthetics are one"
- Ludwig Wittgenstein
Kristen Letts Kovak
“The problem with social practice”
In a world where people lack the basic necessities, education, and support needed to change their socio-economic lot, some social practice artists are attempting to relate by either hiding their education or jumping fields. These participatory interventions may at first appear more democratic, but being an artist does not become ethically neutral once you leave the gallery context. Privilege always lingers. Having the option to dismiss one’s vocational training is a sign of privilege in itself. We may not be able to erase the advantage so long embedded within our field, but we can choose to be earnest about our training and its limits.
In a gesture of egalitarianism, many artists are “de-skilling” themselves--preferring to work with everyday materials and methodologies. However, this gesture risks alienating the community they are trying to connect with. Technical skill has long been a sign of artistic value and social status to the layman. To ask a general audience to ignore skillfulness, you are asking them to engage in a theoretical art discussion for which they may have no context, simply pointing out the discrepancy further. Poor craftsmanship, regardless of the materials, can signal a lack of dedication rather than a gesture of equality, or even worse, the appearance of belittling the audience.
Many of these artists are adopting the methodologies of other vocations for which they have no training. Thus, leaving the social workers, policy makers, and community organizers to pick up the pieces left in the wake of these “art” projects. No matter how broadly we wish to classify art, artists cannot pretend to be equally qualified in all disciplines. Intervening without proper research and experience does more harm than good and insults the efforts of those who are ardently advocating for the same causes. Conversely, other artists are humbly collaborating with their communities and reaching across fields to compare perspectives. They are dedicated to the symbiotic exchange of ideas, and empowering communities to express their perspectives, rather than speaking for them. Contemporary artists are equipped with a diversity of skills from naturalistic representation to digital programming. So rather than co-opting other fields or pretending to be untrained, why not rely on art’s comparative strengths? Lyrical gestures have the power to infect our stagnant assumptions and help redefine our moral codes. Artists bring form to the improbable and express the personal in a way that systemized policies cannot. We may not be able to erase the privilege so long embedded within our field, but we can choose to be earnest about our training and its limits.
Volume 1, Issue 5
"Ethics and aesthetics are one"
- Ludwig Wittgenstein
Kristen Letts Kovak
“The problem with social practice”
In a world where people lack the basic necessities, education, and support needed to change their socio-economic lot, some social practice artists are attempting to relate by either hiding their education or jumping fields. These participatory interventions may at first appear more democratic, but being an artist does not become ethically neutral once you leave the gallery context. Privilege always lingers. Having the option to dismiss one’s vocational training is a sign of privilege in itself. We may not be able to erase the advantage so long embedded within our field, but we can choose to be earnest about our training and its limits.
In a gesture of egalitarianism, many artists are “de-skilling” themselves--preferring to work with everyday materials and methodologies. However, this gesture risks alienating the community they are trying to connect with. Technical skill has long been a sign of artistic value and social status to the layman. To ask a general audience to ignore skillfulness, you are asking them to engage in a theoretical art discussion for which they may have no context, simply pointing out the discrepancy further. Poor craftsmanship, regardless of the materials, can signal a lack of dedication rather than a gesture of equality, or even worse, the appearance of belittling the audience.
Many of these artists are adopting the methodologies of other vocations for which they have no training. Thus, leaving the social workers, policy makers, and community organizers to pick up the pieces left in the wake of these “art” projects. No matter how broadly we wish to classify art, artists cannot pretend to be equally qualified in all disciplines. Intervening without proper research and experience does more harm than good and insults the efforts of those who are ardently advocating for the same causes. Conversely, other artists are humbly collaborating with their communities and reaching across fields to compare perspectives. They are dedicated to the symbiotic exchange of ideas, and empowering communities to express their perspectives, rather than speaking for them. Contemporary artists are equipped with a diversity of skills from naturalistic representation to digital programming. So rather than co-opting other fields or pretending to be untrained, why not rely on art’s comparative strengths? Lyrical gestures have the power to infect our stagnant assumptions and help redefine our moral codes. Artists bring form to the improbable and express the personal in a way that systemized policies cannot. We may not be able to erase the privilege so long embedded within our field, but we can choose to be earnest about our training and its limits.
