ART, POWER AND THE IMAGINATION

ART, POWER AND IMAGINATION -
When I read this article, as you never really get art news on India or other South-South countries, when I do I read, this one is interesting; I have argued that art sits in the realm of power, with support of the middle-intelligentsia-cultural-class; which is in itself powerful. As much as art can and has created social revolution in the world, cultural moments, Rasta, Mother Earth, Bob Marley, Steel Pan comes to mind, I have found that the research of art in pivoting moments in our Caribbean, Trinidad and Tobago context needs to be expanded or even explored, how has Leroy Clarke's paintings, Earl Lovelace or V.S Naipaul affected the philosophical mooring of political and aesthetic thoughts, this is something I have always wondered, in this everydayness of movements is the artists' embedded in those movements, just saying 
- Quote - "The gallery sits on prime real estate in the central business district of the city, with posh neighborhoods, the expansive Cubbon Park, upscale shopping hubs, government offices, the High Court, and Vidhan Soudha, the seat of the state government, all within walking distance. It is also in the same compound that houses the popular Government Museum and the Visvesvaraya Industrial and Technological Museum, both popular destinations for school trips and tourists." - Unquote -

Artists Protest Collector’s Takeover of Indian Museum

by Deepa Bhasthi on April 20, 2016

http://hyperallergic.com/290996/artists-protest-collectors 

A protest organized by VAG Forum against the privatization of the Venkatappa Art Gallery (all photos courtesy VAG Forum unless indicated otherwise)

 

Art has this meaning in our lives, this invisible, philosophical, spirituality that makes that pan so sweet, mammy's pie so sweet, dat saga man so swagger....this is the art a meta construct, the science of being, is what this is about.

 

 

A protest organized by VAG Forum against the privatization of the Venkatappa Art Gallery (click to enlarge.

 

The last time, the art community came together was the local content policy debate, there has been a silence as neo-liberalism has taken over and we have all gone into the studio to make our work travel and get our careers doing, while Rome or other spectaculars takes it space, such as science, politics, religion. The arts have not taken its space on the hill, artists are afraid of the word revolutionary, boots and hard social intervention, even when art in itself is revolutionary.

This being a protest, will it be a protest to say lets build a gallery in the poor communities of the world to show them that they matter, show them their power, what would that gallery be like, would we as proper middle-class protest for a museum in Laventill, Mt. Dor or Bhagatell all working class spaces.....

ART must take its rightful space in our community, city, towns, villages....in our lives

 

Dean