Louis Byrne
Discuss the role illustration can play during periods of political/social upheaval. Radical art suffers appropriation by the institutions it exists to critique, discuss. 2723 Words
Popular uprisings are defined not just by the words of their proponents, and the actions of those involved in their advancement, but also by the art and design that supports and develops their ideals. These great periods of social transformation gain their identity through these images, the propaganda posters, leaflets and banners combining together to form a unique visual identity that makes the movements instantly recognizable. However, throughout history, revolutionary art and design has been co-opted, or otherwise absorbed, by the institutions it was originally created to oppose and subvert; this adoption of formerly combative works occurs for a multitude of reasons, which will be explored and discussed further in this essay. The political theories of Recuperation and Detournement will be discussed in relation to the effectiveness of radical art and through this exploration and analysis, it will be examined as to why the art of the revolution is so often found promoting the forces it was originally intended to oppose and the ways in which this can be observed. To truly realise the appropriation of revolutionary art, one must first be aware of the political phenomenon known as recuperation. Recuperation as an idea was first presented by the Marxist theorist, Guy Debord, who described it as the process through which challenging and radical ideas are co-opted by established institutions and then mutated to serve the aims of these organisations (Debord, 1957). Regarding art, recuperation involves reproducing and sanitising radical imagery until it becomes trivialised and commodified. John Berger summarised this by stating that ‘reproductions are used to bolster the illusion that nothing has changed’ (Berger,2008,29) as, by reproducing it, radical imagery can be re-contextualised and altered to reinforce official culture, betraying the intended meaning of its source whilst still appearing progressive; allowing the established order to ‘twist every form of protest around to salvage its own ends’ (Downing,2000,59). The established order regurgitates these altered images through the media and propaganda outlets at its command, in what Debord refers to as the Spectacle (Debord,1957). This leads to the creation of Official Culture; the approved, sanitised culture of the state that is supported by established corporate entities, institutions and governments (Lewis,1992).
One prominent example of the assimilation of radical art into official culture is the constructivist design movement of the fledgling Soviet Union.
Arguably one of the first truly democratised movements within art and design, Constructivism sought to make work which served more than the individual and would be pertinent to social change. Constructivism originated as a school of thought among students at the institute of artistic culture, in Moscow, developing around the principles of the consideration of the properties of an object and the space in which it existed (Gough,2005,1). This group of young artists, including Rodchenko, Alexander Vesnin and Varvara Stepanova, initially applied these principles to abstract sculpture and painting but following the start of the October revolution of 1917, many of them turned their hand to the production of posters and flyers supporting the communist uprising. Vladimir Mayakovsky summed up the energy of the movement best when he stated ‘The streets shall be our brushes- the squares our palettes!’ (Tate, 2016, Century City). As said by Lenin in 1907, art would no longer serve ‘the upper ten thousand suffering from boredom and obesity; it will rather serve the millions and tens of millions of labouring people, the flower of the country, its strength, its future’ (Tolstoy, 1990) and, while this bright vision of the future still flourished, constructivist design led the way as the art of the people. The use of stark contrast, simple typography and bold, recognizable images and symbolism meant that constructivist poster design was accessible and memorable, being able to convey simple but powerful messages to the populace, many of whom were illiterate. Images such as El Lissitzkys Red Wedge poster relayed complex information, such as battle plans and industrial achievements, using little more than abstract shape and symbolism, the result of this radical composition being the memorable impact that the artist ladovskii referred to as ‘ a force effect’ (Gough,2005,39). The fervour and optimism found in early constructivist art was not to last, the aesthetic of the movement was soon repurposed to promote the ideals of socialism in one nation as the post-revolutionary government consolidated its power (Analogue76, The Russian Constructivists, 2016) ; this can be seen in the case of a poster, distributed in 1932, titled
At the End of the Five Year Plan the Collectivization of the USSR should be Fundamentally Complete.
