What Does Occupy Wall Street Mean For Art?

[xchrom]

http://www.villagevoice.com/2011-10-19/art/what-does-occupy-wall-street-mean-for-art/

What can art learn from Occupy Wall Street? I speak only for myself, but I'll tell you what I've learned.

Several days into the occupation, I went to a panel discussion on the Lower East Side titled "Manifestations of Resistance." Shortly into the discussion, a woman stood up and asked why, instead of sitting there, we didn't head down to Wall Street. So a bunch of us did, and as we sat in a circle in Liberty Plaza, the idea of a biennial—or anti-biennial, really—began to form.

The next week saw an accelerated exchange of e-mail, creation of The Wall Street Occupennial website (wallstreetoccupennial.tumblr.com), a mission statement, a call to artists, a Facebook page, a database, and then: Nothing. Or, almost nothing.

What happened? For one thing, the occupation itself was gathering strength. Liberty Plaza was filling up with people and receiving media attention. It didn't need art for publicity or legitimacy. Now it had unions, Marines, and Cornel West. Plus, we were told, Occupy Wall Street was "started by artists." But what did this mean?

[CTyankee]

1. Thankyou for this, xchrom. Artists have historically been involved in mass movements.

This is understandable and even inevitable. I'm so glad you shared this with us...thank you!

[xchrom]

2. sure -- it's sort of the space i live in -- so i'm interested. nt

[CTyankee]

3. A wonderful space, indeed!

[aquart]

4. Images, graphics, slogans, songs.

Communication shared and spread, quickly, easily, heart to hand to voice to heart.

[socialist_n_TN]

5. Well I just finished production on 3 songs

with themes of economic democracy and justice. OWS can't take credit as these songs were started at least a year ago (the first incarnation of one of them was over 25 years ago), but I did finish the writing over a year ago. I haven't gotten them on the net yet. In fact I've been wondering what the hell to do with them.

I guess the point is that the economic CONDITIONS that engendered OWS also engendered my songs. I'll let y'all know when I figure what to do with them.