The art of social change

That is, in-part, the title of an artwork created by Hans Haacke. Utilising maps, photographs of buildings, documentation both of the properties and myriad intermediary shell corporations that owned them. It documents the reach of the real estate partnership of Sol Goldman and Alex DiLorenzo, as of 1971. This reach covered everything from the highest to the lowest end property, it was so extensive as to be the largest non-institutional real estate portfolio in Manhattan. Thei

Truth be told, often evil does not succeed through grand gestures. It is not in the marching megalomania or weapons of mass destruction they find their path to victory. It is in the attrition, the erosion of all resistance that clears the road upon which they march and allows these final exclamation points to be added to the end of their opponents life sentence. Taking down a castle wall in one great swing is hard, the attacks location and attackers identity obvious, but unde

They will feed you an endless stream of effigies to keep the bonfires lit, just so they might sap the heat from you and it, for profit. I’d implore you to seriously look at the level of discourse that occurs nearly on everywhere online, but at this point you either must have seen it, or you aren’t the type of person to read a several paragraph post. The intensity of the vitriol poured out over the smallest thing. Reactionary outcries based on headlines not articles, a complet

We drown in images, our rivers burst their banks and overflow with visual content. Yet just as three days without water would make the memories of past abundance meaningless, if you remove our ability to capture light we will find ourselves desperately seeking new images, unable to sustain ourselves on past supplies. It is not for want of past beauty captured or ideas enacted, rather it is because there is always something new approaching, a sunrise that's just right, a retel

You don’t need me to tell you what art can say of an individual, you know those brushes strokes can tell you of a family, a fraught moment, a trauma healed or a new joy found. These works can speak manifestos in to being, tell you of an artists worldview and of how they thought the world viewed them. We know this, we accept this as fundamental to art, that these are expressions of a self rendered real. Yet when it comes to understanding others, exploring cultures and communit

I know that’s a hell of question to put to people right now. When every day delivers an event that would have once defined a whole year, when you ask your friend if they heard the terrible news and they have to get you to clarify which particular story you mean as there are a such litany to pick from. State senators are shot and half the nation barely blinks, whole countries form a crime from the utterance of sentences, medical conditions are used as cause for discrimination

A sand castle is a celebration of the material, construction and concept act as one, fragility becomes mailability, impermanence adds exhilaration to the construction and pushes a form that must at least be aware of the tides imposed function. A castle on the sand is a clash of materials, the construction at odds with the concept, fragility and impermanence don’t show a second face here. The grandiosity and gross size of the walls will fall before shifting footing and the tid

You hear a scream, you turn, its nothing, you hear a scream, you turn, its nothing, you hear a scream... you dont turn. Shock for its own sake loses efficacy quickly, it draws in a crowd but barely holds their attention, and oft times the attention it does hold is focused in the wrong place. What's the point of a signal fire if you aren't actually signally anything. Don't get me wrong, there are times when the very shock itself is the signal, it is what is needed. The smoke f

It is the morning of the 14th of July 1789, A thousand civilians stand before the imposing cold stone walls of a medieval fortress known as the 'Bastille'. It is not just stone and mortar the people see though, it is the crushing weight of their monarchy, the abuse of authority, and the suffering of the individual, typified by those walls, the prisoners held within, and the cannon atop them. A delegate of the people enter, they demand the removal of these cannons and disarmam

It is the Autumn of 1830, acclaimed French painter Eugène Delacroix writes to his brother; "My bad mood is vanishing thanks to hard work. I've embarked on a modern subject—a barricade. And if I haven't fought for my country at least I'll paint for her" That painting would become 'Liberty leading the people' perhaps one of the most influential works of revolutionary art and iconography ever created. Its imagery and influence so powerful that it is said to have inspired everyth

It is the start of the 19th century, throughout Spain (and the rest of Europe) the reigning Spanish Sovereign, Charles IV, is regarded as an ineffectual cuck in all aspects of his life. Famine ravages his land year on year, wheat prices rice over 60% in areas resulting in a mortality crisis that would see population decline as a high as 15%. Meanwhile the prime minister of Spain is a sycophant, ineffectual and self serving, he obtained his position the way yes men and boot li

We are desperately clawing at today, trying to tear its face off, just to get a look at yesterdays smile. Manufactured consent, The Matrix, Hauntology, 'Member berries, cultural feedback loops, your current obsession with a 90s trading card game. Different explorations and statements on interlinking ideas, when taken as one they describe a landscape of cultural cannibalism. And what happens when our species engages in wanton cannibalism? It cultivates prion diseases that dest

Wouldnt that be lovely, if there was space to let others dance, to let people sit in the park and draw, paint or sing, not just in public but in peoples minds. Is it social medias fault? has it killed authentic altruistic self expression? Yeah we've heard it all before, kids don't play outside anymore, no one does anything but sit on their phones, community's gone, and everyone locks their front doors. But have people abandoned community, or has it been taken form them? Do we

In the last part of this writing we focused on how and why the collective known as “Guerrilla girls” formed, and the importance of not...

I saw a mural being painted on one of my feeds today. It was by no means bad, and i do not write this to disparage the artist, but it...

We've all done it; just a quick scroll, just 5 more minutes, one more image, post, video... and hours pass in that swipe, that tap, that...

One of the great pains many of us experience is that of internal conflict bought about by societal pressure and expectations ingrained in...

To paraphrase Predator “If it moves we can buy it” This in essence is an idea I’ve seen other artists & collectors comment on, that the...

Their is an interesting dichotomy between the acceptance many have for the impact and proliferation of modern internet memes, and a...

Lately much has been made by the British press about the musicians Kneecap and Bob Vylan. Both bands willingness to use their art and the...