SE RI G MA
E N I GAZ E
E IN
AZ
A M LTUR U C E + S S T I R A R
The New the New Balence Balance Are You a Social deviant?
RISE MAGAZINE
CONTENts 4
RISE MAGAZINE
Paint and Promises
10
Guerrilla Girls
12
Fight For your Right to Fight
40
Is there a link between creativity and social devience
Paint and Promises
The line between creativity and what is considered socially deviant behavior is more blurred than ever. The mixture of the two is seen as problem, an issue that we have to resolve. But what if it’s not? What if the only way to get out an uncensored message is with a can of spray paint and a paint brush? Well then you better stock up on your paint. Because the fight has already begun.
Protest art is any type of creative work that is concerned with social movements, political change or produced by activists. Graffitti is the most common form of protest art. As graffiti is illegal, it in itself is already an act of civil disobedience without even looking into what the graffiti is about. There are spaces that grafitti artist are comissioned to create into a work of art, but most are done illegally in public spaces. Graffiti can be split into a few different categories, genuine pieces of art, politically motivated art, and mindless vandalism. These categories are not mutually exclusive, as most pieces overlap a couple of categories. And, many people will no doubt disagree on the category you think it belongs in. One of Britain most famous grafitti artist Is Bansky. Bansky’s grafitti is a social commentary on the culture we live. The political and activist angle to his work has made him on of the most popular artist of our time. As his work is so widely celebrated and so well known, it is not even seen as grafitti to most anymore, its just art. Whether this is because of his celebrity status, or people completely believe in his message, something changed when bansky’s work was brought into the public eye. Grafitti became an acceptable and legitimate type of art form. His work, after being taken from there original settings, now sells for thousands in galleries. Bansky’s stencils can be seen in Bristol, LA and even Gaza. The thoughts of the UK’s favourite vandal have spread thoughtout the world.
Something changed when bansky’s work was brought into the public eye. Grafitti became an acceptable and legitimate type of art form.
Bansky may not have been the first graffiti artist Britain had, but his political messages and dark humour seemed to really struck a cord with the public and helped give grafitti the recognition it deserves. Protest art has been used as a major tool in putting across an uncontrolled and uncensored message to the public. This can be not only through grafitti, but through banners, posters and street art. Its one of the only types of art that can cover all genres and can be seen by all people. A group that’s famous for their feminist protest art is the Guerilla girls. An unidentified group of American feminist who have been trying to show the inequality between male and female artists. Art protesting is always reinventing itself and finding new ways put across a message. A very current type of art protest are Ad busters. Ad busting is when you deface an advertisement and change there original meaning. This was seen a lot on political posters during the last elections, but hasn’t been as widely during out current election process. But its not just graffiti, people are already used to seeing reproduced street art plastered onto placards and posters at civil protests. Does this defeat the point of using art to be disobedient and try and change things if were just going to mass produce any piece of meaningful art we find? Or is that the point? Is this the way we can show solidarity through street art? Or are we selling out by uniting around a bansky piece that will sells for hundreds of thousands of pounds in a few days to a private collector? I don’t think we can ever know for definite what the answers are. Graffiti is one of the few forms of art that are still uncensored and accessible to all. Whether its tagging up a wall or spraying a political message, public walls will always be a free for all. The opinion of if this is worth breaking the law for is up to you, but you can’t deny that there is a power in grafitti. This act of civil disobediance can help make a positive change. Social heroes don’t always need a soapbox; sometimes they just need a can of spray paint.
You can’t deny that there is a power in grafitti.
Guerrilla Girls The
The Guerrilla Girls, a group of guerrilla masked female artists, are the rock n roll of feminist art protest. Formed in 1984, the Guerrilla girls have battled the under representation of women in the creative industries for the last 31 years, and show no sign of stopping.
The girls keep there identity secrete by wearing guerrilla masks at all public appearance, and are know for there provocative outfits to challenge the female stereotype. There bold art protests has lead them to become a big name in the fight for feminism.
The guerrilla girls take no prisoners interventions, alternative art text books and hard hitting posters shocked the art world into discovering how much discrimination there is against female artists. At the Guerrilla girls first protest in front the New York Museum of Modern Art in 1984, out of 169 artist who were supposed to have created the most significant contemporary art in the world, only 13 of them were woman. The number not only shocked many female artist, but it made them angry. And it created what we know as the Guerrilla Girls today.
