OwA UPDATE [July/August 2012]

Graphic by Paul McLean[NOTE]: We are pleased to announce a reformation of OwA, as we approach the first-year anniversary of the occupation of Liberty Square. Between now and the launch of OAS Node #1 in August, the Occupy with Art website will undergo an extensive overhaul. Some links may be broken in the process and features changed. We will be posting open calls for artists, proposals and project support. Several new social media campaigns and OAS/OwA iterations will be amended to the nexus site. We look forward to your participation on whatever basis you wish to contribute. Please direct all questions to artforhumans [at] gmail [dot] com.

OwA Online Submissions

[NOTE: Occupy with Art loves it when you share your work with us. Here are two online submissions that came through this past week.]

From: Paul-Felix Montez

email: lvbigart@earthlink.net

Artist proposed national sculpture monument for Zucotti park, something to make Occupy last forever - even proposing it will certainly upset a lot of people hoping it all goes away.

my web site is : http://www.occupyface.com

From Athanasia Sky [Occupii & Facebook]

Austin, Tx.
austinmediadesigns@live.com

Hi, I'm from Occupy Austin {volunteer on the PR and Media Teams }

I would like to submit a painting.
I have attached photos :) It's difficult to photograph this painting it's kind of irredescent like a foil card.
It is my first painting ever since, fifth grade finger painting :) I think it came out good in spite of that fact :)

Do you guys do auctions???
It is hard for single members or single cities to hold auctions online.
I was hoping OWS or OWashington could run an online auction for all the states and the money could go to the Occupy of the Aritist Choice.
I think that we could make alot of money for the movement that way. :)

Anyway, let me know what you can do to help me out and if it can be auctioned :D Thanks. Our hearts are with you guys everyday. Stay Strong 1<3 :)

- Thanks & we'll let you know if any auction's planned!!

Update on Sunday, January 29, 2012 at 10:52PM by admin

From Carla Cubit:

Hey Everyone

I will have a solo show of my artwork, paintings and mixed media assemblage, January 30th - March 17th @ Sovereign Bank, 86 River Street, in Hoboken, New Jersey, one block from the Hoboken PATH station if you can make it. This exhibit ion is inspired by the Occupy Wall Street protests and sponsored by Hob' Art Cooperative Gallery. Hope to see you there. Occupy Art Worldwide.

Opening Reception with refreshments: February 2, 2012 (5-6pm)

http://hob-art.com/

Facebook event invite here:  http://www.facebook.com/events/151332658314852/

Carla

WHAT DO WE DO NOW?

By Occupennial Co-organizer Paul McLean

Since late September, Occupennial has provided artists with the opportunity to share art inspired by the occupation of Zuccotti Park in the financial district of lower Manhattan, and satellite occupations that have sprung up around the country and the world. Occupennial has opened a virtual space in which documentation of #OWS and other occupations can be catalogued and revisited. We have created areas for memorializing the artist actions that have helped shape and empower #OWS, and we have built the architecture for occupant artist community and production, including listings, proposal throughputs, resource exchanges and a growing network of organizations and venues dedicated to supporting 99% expression in all its peaceful, artist forms. Occupennial has also initiated a program of actualization for occupation-generated artist projects, starting with our successful collaboration with Printed Matter in Chelsea, with other amazing ventures currently in process.

The police action and clearance of Liberty Square in the early morning hours of November 15 remind us of the tremendous importance of establishing and maintaining an archive of the Occupy art that is inspiring the 99% to stand up and displace the 1% choke-hold on our commonwealth, and democracy. The urgency of your contributing to our database, chronicling this historic moment couldn't be greater. It would be a tragic cultural loss to let the memory of #OccupyWallStreet, and the hundreds of occupations that have occurred in communities of every description, spanning the globe, to fade away. Therefore, we at Occupennial once more ask you to please send us your photos, videos, poems, songs, paintings, drawings, cartoons, ideas, texts and art-action documentation, so we can continue to grow a communal archive for the occupation.

Contact us:
Use the CONTACT button at the top of the page or send your content via email to occupennial@gmail.com

Send us your Occupy art, etc., and occupation documentation:
Use the CONTACT button at the top of the page or send your content via email to occupennial@gmail.com; or use the Drop Box in the sidebar.

Sweeping away the encampment at Liberty Square will not stop the Occupation. It's too late for that, now. ...But it's up to us, the 99%, to insist on our own survival as a movement, and as free people. To ensure our cause doesn't disappear we must commit to preserve the shared memory of what we've done individually and together, what we've expressed, to continue our actions in support of #OWS and all the occupations, and to create new expressions of 99% solidarity every day, wherever we are.

With love and appreciation,
Paul

OWS, from A-Z, by Theodore Hamm

A=arraign; arrears; arrests

Many came to Occupy Wall Street because they are in arrears, only to be arrested, with some even arraigned.

B=Bloomberg; Brookfield Properties; Brooklyn Bridge

Bloomberg and his buddies at Brookfield were dismayed when the mass arrests on the Brooklyn Bridge failed to stop the protests.

