[CO-OP]: The Occupied Artist [BETA][Draft]

American Artist by Paul McLean [48" x 36" mixed media on canvas 2007]The Occupied Artist*

By Christopher Moylan

1. Cultural Citizenship

The Occupied Artist is engaged in carving out a space of creative detachment from conventional social structures without necessarily ceding the material advantages of middle class life, so far as it is possible for an artist to acquire a middle class life. In effect, the Occupied Artist is a citizen of two domains: the ordinary world of late capitalism, globalization, the two-party system, etc., and a cultural milieu of Occupied and other non-capitalist arrangements of actual and virtual resources designed to provide some relief from the limitations of corporate discourse. The artist pioneers affiliations and community structures that encourage non-commercial, non-judgmental, supportive and welcoming approaches to creative exploration. Magic Mountain, Occupy with Art, Hyperallergenic, Poet Activist Community Extension, The Agit-Truth Collective: collaborative communities have proliferated in recent years, often bringing in artists of different media. The groups come and go; they are not intended to be permanent. The determination to grow another cultural milieu is permanent, however, and growing.

Such structures develop parallel to the usual forms of social engagement and not, so far as is practical, in conflict with them. Everyone has to make a living, and so long as corporate America continues to control our political and financial systems there is no contradiction in maintaining some balance of conventional and alternative ways of life. Nonetheless, the eventual goal is clear: to leave the world of rigged competition, financial decadence and political and not look back.

2. Development of an Alternative Art Economy

The Occupied Artist is part of an economic vanguard engaged in developing and applying an art economy from the structures of the so-called art world: white cube galleries; international art fairs; rich collectors; art media and fashion. In this world, money circulates among collectors, journals, advertising agencies, and artists, not to mention the low paid writers and support staff that keep the system in operation. It would be simplistic to claim that the art world is about money, but money is certainly very important. The role of the public in all this is negligible: mainly, supporting economies at several removes from the art world in the form of off the rack fashion and secondary businesses (restaurants and bars in gallery districts, art publications) and providing numbers at receptions and the like to generate buzz. Their opinions and their market force are dismissed; they, we, really don’t matter. The Occupied Artist explores ways to do the reverse: include the %99, marginalize the billionaire collectors, develop monetized and non-monetized forms of art support, create new configurations and dimensions for art exhibition, and nurture forms of discourse and cultural exchange that work within and for the community, however that community is defined—it could an online community, a neighborhood, a group affiliated with Occupy. Sometimes acquisition of given work will involve barter, labor exchange, work in kind, or co-op transactions. Sometimes there will be no need for a transaction, as in work placed on public walls or billboards, or inscribed on cans or boxes in a grocery store and left just to surprise people… Money is necessary of course: money for rent, utilities, phones, supplies… If you have some money, please donate (really, please donate). If you don’t want to donate, come to a rent party and drop a few dollars in the jar at the door. There are all kinds of ways to raise money…Art work in this alternative economy can be rigorous and challenging or fun or silly, but it will not be extremely, scarily expensive, unless the community really wants it to be.

3. Spatial and Dimensional De-Limitation

The Occupied Artist resists the market considerations that restrict exhibition to certain spaces and the financial and logistical obligations that come with them. Art fairs, traditional galleries, auctions and private sales contain art and artist in a spatial and economic matrix, the matrix of global capitalism. Virtual spaces, squats, occupations, fugitive exhibitions, and communal organizations break out of that market and spatial limitation. They appear in places the traditional art world shuns: poor neighborhoods, uncool neighborhoods, bodegas, farmhouses, barns…By doing so, they encourage people, all kinds of people, to take part, often as participants in the making of a piece. None of this is easy, although it can seem like a fugitive show in an old gas station or someone’s apartment just happens spontaneously. Quite the opposite; without the usual supports of financing and media drawing power, it takes a lot of planning, networking and organizing to move within this de-limited art world.

4. Humbly Occupied

Who wove the Bayeux Tapestry? Who turned and painted the urn that inspired Keats to write his ode? Who made most of the Native American art in museum collections around the country? In another world, the world envisioned by Occupy artists, it would be a simple matter to give up any prospect of celebrity for the chance to help weave something as wonderful as the Bayeux Tapestry. The Occupied art world would have no place for an Andy Warhol, as Andy Warhol, much as any Occupied artist admires him and values his critique of the postmodern image world. The Occupied artist is a revolutionary, not a celebrity. Attention, if it comes, is just a peripheral distraction. People have lost their homes, their jobs, and their pride. The climate is shifting alarmingly, unions are being outlawed, women assaulted in the media, anti-Gay bigotry celebrated in fast food chains and pulpits, young people impaled by college loans, banks and giant corporations are raping our constitution and demeaning our elected officials by paying for their votes. There is work to do. Cultural workers, Occupied artists, will do their part.

*NOTE: The impetus for this essay was a discussion with members of b.j. spoke gallery, during which the questions emerged (& this is somewhat simplifying): "What is an Occupy artist; what is Occupy art?" I would suggest that Chris has made a great beginning here, and that it would be great and important, should others continue this discussion, and add their ideas on the subject. - PJM