Chronogram Covers WS2MS!

Hudson Valley's arts and culture magazine featured two great articles on OwA's "Wall Street to Main Street:

• "Wall Street to Main Street" in Catskill: Zuccotti-on-Hudson by Sparrow
• On the Cover: Joel Richardson's Grassroots Financial Revolutionary by Molly Lindsay

Here's an excerpt from OWS poet Sparrow's piece:

“Wall Street to Main Street” is an art show in a dozen storefronts, plus a 10-week festival of performance and workshops, ending May 31. This is the first legal collaboration between the Occupy movement and a town. Catskill was chosen for numerous reasons: its proximity to New York City, its economic troubles, the presence of an arts community, and it’s the home of Thomas Cole (founder of the Hudson River School of painters).

“There are ‘Main Street’ issues that play out on our Main Street,” observes Fawn Potash, director of Masters on Main Street. “It makes sense to talk about those things here.” Potash was on the curatorial committee organizing the festival.

Since the police raid on Zuccotti Park, art has played a larger role in the movement. One cliché about Occupy is that it is “a protest without demands”—which is attractive to artists. For what is art if not a protest without demands? The community at Zuccotti Park struck many artists and critics—myself included—as a giant artwork, a “living sculpture” or “temporal work of performance politics.” One such artist, Jessica Eis, documented the encampment, the police raid, and its aftermath, with video and still photography in “Sights and Sounds of Zuccotti Park.” Emily Bruenig makes books from ephemera found at Occupy Wall Street: yellow police tape, stickers, flyers, etc.

Report-back on Saturday's [#J14] Yoko Ono/OWS Wish Tree Gathering at Liberty Square

[PRESS COVERAGE Sample]:

Photo: Sam Levin

• Village Voice: "Yoko Ono (Not Present) Promotes Peace at Zuccotti, Occupiers Proceed to Drop 'Dead'" by Sam Levin
• Flavorwire: "Yoko Ono Brings Her ‘Wish Tree’ Project to Occupy Wall Street" by Caroline Stanley
• Big Think: "How Yoko Ono Is Still Giving Peace a Chance" by Bob Duggan

[Morgan's Report]:

I thought today was really rather wonderful and wanted to send appreciation to everyone who was there…it started to feel like a community again.

Occupy Yoga was terrific (and kept us warm), the Occuponics rocked (thanks all!), it was nice to get some [Yoko Ono] postcards to send to people and be part of the Wish Tree (great to be there in tandem with that group [Occupy with Art]!) there were some testimonials from occupiers, what I thought was a really interesting sketch for a “stepping stone to the future” choreographic/interactive/installation project, the die-in was kinda awesome, and I hope there were poets – I had to leave with a student and couldn’t stay the whole time so was sad to miss the poetry compost I hope did happen.   And I heard Kitchen had some yummy chicken.  Whom/what did I leave out?

Please let me know what else was going on – and would love to hear thoughts and suggestions for more events.

We are still hoping that performative things can happen from noon to two during the week for the lunch time crowd – maybe focused on supporting outreach?   And still longing for the return of the People Staged! Fateh is saying they might try to do Occupy Yoga on the weekends (weather permitting) so please let OccupyCurveball (Re-Occupy with Culture&Ideas) know any ideas you might have.

There is really room for many many things that can serve a lot of needs here.

Our focus is now switching to supporting the events for MLK/Occupy the Dream and J17 Occupy Congress…but let’s talk about what can happen next week!

MorganJen

Reposted from ARTSblog

The Art Inside #OccupyWallStreet

Posted by Amanda Alef On October - 31 - 2011

The art of signs used at #OWS (photo from hyperallergic.com)

Throughout history art has been fundamentally intertwined with social movements and political activism and it continually serves as a critical avenue through which to question, comment on, and influence change in the world around it. And this time around is no exception.

While the Occupy Wall Street movement continues to gain momentum, the arts have become a unique tool in the movement’s development and have played a central role in the creative expression of the movement’s message.

On any given day the artistic pulse of the movement can be witnessed through the countless cardboard signs on display throughout downtown Manhattan’s Zuccoti Park, as well as the emergence of a screenprinting lab, daily open stage performances, and the constant presence of musicians who add song to the movement’s message.

Only fourteen days after protesters began occupying, the formation of the Arts and Culture Committee emerged as a subcommittee of the movement’s general assembly. This collection of painters, graphic designers, musicians, art students, and more, represents the creative voices of the movement and have been working to support the peaceful occupation of Liberty Square and to foster participation in the creation of cultural work that amplifies the movement’s message.