Depicting the imposing figure of then general secretary, Josef Stalin, looking over a scene of agrarian progress, the poster uses striking colour and instantly recognizable imagery to promote the acceptance of Stalin’s first five year plan and the mass collectivization of the previously feudal Russian farm system. A sea of workers faces surround Stalin, highlighting the vast number of people who will benefit from the policy, and mechanized tractors flying the red flag of the revolution trundle forwards, giving the viewer a glimpse of the progress brought on by the technological advances implemented under the general secretary. Furthermore, the use of constructivist design has clear connotations of radical change, as a direct association can be made between the style and the idealistic goals of the revolution in which it was first observed. However, although this policy helped to bring Russia into the modern age, it also resulted in the deaths and internment of millions of people and heralded the start of Stalin’s total
control as the premier of the Soviet Union (Fitzpatrick,1994,134) . This is made all the more disheartening due to the implementation of constructivist design ideas ultimately suggesting complicity between the creators of this formerly radical art and the dictatorial government using it to deceive the oppressed peoples. Although it would be fatuous to suggest that the revolution had been anything but bloody, the constructivist design of the time had not been concealing or supporting the violence that went along with it directly; under the new regime, this was not the case, as this poster can be observed to be a case of direct misinformation in service of dictatorial aims. Overall, the assimilation of constructivist design into Stalin’s authoritarian regime can be observed as a clear example of recuperation, as by using the formerly radical aesthetic to promote conservative policies, it is trivialised in the process, still echoing the radical change it once professed but now stripped of its impact and revolutionary quality. The poster echoes the work of the revolution in that it is clearly attempting to rally a demoralized populace against new challenging odds (Brutus,1951). This use of revolutionary inspired art to suggest progress and radical is something that continues to this day, being employed by marketing groups and political organisations across the world; however, there have been attempts to counter this appropriation, taking the principles of recuperation and flipping them in a process known as Detournement.
French for hijacking, Detournement is antithetical to recuperation in that it involves the adoption and parody of established ideas and traditional symbols ,reworking them into a critical parody of their source and ultimately ‘Turning expressions of the capitalist system against itself’ (Holt,2010,252). When employed effectively, Detournement can prove to be an accessible and memorable way to point out the flaws and highlight the failings of established institutions, using the considered and effective methods of authoritarian propaganda to promote dissenting ideologies. The theory of Detournement has been highly influential, and it can be seen to have inspired the subversive culture jamming movement that emerged in the 1980s. Culture jamming is Detournement brought to its most complete anti-consumerist conclusion, using considered and highly thought out marketing style campaigns to present subversive information and ‘expose the methods of domination’ (nomai,2011) used by corporate groups. The most
prominent advocates of culture jamming are perhaps the group known as Adbusters, although the process can also be observed in the work of the artist, Shepherd Fairey. Over the course of his career, Fairey has risen from guerrilla street artist to household name and, as his fame has grown, so too has the amount of criticism directed at him. Due to the fact that he now accepts commissions from prominent corporate sources, It is difficult to discuss Fairey’s identity as an artist without conjuring up hackneyed notions of ‘selling out’ but, regardless of Fairey’s personal conviction, it is undeniable that his recent work heavily relies upon evoking radicalism in order to sell goods and promote official culture. Appropriation is a staple of Fairey’s practice, with the artist taking imagery from a variety of sources; placing the art of leftist revolutions and authoritarian governments alongside symbols of western popular culture, as seen in his OBEY campaign.
Fairey’s early work is defined by the OBEY giant logo, a simple but striking high contrast portrait of the wrestler, Andre the giant underlined by the word ‘obey’ capitalised in bold type . After stencils and stickers were made of the image, it was distributed among the street art and skater communities of the US, being replicated thousands of times, sprayed and stuck upon walls, buildings and billboards across America and the world. Fairey described the spread of the image as an experiment in phenomenology, ‘the process of letting things manifest themselves’ (Shepherd Fairey Life and Biography, Propaganda, 1990).
The anonymity of OBEY can be seen as a parody and critique of conservative propaganda and conventional ad campaigns alike, with the imperative being ultimately meaningless and unrelated to any actual authority. On his website, Fairey states that ‘Because people are not used to seeing advertisements or propaganda for which the product or motive is not obvious, frequent and novel encounters with the sticker provoke thought and possible frustration’ (Shepherd Fairey Life and Biography, Propaganda, 1990). The desired result of this is that the viewer is provoked to question the other media campaigns around them, inspiring them to attempt to understand the motives and legitimacy of the information being fed to them. This subversive deconstruction of propaganda initially appears as a clear example of Detournement (Situationist International Online, Manifesto, 2016) .