C= commune; cops; corporations

While some folks are creating a commune, cops are protecting corporations.

D= democracy, American; democracy, direct

American democracy is controlled by political parties that respond to money, whereas direct democracy is handled by participants answering to each other.

E= exhilaration; existentialism; experience

Joining together with your fellow ninety-nine percenters can be an exhilarating existential experience.

F= freedom of speech; free market

Fuck that free market nonsense, the protesters say, exercising their right to free speech.

G=grip, gripe

Many who gripe about the OWS protests need to get a grip.

H=Hydra; hydrate

Donated supplies continue to hydrate the Hydra.

I=individualism; indivisible

I pledge allegiance to Occupy Wall Street, and to the democracy for which it stands, indivisible, with liberty and justice for the 99%.

J=jackboots; Jacobins

Don’t let the jackboots turn you into Jacobins.

K=Kelly, Ray; kettling

Kelly and his keepers keep on kettling.

L=love

At the risk of seeming ridiculous, let me echo Che’s statement: “At the risk of seeming ridiculous, let me say that the true revolutionary is guided by a great feeling of love.”  

M=money

A question for the banks: “Where’s the money, Money?”

N=Nine; Ninety-Nine

We are the 99 percent; You are the 99 percent—and all of us will gain nothing from 9-9-9 or any other nefarious nostrums.

O=occupation

The lack of meaningful occupations has led many 20-somethings to join the Occupation.

P=Percent, One

Lots of folks in the one percent will gladly tell you that they are part of the middle class.

Q=quest; quixotic

Ending inequality may seem like a quixotic quest, but the fight has to start somewhere.

R=revel; revelation; revolution

Many revel in the revelation that a revolution is upon us.

S= shambles; shame

American democracy is in shambles, and it’s a shame.

T= Tea Party

The Tea Party is astroturf, but OWS is grassroots.

U=usual; usurp

Rather than accept business as usual, OWS usurped national attention.

V=Vendetta

If there’s one flick that all the protesters seem to like, it’s V for Vendetta.

W=Wall Street

If there’s one place that none of the protesters seem to like, it’s Wall Street.

X=Malcolm

If there’s one radical figure that nobody on Wall Street likes, it’s Malcolm X.

Y=Yippies; yuppies

When OWS protesters channel the spirit of Abbie Hoffman and the Yippies, yuppies get nervous.

Z=Zuccotti Park

Though it sounds like an Italian restaurant, Zuccotti Park is actually the site of the New York City Commune.



“9.5 Theses on Art and Class” by Ben Davis

1.0 Class is an issue of fundamental importance for art
1.1 Inasmuch as art is part of and not independent from society, and society is marked by class divisions, these will also affect the functioning and character of the sphere of the visual arts
1.2 Since different classes have different interests, and “art” is affected by these different interests, art has different values depending on from which class standpoint it is approached
1.3 Understanding art means understanding class relations outside the sphere of the visual arts and how they affect that sphere, as well as understanding class relations within the sphere of the visual arts itself
1.4 In general, the idea of the “art world” serves as a way to deflect consideration of both these sets of relations
1.5 The notion of an “art world” implies a sphere that is separate or set aside from the issues of the non-art world (and so separates it from class issues outside that sphere)
1.6 The notion of an “art world” also visualizes the sphere of the visual arts not as a set of conflicting interests, but as a harmonious confluence of professionals with a common interest: “art” (and so denies class relations within that sphere)
1.7 Anxiety about class in the sphere of the visual arts manifests in critiques of the “art market”; however, this is not the same as a critique of class in the sphere of the visual arts; class is an issue that is more fundamental and determinate than the market
1.8 The “art market” is approached differently by different classes; discussing the art market in the absence of understanding class interests serves to obscure the actual forces determining art’s situation
1.9 Since class is a fundamental issue for art, art can’t have any clear idea of its own nature unless it has a clear idea of the interests of different classes

2.0 Today, the ruling class, which is capitalist, dominates the sphere of the visual arts
2.1 It is part of the definition of a ruling class that it controls the material resources of society
2.2 The ruling ideologies, which serve to reproduce this material situation, also represent the interests of the ruling class
2.3 The dominant values given to art, therefore, will be ones that serve the interests of the current ruling class
2.4 Concretely, within the sphere of the contemporary visual arts, the agents whose interests determine the dominant values of art are: large corporations, including auction houses and corporate collectors; art investors, private collectors and patrons; trustees and administrators of large cultural institutions and universities
2.5 One role for art, therefore, is as a luxury good, whose superior craftsmanship or intellectual prestige indicates superior social status
2.6 Another role for art is to serve as financial instrument or tradable repository of value
2.7 Another role for art is as sign of “giving back” to the community, to whitewash ill-gotten gains
2.8 Another role for art is symbolic escape valve for radical impulses, to serve as a place to isolate and contain social energy that runs counter to the dominant ideology
2.9 A final role for art is the self-replication of ruling-class ideology about art itself—the dominant values given to art serve not only to enact ruling-class values directly, but also to subjugate, within the sphere of the arts, other possible values of art

READ MORE IN THE OCCUPENNIAL LIBRARY, HERE.