Last week I reached out to the Arts and Culture Committee to learn more about their mission, message, and how the arts have been playing a part in uniting and driving the movement on the ground level:

Amanda Alef: What is the mission and role of the Arts and Culture Committee in the #OccupyWallStreet (OWS) movement?

Arts and Culture Committee: Communication through art is essential to this movement. We, the Arts and Culture Committee of #OccupyWallStreet, believe art is not a luxury item. It is a commonwealth that belongs not just to the 1%, but to all of us. We believe that art-making is not privileged to so-called talent or relegated to extracurricular activity, but, rather, that it is a universal language that is essential to human growth, learning, happiness, and sustainability.

By engaging artists within the occupation and by sharing the principles of the occupation with those on the outside, we will build a creative revolution together.

We encourage artists to create their individual mission statements with the same love, patience, and care that one gives to a work of art. We are not a political party or a nonprofit corporation—we are a social movement. And we, the 99%, give ourselves and you the permission to continue to re-imagine what a mission statement can be. Let’s dream big together.

AA: In what ways are the protestors at OWS utilizing artistic practices to express their political and personal viewpoints?

ACC: The occupation itself is art, birthed from a set of values and principles that activate creative, independent, and critical thought. We are painting signs and bodies, playing music, dancing, singing, and composing poems. We are occupying NYC with street theater and interventions. We are sharing stories and books. We are mounting art exhibits and libraries. We are building websites, taking photographs, making movies, archiving work, and bearing witness.

AA: What role have the arts played in the development of the OWS movement and its message thus far? And in what ways can they contribute to sustaining this movement?

ACC: #OccupyWallStreet is our Constitutional right to free speech and free expression. Art has always been at the forefront of these rights. It is as much a part of the occupation as eating, sleeping, marching, and talking. We are occupying Wall Street and making art at the same time and for the same reason. We make visible the cracks in society and fill them with creative solutions.

AA: Since its conception, have more artists been joining the movement? And in what ways can they contribute creatively to the movement?

ACC: Artists from around the world are joining us daily. We encourage supporters, some of whom may never before have dared to identify as “artists,” to tap into their inner creativity and collaborate with us. We are actively reaching out to others to help us build a broader and stronger community that provokes an alternative dialogue.

We encourage artists to occupy beyond Wall Street. We must occupy our homes, our studios, our museums, our schools, our workplaces, our neighborhoods, our towns, and cities. We must bring the art of the people back to the people.

AA: What types of art or cultural events have taken place during or in connection to the occupation?

ACC: Some of the art that has already happened at #OccupyWallStreet is archived at http://www.occupennial.org/ows-art-listing/ and https://www.nycga.net/groups/arts-and-culture/. We are constantly developing more art actions for the near future.

The #OccupyWallStreet movement has received much interest from many different people, projects, and institutions. This support is welcome provided that these parties follow or are open to dialogue about adopting our principles. Some commercial galleries and institutions have tried to take advantage of this movement by appropriating the name, symbols, and art of the movement without abiding by its principles. Some have deliberately deceived artists in order to amplify their agendas and increase their personal profits.

It is important for us to remember that we are not a business. We are not a political party. We are not an advertising campaign. We are not a brand. We are not for sale. We support partnerships with those who wish to make this movement accessible to all, regardless of economic, political, ethnic, or social status.

[NOTE: ARTSblog is the online journal for Americans for the Arts. The responses above were developed through AC working groups.]

No Comment and Strong Decisions - Artists Occupy Wall Street

[Originally published on Huffington Post HERE.]

BY CATHERINE SPAETH

On Saturday night I attended the exhibit No Comment, held in what used to be the offices of JP Morgan, located on Wall Street. For blocks around, the police had barricaded the sidewalks, and so getting there was a roundabout effort. Perhaps for this reason there was not a crowd, maybe only a few more than a dozen hanging around outside the door; one of which was a woman having her body painted from head to toe -- inside I later saw her posing her body on a sphere, not far from a fellow making giant soap bubbles.

My self-assigned job was to take a picture of one thing interesting. There were only these few hours, and I assumed the artists would likely be people that I had never heard of, or at least not recognizable to me, and that if I took a picture it would at least be a place to begin. Perhaps I was drawn to the discursive commentary that on the face of it this work provides, I'm not sure, but in what follows below are the photos that I took, in order, of a single work.

Abraham Lubelski, 250,000 works on paper, 1991-present

It was not until I got home and did some research that I had any idea at all who the artist was. I discovered that in the late '60s Abraham Lubelski exhibited at the now closed Chelsea National Bank a piece called Paper Money Made Into Art You Can Bank On.

This was $250,000.00 in bills tied up in bales and displayed in the bank itself, on exhibit for five days and costing the artist $300.00 in interest. It is difficult to imagine the effect of this piece, exhibited in the bank and visible only to those who are banking. An amused and coveting desire? Fear for one's safety?