However, despite his initial, noble goals, Fairey’s more recent work can be seen to possess qualities that make it more comparable to recuperation that Detournement; this can be observed in the adverts he created for the department store, Saks. The posters are designed along clear constructivist lines, featuring sharp geometric shapes contrasting with collaged, bold figures. The chosen colour palette is striking, and the use of black, red and white is highly reminiscent of Lissitzkys Red Wedge and the work of Rodchenko (Turnbull, To Obey or not to Obey, 2015). The posters feature imperative slogans, reminiscent of radical calls to arms, alongside bold figures commanding the viewer to ‘Electrify your colours’ and ‘Arm Yourself, With a Slouchy Bag’(Wilson, 2014). Although the work is definitely light hearted, the contrast between soviet design and consumerism injects humour into the posters, it is
questionable as to whom the campaign is benefitting. It is unclear as to whether the campaign is highlighting and parodying the commanding nature of consumerism or whether Fairey, in his desire to associate himself with anti-capitalist ideology, is instead undermining the original value of the imagery he has appropriated (Turnbull, To Obey or not to Obey, 2015). Regardless of the artist intent, this campaign can be seen as an example of detached recuperation, as the aesthetic of the campaign was initially derived from a politically radical force but has, in its current state, lost almost all of its revolutionary connotations, instead becoming trivialised and commodified, the ultimate goal of recuperation. The changing nature of Fairey’s work, and status as an artist, is perhaps reflected most in his attitudes towards the ownership and marketing of his OBEY logo and branding. Although the logo once existed solely in the form of art disseminated on the street, the recognisability of the campaign has led to Fairey making it a key part of his personal brand, attaching the logo to almost all subsequent work in some way; Fairey also sells a wide range of apparel and books featuring the logo on his online store. The success of the OBEY logo can be observed to have resulted in its complete commodification and the loss of the original meaning behind the campaign. (Obey giant, 1995) As argued by Berger, once a piece of art becomes a commodity, its meaning becomes transmittable (Berger,2008,24). The acts of repetition and re-contextualisation completely remove the image from its source meaning that, even if the image can still be seen in its original context (in this case, displayed as graffiti or plastered unto a building) the inevitability that it will appear in other situations, altered, means that it has been irreversibly commodified (Berger,2008,25). Berger also presents the argument that as soon as the logo was attached to a piece of clothing or a book that was sold, its inherent radical nature was compromised. Now, regardless of the fact that it was previously freely available, the desire to own OBEY branded merchandise comes not from its thought provoking message but from its status as an object with worth; The ascription of value to the image has rendered it a commodity (Berger,2008,21). Regardless of its original meaning, the OBEY logo has now entered what Baudrillard referred to as the system of objects (Baudrillard,2006) , its sign value (the value ascribed to it based on its perceived worth as a status symbol) making it a fetishized symbol of consumerism. This can be observed to be a powerful example of Detournement becoming recuperation
as the nature of the image changes. The questionable effectiveness of Detournement is something that has dogged the movement since its inception. One argument for its ineffectiveness is that, when artists attempt to subvert the advertising industry, either through the implementation of aesthetic choices with radical insinuations or by applying the principles of advertising to subversive work, the association with the product remains the most prominent factor, and the desired irony is lost. In No Logo the writer, Naomi Klein presents the idea that, in their immense desire to appear to transgress consumerist society, contemporary image makers who employ culture jamming and radical aesthetics present a superficially radical image that masques their complicity in a capitalist society (Klein, 2009). Perhaps the most parody worthy example of this occurring can be seen in the case of Adbusters, who helped to promote their ‘buy nothing’ day by selling merchandise branded with its logo and information (Adbusters, no date). In conclusion, In the 1957 Situationist Manifesto (Debord,1957), it was established that the spectacle, the aforementioned media/propaganda lense of the established order, cannot exist without an enforced official culture and complete social control (described by Debord as ‘a rigged game’) (Debord,1957). If the spectacle was to attempt to refute radical art outright, it would simply highlight its transgressive nature more and establish the existence of forces outside of the official culture. By acknowledging and reproducing it, the spectacle, prevents subversive art from communicating its message directly and in the process sanitizes it to the point where it is no longer a threat( Faces of Recuperation, the American section of the Situationist International,1969). The formerly transgressive imagery can then be safely integrated into the spectacles official culture, where it’s now trivialised association with radical change ‘can be exploited to add new flavours to old dominant ideas’ (Debord,1957). It is primarily for this reason that radical art suffers appropriation by the institutes it exists to critique. However, this appropriation does not necessarily have to come from an institutional force aggressively absorbing the radical imagery. In both the observed cases, it can be argued that the recuperation of the imagery took place as a direct result of the images creators transcending their roles as radicals and becoming integrated into the corporate or political institutions they set out to oppose. In this way, it can be implied that radical art is destined
to be appropriated by the established order as, by presenting itself and attempting to challenge the status quo, it instead confirms its complicity in the process and is inevitably recuperated by the spectacle, truly demonstrating that by attempting to challenge official culture, you are entering ‘a rigged game’ (Debord,1957).
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