(Submitted by the author for Occupennial Blog/Library - Admin)

Greetings from Vienna

CALLING OCCUPANT PHOTOGRAPHERS!

CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO LEARN HOW TO SUBMIT YOUR PHOTOS TO THE OCCUPENNIAL OCCUPATION PHOTO ARCHIVE.

THIS GRAPHIC IS FREE FOR DOWNLOAD IN THE OCCU-GANDA NEXUS.

We are the 99%

[Submitted by Julie Harrison]

They were in error.

[From Joseph Nechvatal, in support of #OWS]

multi-agent excitatiOn anusmOs

Joseph Nechvatal 2011

They tried to keep us sated on vapid movies and television shows. They cut us off from the deep pleasure of historical education and fed our brain candy colored crap. They ignored our experimental weird music and gave us top ten pop. They cut down our visionary art and replaced it with endless neo-pop and art reality shows for us to plug our desires into, hoping we would sit quietly by as they ran the world. I think they thought we were too dumb to notice. They were in error.

 

 [Click HERE to read Joseph's most recent book, Immersion Into Noise, in the Occupennial Library.]

http://www.nechvatal.net

blog: http://post.thing.net/blog/244

RISE UP

From Lopi

OCCUPY AMERICA

OCCUPY NYSE by Colonel Flick

[From Colonel Flick's "Occupy America" photoset on Flickr]:

Dear Fellow American,

I am writing this letter to you not as a liberal, not as a conservative; not as a lefty, not as a righty; not as a Democrat, not as a Republican, not as a Tea Party populist; not as a Christian, not as a Buddist, not as a Moslem, not as an atheist; not as a socialist, a communist and certainly not as a bailout capitalist.

I am writing to you as just another ordinary American.

I'm your next door neighbor, I'm the guy standing next to you at the check out counter, I sit next to you on the bus, I sit next to you at worship, I'm in the next lane over on the freeway, we see each other at work, I'm right behind you at the cinema and three rows over at the ball game, our kids go to school together. We stare blankly at each other each and every day, but we rarely if ever exchange a word.

Today, I have something important I would like to say to you.

In these twilit days of Indian Summer, as we watch the so called "power elite" luxuriating in their billionaire beach hideaways, at their billionaire birthday parties, political golf outings, fund raisers and PhD cowboy retreats, I keep asking myself one simple question.

I'm pretty sure you are asking yourself the same question as well. That question is written all over the worried faces of millions of struggling Americans trying to live a modest life within their modest means.

It is written on the faces of the unemployed struggling to pay their bills. It is written on the faces of young adults despondent over their prospect of living under the shadow of runaway debts. It is written on the faces of children living in homeless shelters, it is written on the faces of struggling entrepreneurs who can't get a loan, it is written on the faces of all of those frustrated working and out of work people who once had a simple American dream.

Everywhere I look, I see the same question.

Unfortunately, I don't see any answers.

All I see is self serving corruption, greed, stupidity, short sightedness and outright thievery by the parasites and leeches that would have us look upon them as our grand leaders and paragons of commerce.

They ask and take, they take and complain, then they give precious little or nothing in return.

They blather endless platitudes about what's good for them, then pay feeble lip service to what is good for the rest of us. Their idea of a free market is that of justice and prosperity to the highest bidder.

They are good at one thing and one thing only, preserving their own status quo by exploiting you, me and the rest of us.

They are callous human strip miners and care absolutely nothing about anything but their own fat cat bank accounts, fat cat sports cars, fat cat jets, fat cat hideaways, fat cat trophy wives, fat cat mistresses, fat cat country clubs and gold plated suntans.

The question I want to ask you is this: Why?

Why is it taking so long for all of us to look each other in the eye and finally say what finally needs to be said?

Those selfish crooked liars and thieves on Wall Street in collaboration with their hired guns and bought politicians in Washington DC have taken over the town. They are down in the Silver Dollar saloon whoring themselves at a big old drunken Wall Street party while the rest of us are quietly cowering in the miserable shadows of Everywhere USA.

Why are we waiting to speak out, to act, to do what is necessary to protect our families, our children, our grand children and our country, yes OUR country, from those Capital Hill bandits, corporate horse thieves and fast buck bankster snake oil artists?

It is time to take back the neighborhood we call USA. It is time to haul the thieves and swindlers responsible for the mother of all economic clusterfucks before the court of public justice.

Let them call us populists. Whatever. I'll gladly wear that badge if that is what it takes to set things right.

I know you are busy so I won't take more of your time. All I ask is you consider what I have said and how it relates to you, your friends family and loved ones.

I for one am not going to take it lying down.

The sooner we all stand up and openly say enough is finally enough, the better we will all be.


Yours sincerely,

WilliamBanzai7