More legible might be that the installation of 250,000 drawings pictured here was also in the previous exhibit in the JP Morgan building, XI/II: A Tribute to 9/11. In that context -- the same space, same installation, just prior to No Comment -- the drawings were being offered for free. And so there is an economy of the gift, drawing on the by now well worn motif of papers drifting down the streets of New York. Themed on 9/11 the original exhibit was intended for those who work in the financial district of New York -- that would be the top one percent. For a long time now much of the artworld has been pitching its wares to, if not actively run by, the "non-profiteering" pump and dump collectors who are the one percent. Because of its location, this exhibit was one of them.

A significant difference between the previous installation and the current one, however, is that in No Comment there is a suggested donation of $30 for each drawing. Granted, the first exhibit lost some money because of the demonstrations, and has since tried to collaborate with artists of Occupy Wall Street in order to recover their losses and to provide a space for activist artists to show their work, and studio space to make it. I don't close out the thought that this can be a beneficial relationship, but it should not be an uncritical one. For example, in a public forum about the upcoming exhibit "Aristedes" writes of the No Comment auction as "A Landmark, Historic, most important ART AUCTION of the year!... This show will be remembered for years into the future & can only grow in stature!." But the auction is where the power of the one per centers lies -- a price at auction is now all it takes to count as art history in that art world.

With regard to 250,000 Drawings, two different things occur that strongly effect the speculative value of art: first, there is an easy art historical narrative ready to hand, and second, there is in this as well an appreciation of the hand made, and of free-hand drawing in particular as an expressive freedom. These appeal to both the discursive side and that of the immersive direct experience, and that there is excessive and measurable labor involved (250,000) underscores the surplus value of both. In On (Surplus) Value in Art Diedrich Diederichsen explains that these two sides are dependent on one another in the current art market. The art world has come to depend on anecdotes and punch lines in its discourse, a discourse that keeps things moving, however more sales will occur of works that require no justification. He writes:

Of course, all of the works of this type -- the ones that require no justification -- are actually indirectly justified by other art works. They are, as it were, instances of a legitimation that has congealed and become unobtrusive. They are able to forego justifications and give off the heavy scent of immanence, in which the business of art is so fond of steeping... It is works of this kind that finance the everyday operations of the art industry. They circulate throughout the world, and images of them fill the catalogues and art magazines. Yet it is only works of the first type - those that are openly in need of legitimation -- that keep the discourse alive.*

Given this dependence of objects that ask for no justification upon the discursive works that keep things mobilizing, most interesting of all is that Abraham Lubelski is the owner of a number of arts enterprises, among them NY Arts Magazine and the Broadway Gallery, a magazine and a gallery enterprise where writers are unpaid and artists are aggressively solicited to pay to play. Vanity galleries are less known for sales and cultivating a reputation than for the amount of artists swinging through the doors, that is where the money is for them. There are many discontented artists describing these practices on websites. More favorable and by one of his own past writers, Charles Giuliano writes that upon inviting Lubelski to the New England School of Art and Design at Suffolk University to exhibit, Lubelski was not forthcoming as to what this might be and only shortly beforehand gave him the title, The Show Has Been Cancelled, for a piece in which the artist sat on a sofa and chatted people up. Writes Giuliano:

So I view him as the Pied Piper of the art world. Luring us out of the city while dancing to his merry tune. Leading us on to what and where? It is about desperation, the need to be loved and accepted. To get published, seen, endorsed and recognized. Abraham is a conveyor of hope for many. With him anything is possible. He says, "I keep trying, putting ideas out there, engaging in dialogue."

And so we have some pictures of a single work, and some information surrounding it. I know very little and yet what investigating this one object suggests to me is that how artists participate in institutional spaces -- as artists -- and who they share it with might be more important than the artists of Occupy Wall Street seem at this point -- in inclusiveness, the defense of free speech, and desire for visibility -- ready to make any strong decisions about. Coverage such as the recent New York Times post is valuable for drawing attention to the spatial detournement of occupying J.P Morgan, but it seems to me that there is more at stake than symbolic space. Abraham Lubelski has now begun an fundraising exhibit to raise funds for Occupy Wall Street, at his Broadway Gallery. More and more "artist activist entrepreneurs" are arriving on the scene, here for example is a link to Revolution Art Magazine, complete with pinups and product. The question of art and money as it relates to Wall Street has been haunting the art world for some time now -- what "alternatives" are you willing to settle for?

* Diedrich Diederichsen, On (Surplus) Value in Art, Reflections 01, Sternberg Press and Witte de With Publishers, 2011, p. 29.