Do you see a toilet fountain or a urinal, which you use every day, as an artwork? Apparently, Marcel Duchamp, a-20th century French painter, sculptor and activist, did. The artist tended to push the boundaries of what had been considered as art and what not by putting daily, mundane unappealing utensil in an art related space, the museum. His idea for that particular art piece changed the way we thought about art in a whole new way, implying that art does not serve just to beautify the space but can be anything. Essentially, art is a medium through which the artist and the audience communicate through an interesting topic. Topics vary from what the artist’s favourite drink is to why the social inequality remains in a society as open as the US. Art can therefore be used as a channel to ask revolutionary questions about this deceptive society by introducing the artist’s unspoken thoughts to the community. There are some contemporary artworks and artists that deserve more serious attention than the mainstream media usually portrays them since these artworks present crucial political and social issues about the world or their nation. Some of the powerful ”artworks” which will be described here are Banksy’s, Ai Wei Wei’s and Chaw Ei Thein’s.
Banksy’s art
Internationally, one of the most important and controversial figure for making unglamorous, yet influential art is Banksy. The anonymous British street artist is well-known for his sense of satire and sarcasm which tends to mock the systems shaping the modern society. Among his many interesting art projects, ”Dismaland” is quite remarkable. In 2015, he organized an art exhibition, taken place in England, called ”Dismaland” in which he and the other 48 artists displayed their artworks. In addition to its unfriendly and sulking staffs, all the depressing-looking artworks and bleak set-up of this exhibition or theme park were part of a bigger plan which was to show the artist’s sense of mockery towards the very Disney-mood-like escapism and entertainment in life of people from first world countries and how consumerism is systematically put together to hide real problems of the world. That event was not only considered a huge deal by many art critics and writers but also reached many outsiders of the art world, thereby raising awareness for different society issues including global warming, equality and growing consumerism culture and involvement of entertainment in it. Even if the ”Dismaland” can be argued that Banksy did it only for mass media attention and the whole thing was futile and extravaganza, it cannot be denied that the thoughts it provoked are still fresh and disturbing not only back then but also in this day and age, for some reasons such as that there might be some bitter and untouchable truth that Banksy and the others presented with the “Dismaland”.
Art by Ai Weiwei
Secondly, but not in any hierarchy, another contemporary artist-activist whose works are also powerful and well recognized by international community for his resistance especially to the Chinese government is Ai Weiwei. Even though it is difficult to pick one artwork from all his provoking works, the most prominent one would be Sunflower Seeds exhibited in 2010. Sunflower Seeds was an installation and conceptual massive art piece first exhibited in London. The audience would see the vast floor full of 100 million porcelain sunflower seeds handcrafted by more than 1600 porcelain artisans from Jingdezhen, the porcelain capital. The overcrowding ocean of identical sunflower seeds lying helplessly was often read to be the symbol for the citizens of the Republic of China under the regime of Chinese Communist Party and the hint of their loss of individual voice as they are seen as a collective. The immensity of the seeds is interpreted as what reminds people about mass production and cheap labour of China which help itself to level up into one of the global top economic powers. Beauty does not come to mind if one thinks about Sunflower seeds. Instead, they would think words like vast, edgy and tense along with politically undiscussable questions for the society to contemplate deeply. In such ways, Ai Weiwei uses art as a powerful weapon to contribute to his society.
Chaw Ei Thein in art
When the international artists who speak out about the society’s problems such as Ai Weiwei are often censored and criticised, artists in a nation like Burma, which had been under strict military regime for more than half a century, from 1962 to 2011, have been oppressed and even exiled from their country for their art being subversive and disobedient to the government. Chaw Ei Thein is one of the few female visual artists who lived under the regime and finally became an artist in exile. The year 2007 was heart-breaking for Burmese citizens which also includes artists like Chaw Ei Thein because of the “Saffron Revolution” in which peacefully demonstrating monks were beaten and killed mercilessly by Burmese military. A year later that bloodbath incident, the artist was invited to participate in 2008 Singapore biennale, the big art festival which is held biennially. An installation called “September Sweetness” ideated by our Burmese artist and another Vietnamese artist was exhibited there. It was a pagoda of sugar whose height is taller than an average person. The artist intended to symbolize the short-lasting and decaying sugar with the eroding optimism of Burmese people for Burma’s better future after the prior 2007 killings. Similar to Banksy, Chaw Ei was constantly questioned about her art practice not being genuine and accused by some that she uses politics for her fame. But what people forget to see is how the artist had to struggle with her inner voice saying, “You are guilty for fleeing the country,” and try her best with what was given to her.