Art, Activism, and Oppositionality

Essays from Afterimage

Author: Kester, Grant H.
Publisher: Duke University Press
ISBN: 9780822320814
eISBN Pdf: 9780822396109
Place of publication: Durham , United States
Year of digital publication: 1998
Month: March
Pages: 328
DDC: 700/.973
Language: English

Caption

There is a common perception in the arts today that overtly activist art—often seen to sacrifice an aesthetic pleasure for a subversive one—is no longer in fashion. In bringing together sixteen of the most important essays on activist and community-based art from the pages of Afterimage—one of the most influential journals in the media and visual arts fields for more than twenty-five years—Grant H. Kester demonstrates that activist art, far from being antithetical to the true meaning of the aesthetic, can be its most legitimate expression.

Forging a style of criticism where aesthetic, critical, theoretical, and activist concerns converge, Afterimage has shaped American debates around the politics of visual production and arts education while offering a voice to politically involved artists and scholars. Art, Activism, and Oppositionality insists not only on the continuing relevance of an activist stance to contemporary art practice and criticism, but also on the significance of an engaged art practice that is aligned with social or political activism. With essays that span fifteen years—roughly from Ronald Reagan’s 1980 presidential win to the 1994 Republican victories in Congress, a period marked by waning public support for the arts and growing antagonism toward activist art—Art, Activism, and Oppositionality confronts issues ranging from arts patronage, pedagogy, and the very definitions of art and activism to struggles involving AIDS, reproductive rights, sexuality, and racial identity.

Contributors. Maurice Berger, Richard Bolton, Ann Cvetkovich, Coco Fusco, Brian Goldfarb, Mable Haddock, Grant H. Kester, Ioannis Mookas, Chiquita Mullins Lee, Darrell Moore, Lorraine O’Grady, Michael Renov, Martha Rosler, Patricia Thomson, David Trend, Charles A. Wright Jr., Patricia R. Zimmerman

Contents
Acknowledgments
Ongoing Negotiations: Afterimage and the Analysis of Activist Art, Grant H. Kester
The Politics of Patronage
- Enlightened Self-Interest: The Avant-Garde in the '80s - Richard Bolton
- White Men Can't Program: The Contradictions of Multiculturalism - Darrell Moore
- Fantasies of Oppositionality - Coco Fusco
- The Mythology of Difference: Vulgar Identity Politics at the Whitney - Charles A. Wright Jr.
- Theses on Defunding - Martha Rosler
- Rhetorical Questions: The Alternative Arts Sector and the Imaginary Public - Grant H. Kester
- Whose Multiculturalism? PBS, the Public, and Privilege - Mable Haddock and Chiquita Mullins Lee
- Video Activism and Critical Pedagogy: Sexuality at the End of the Rainbow Curriculum - Brian Goldfarb
Activism and Oppositionality
- Cultural Struggle and Educational Activism - David Trend
- Video, AIDS, and Activism - Ann Cvetkovich
- Early Newsreel: The Construction of a Political Imaginary for the Left - Michael Renov
- Interview with Adrian Piper - Maurice Berger
- Video and Electoral Appeal - Patricia Thomson
- Fetal Tissue: Reproductive Rights and Activist Video - Patricia R. Zimmermann
- Olympia's Maid: Reclaiming Black Female Subjectivity - Lorraine O'Grady
- Fault Lines: Homophobic Innovation in Gay Rights, Special Rights - Ioannis Mookas
Contributors
Index