by “For me the work is about asking questions about the complexity of the world we all share,” Canadian artist David Hartt told me, discussing work he’s showing at Art Basel Miami Beach of this year. “The way I live in a political position is through a series of oblique questions that I try to open in the same ways that a prism does, to break a really complex situation into its components so that we can better understand how it works he. “
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Hartt was sharing his perspective on the notion of “protest art”, which is such a theme at Art Basel this year. Perhaps more than in other years, artists are showing works that speak to politics, causes and long-standing issues related to human rights. While much of the art this year has been informed by these views, artists have had mixed reactions to their work being interpreted as an act of protest, often expressing their unease at seeing their art as a political gesture. .
The work Hartt was performing, an interesting elaborate tapestry called The Histories (after Church), a Rayleigh scattering spectrum change / xenoformed atmosphere version, is a fitting example of how politics and history can be laid out in a piece that ultimately sophisticated and sophisticated. open to interpretation. Examining ideas about slavery, colonialism, geography, alien species and the biosphere, The Histories is a work that takes its intellectual heritage lightly.
The Histories is partly inspired by the work of Frederic Edwin Church, a major voice in the Hudson River School of landscape painting and also an abolitionist. For Hartt, Church was a way into the complex discourses on history, politics and economics that he tries to implement in his art. “The Church is, I think, a synthetic figure, someone who is trying to work within the limits of the historical narrative and the social categories that were in place within the 19th century and expand them. I find it to be a very beautiful cipher.” Hartt aims to make The Histories an engaging and sensible work that draws audiences in, and ultimately sparks conversations around a set of very important ideas.
Another tapestry that strikes a very different note is Egyptian artist Ghada Amer’s Because, a beautiful piece done in a maroon palette. The work uses a textile process which, according to Amer, has ancient roots, dating back to the time of the Pharaohs, and which today is involved in the production of tents for special events such as funerals, weddings and political rallies. The creation of these textiles is in decline due to cheaper modern options, and Amer was asked to work with them in her art as a way to revive the dying industry. “At first I wasn’t interested at all,” she said. “But then I said, ‘Okay, I’ll try,’ and when I did it was like, ‘oh wow,’ I was really motivated. I was amazed at what I could do with it.”
Amer’s square tapestry is filled with English words of various shapes and sizes drawn from a feminist declaration from Australia in 1975 that Amer happened to come across. Although written decades ago, the critic in Amer’s text feels that it is still contemporary. “All is said and little is done,” said Amer. “Sometimes very ancient quotes seem very modern.”
Part of the work that feels so strong and original is the way Amer draws on the traditions of calligraphy to create an English written form that is beautiful, mysterious, and somewhat unrecognizable. “We designed something on the same principle as Arabic calligraphy – you can stretch out words, you can put them anywhere. In that way, the words themselves become the form, it becomes like real.” This highly stylized English challenges the audience to read it, it forces the audience to engage with a text Because less as a political message and more like a piece of art that everyone will interpret in their own way. “It was a bit of a risk for me,” said Amer. “I wanted to do something new, and I worked on this series for three years.”
Donald Moffett offers much more abstract work – a longtime crusader for LGBTQ+ rights with ACT UP, his latest art is not about civil rights but about the degradation of the Earth’s biosphere. He is exhibiting Lot110123 at the fair, a wonderful addition to his ongoing Nature Cult series, through which the artist tackles the climate crisis through a diverse range of striking and mysterious works. “Nature Cult is an ongoing umbrella category of work. The whole use of the word “cult” tends to make people’s hair stand up. But the way I talked about it is, let’s join the cult, all seven billion of us.”
Moffett created Lot110123 from several pieces of the abundant driftwood that regularly washes up on the beaches of Staten Island, where he lives. “I love it in Staten Island,” he told me, the ugly stepchild of the five boroughs. All these wrens that come in are manna.”
To build his piece, Moffett used carpentry to integrate the driftwood together until it appeared as a single, beautifully carved mass, with birdhouses likely growing out of it. The most striking things about Lot110123 are the intricate textures found in the flux Moffett has chosen for this piece and the unmistakable ultramarine color. “The color seemed perfect because this wood is coming out of the sea,” he said. “This ultramarine was just persuasive. It brings out this wood so beautifully with all its texture.”
Moffett connected his move away from protest and towards a more abstract body of work with his move away from political activism and towards the privacy of the art studio. “Things were winding down, and it was time to go back to the studio and be more in the private practice of art. This is what happens in the studio when you have all that street work.”
Artist Chakaia Booker’s Flip Technique and Weighted Balances are gloriously tactile works created by the artist from recycled rubber. “I see rubber as a raw material like stone, wood or steel,” she explained. “It can be used in a modular way, creating a personal and memorable experience for the audience and myself. I see rubber as being able to open a dialogue about consumerism, mobility, environmentalism, materialism, class, race, culture, and socio-economic differences.” Booker’s rubber works are beautiful, complex and a little deceptive, impressive for their size and for the strange forms the artist was able to carve out of her material. “Sculpting in this way is a physically and intellectually demanding process. It requires the whole body to work the material, and all my attention to add the details to the greater whole.”
Ultimately, each of these four artists had different views on the extent to which politics and protest should be part of their work as artists. For Hartt, “it’s a question that should be addressed,” because he believed that “occupying space is a political act”. But Hartt also recognized that art will not be tied to any one message or action, seeing that art is fundamentally about inquiry and complexity. Booker came down in a similar place, telling me that protest was not part of her artistic practice. “I don’t see my work as a protest, I see it as something that encourages or inspires to look at the world in a different way. Art at its best should help us see the world as capable of change, capable of change for the better by showing us who we are and who we can be.”
For Amer, art was above all about having an experience that starts off as powerful and develops layers and layers of meaning over time. She saw that this was very different from the protest, which seeks to convey a message directly and immediately. “I want to do something beautiful, pleasant, but I’m not here to perform. To protest is to pull something against you. My art makes a statement, yes, but it’s very abstract, it’s not going to teach you something. You have to live with something and slowly come to understand it.”
