shocking struggle of political agenda's

In terms of art as politics, which is what I gathered slightly from the article “art and/or revolution” by Marco Deseriis, where he quotes the idea of Mario Tronti in Operai e Capitale (1966), later restated by Hardt and Negri is ‘resistance is primary with respect to power’ or, as Raunig puts it, that there is a ‘relationship of dependency’ between the two. This is what I feel art has become, a power between the two inter-connected relationships of politics and imagination. The concatenation of these elements and the many other facets concerning the growth and dependance of art on its surroundings are a denial of reality. I know this may not may sense, but bare with me.

If we did not have the surrounding elements of art, politics, social change and structure, art never would ahve progressed to anything. From historical time through the ages when art was classified as a painting of religious subject matter, the commissioning of the church and what have you… this was the political status of art. Caravaggio was the trouble maker, using real life homeless people as his subjects, which were in tern portraying biblical figures. SHOCKING. But the power struggle was that the church needed him for “entertainment” (no t.v’s or iphones in those days fella’s!!)

So to, I feel the progression of art is just a new political approach. Nowadays we face the gallery and cultural setting as our political battleground. As artists we feel the need to fit into the gaps that our society and culture has left for us, otherwise we become the grappling artistic underground.

The quote that Raunig follows of Holloway to “cultivate ‘our own garden’ and ‘our own world of loving relations’ may naturally lead to a radically different world”, to me only symbolizes the power struggle of the artist. We are living a real life revolution… NOW, to be recognized for who and what we are, not how we can perform to suit the desires of others in a contextualization of artistic practice. More so to reiterate how a concatenation of artistic practices can cause a real social and political change by being and doing what they want, not to shock or please the viewer. How great it would be for people to realize that what we are representing, what we are trying to make noticeable is life, living as we do, not for any other then oneself.

I do understand the element though that everything has to link. The art is life and life is political, in any way you look at it.