Art and Democracy

Over 50% of USA Track & Field (USATF) athletes live below the poverty line, and rely on sparse sponsorship and prize money to make a living. Unfortunately, this money is especially difficult to come by during the month of the Olympics, since the International Olympic Committee forbids athletes from displaying their sponsor’s logo. This rule…

After Columbia University dismissed Emma Sulkowicz’s sexual assault, finding the accused student “not responsible,” Sulkowicz took action. She vowed to carry a 50 pound, twin XL mattress, identical to the one she was attacked on, wherever she went on the Columbia campus. Sulkowicz physically shouldered the burden of her alleged rape for an entire year,…

The inner city is now a domain of the rich. While service jobs are still needed in this environment, the poor are forced to commute, losing money to gas prices and time to traffic. Why not build more low-cost housing to improve the lives of the poor? A developer would say that regardless of demand…

The feminist punk music movement Riot Grrrl took root in the early 1990’s throughout the Pacific Northwest. Bands within the movement (such as Bratmobile and The Third Sex) created punk music that addresses homophobia, violence towards women, racism, sexism, and other issues related to feminism. By writing politically charged (and catchy) lyrics into punk music,…

One Two Three Swing! rejects art museums as places for serious, solitary thought. Instead, One Two Three Swing! encourages participants to play, erecting giant swings which seat up to three people in the common area of the Tate Modern. SUPERFLEX is a critique on the seriousness of art museums. It makes room for play in…

Demolished in 2014, 5pointz, was a run-down industrial building and artist studio space famous for its exterior graffiti. Although since the 90s it was rented as a studio space for artists, the building’s real function was more akin to a graffiti museum. In protest to it’s whitewashing and redevelopment, artist Ann Lewis hung giant construction…

Divisions seem to dominate daily life. As we are culled into smaller boxes of “the similarly minded” we are forced into tension with thousands of other micro-populations. Community, however, cannot be those few dozen people with whom we share an identical political ideology. Maria Lai attempted to undo isolation and rebuild the connections with her…

Becoming engaged at any level of politics seems to imply a paradox:  either stay within the social media bubble, where the posts and groups are heavily curated, or venture into the wilderness of political organizing and become involved in a movement of people with whom you do not 100% agree with. The former is comfortable…

In his piece titled “Shapolsky et al. Manhattan Real Estate Holdings, a Real-Time Social System, as of May 1, 1971”, artist Hans Haacke displayed information pertaining to all the properties owned by the company referenced in its title since May 1, 1971. At the time, the Shapolsky family controlled huge amounts of properties in New…

In theory, Rirkrit Tiravanija’s untitled 1992/1995 brings people together through shared experience; however, tensions lie in the options Tiravanija incorporates in the piece. Tiravanija transformed a gallery space into a communal, half kitchen-half restaurant gathering place. He cooked two types of green Thai curries – one Americanized, one traditional – and served them to visitors…