Something I wrote a little while ago. I was more or less writing for the sake of arguing. My thoughts to the budget cuts and protests aren't necassarily what's written here. Don't be offended or anything. I guess I'm just writing in character...
Protests! Unity. Together. Marching. We. Them. Signs. CAPITAL LETTERS. Imperatives. Vandalism. Rebellion, Rio-Aw screw it, either way it all spells defeat. They may as well be holding signs that read, “Today I’m going to embrace my ankles and just try to enjoy the fucking ride”. One holding such a sign by them self would be a better demonstration than brainlessly walking in the same direction, wearing matching shirts and moronic slogans. Am I the only one that thinks protests are cliché? As art students protesting about budget cuts couldn’t we be a little more creative than silly puns? I’m sure I saw (through a picture) a Kings of Leon reference. People do “fun runs” in fancy dress to better credit, and running isn’t that fun! Especially hauling arse with ridiculous obstructions that charity favours one to harness.
Look at Banksy, vandalise creatively. There’s little difference anyone’s going to make through climbing a bus shelter and throwing stones through a window. While this may have worked for connected men in hats; in the real world a broken window is doing nothing but leading to bad press of a good cause.
So paint a better fucking picture you whiny artists. Give them reason to keep you creative. If all you can do is walk in the same direction, wearing the same shirt, maybe you do need to work harder for your education. Clearly you are taking it for granted. Never, or will I ever open a history book and read “solved through a march and throwing stones”. Is this all plain ignorance? I would imagine that if a march ever meant anything, the feedback I hear from a protestor would not be, “yeah, it was a good laugh”.
Nathan
You never heard of the poll tax riots then?
ReplyDeleteI understand what you say, up to a point, I agree that in an era of kettling & escalating police brutality that we need to find more creative ways to protest, and indeed there are many ways. However I don't think that we should be too quick to condemn others methods.
Plus no protester will ever get good press in corporate media (unless their Egyptian)
I'm not sure where I stand on the 'vandalism'I agree with direct action but it needs to be targeted and appropriate, occupying millbank was symbolic, targeting Vodafone was symbolic, resisitng police who have removed their identification is appropriate, un-targeted anger is counterproductive. I have also physically stopped dickheads from destroying public property on the last demo I went on.
Sometimes going on a march is as much about solidarity and realising that there are others who agree with you, it can also be cathartic, even when it's a lost cause you can still take pride from standing up for your beliefs. Personally I am proud to this day of the marches I have been on whether they be anti-war, anti-bush, anti-racist,anti-cuts or whatever. If you read your history the left has a history of principled failures but also some great successes.
I'd rather try, and fail than become a total cynic.
I'm not offended by the way, just trying to offer a counter argument
Riots and protests always make me think of Artur Żmijewski's work Democracies (2007). You should give it a look up I found it very over whelming when I went to go see at Tramway.
ReplyDeleteAs someone who is pretty much apolitical, I personally believe I shouldn't have a say in this matter - so I won't.
ReplyDeleteI will mention however, that the gallery I work in had for their last exhibition an extensive collection of women's peace protest banners produced all the way from the early 20th century to the present day, done in association with the Peace Museum in Bradford (yes, Bradford has a Peace Museum - the only one in the UK in fact!). They were mostly handsewn and whilst not the sort of thing you'd find in an art gallery, still very much justifiable as artworks. You could easily put Tracey Emin's name to some of them. A number of these were from the Greenham Common Women's Peace Camps, which I had never known about, but which had a pretty incredible history lasting almost 20 years. Worth looking up. Peace is a rather strange concept to protest in favour for, but it's had some nice results along the way. I'm reminded of John Lennon and Yoko Ono's 'War is Over (If You Want It)' billboards too - by the way, did anyone see Yoko Ono's full page advert in the Metro last week for her birthday, promoting Peace? Of course, one person's positive action is another person's vandalism... (I bet more than a few silly Beatles fans would agree with this)
*cough* P.S. I have a *cough* bootleg of *cough* Democracies *cough* if anyone wants a copy... *clears throat* oh, that's better!
One other thing - speaking of artists protesting, how well did you think some of the UK's most favoured artists did of protesting the arts cuts? Because I thought the campaigns they produced were mostly shit - so much for creativity! In fact, I'd rather have seen some straight up vandalism from them rather than the con-ceptual tedium-specifics they made.
ReplyDeletedon't think I can put pics in comments but I quite like Bob & Roberta Smiths sign which you can see here.....
ReplyDeletehttp://www.serpentinegallery.org/2008/12/angel_of_the_north_loses_its_wing_in_arts_cuts_campaign.html
oh, and also David Shrigleys Video on the same page, other than haven't seen much that was very good.