In 31 years the Girls have done a lot more then just name and shame museum’s, there sights now stretches further than that. The Guerrilla Girls have been involved in the Occupy Wall Street Movement and brought feminism to the Oscar nominations list.
I asked the Girls a few big questions on feminism and art protest and here’s what they thought:
Do you think that your work has improved how represented women are in the creative industries? “Things are better for women and artists of color in the visual art world, and the Guerrilla Girls have fomented some of that change, but there is still a long way to go.” Do you still believe that art protest is the most effective way to draw attention to the inequality woman are faced? “Yes. You have to stand stand up for issues you believe in. Things improve when you take action and our action is Art.”
Today The Guerrilla Girls are still the masked avengers of inequality, but they still have a huge fight on there hands. In 2011 only a shocking 4% of the artists in the Modern and Contemporary sections were women, and 76% of the nudes were female. This shows that while equality has been brought to the publics attention, nothing has been done to change it. Women are being under represented more and more. And while we are, we need the Guerrilla Girls. The guerrilla girls hold there own exhibitions and create their own workshops to bring feminism back into the public eye. For more information head to there website: http://www.guerrillagirls.com/
Fight For Your Right To Fight
B
efore we look into Protests let me explain. This collection of photographs have been put together with the idea of annominity in mind. These photo were taken of a protest regarding the current sex abuse scandals. This scandal really rocked the UK as many of the accused abusers were public figures, such as children’s TV personalities and Politian’s. The shear size of this scandal and its links around the whole of Britain showed how corrupt we are as nation. With a bit of money and a bit of power some people believed they could bury every disgraceful thing did, until now. Even with this institutionalised abuse coming to light, there have been very few arrests. Much of the evidence has be lost or destroyed over time . This protest aimed to get further investigations into the scandal and make the public completely aware that decades of abuse on vulnerable children have been brushed under the carpet. The idea behind the annominity is to express even the people who have been abused but do not want to be identified still deserve justice. The unidentafible faces of the protesters show that theyre all on the same side, and that there will be justice for them. Protesting is your right, and you should exercise that right. Protesting is one of the few ways you can truly watch democracy in action by doing more that putting a vote in a ballot box. Without protests it would be much harder to identify the issues that the public feel most strongly about and it can help bring about much needed changes. In this era of dirty politics, corruption and discrimination, protesting may be all that’s left to make yourself heard.
Your right to protest is protected under the European Convention of Human Rights. However, The Public Order Act 1986 defines a march or moving protest as a ‘procession’. As you are now identified as a procession, there are a lot of rules and regulation you now must abide by. The organiser of a procession must tell the local police a minimum of six days before a procession or protest. That notification should state the date and time of the march, the route, and give the names of the organisers. Police then have the power to limit the march, change the route, or set any other condition they feel is appropriate. The police also have the right to ban all processions for up to three months. So even though your right to protest is supposedly protected by Eurpoean law, there are many British Laws in place to limit that right. A way around many of the procession protest laws to to hold an assembly instead of a procession. The only difference is that an assembly is static. The police can still impose conditions but only if they feel they are necessary to prevent serious public disorder from taking place, or if they feel that the purpose of the gathering is to intimidate others. The police can still amend the location of an assembly, limit the number of attendees and shorten the duration of any protest.
Although here in the Britain you cant be arrested for simply being involved in a peaceful protest, there are a lot of common laws you can be arrested under if your not careful. Make sure your protest is in a public space, if you try to protest on private property you can be arrested for trespassing. Some spaces that may be assumed to be public, may actually belong to specific councils or independent businesses. Spaces such as squares or courtyards can commonly be independently owned. Common police tactics during processions and assemblies are stop and searches, stop and accounts, kettling and arrests. Under section 60 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 police have the power to search people without any grounds for suspecting them. If you are stopped and searched, the police officer should make a record of the search and should offer you a copy. They can ask you your name and address for the purposes of completing a stop and search form but you are not obliged to give these details. If you not given a copy of your stop and search form you have grounds to report your search as unlawful. There is no obligation for anyone stopped by the police to respond to police questions. However, under section 50 of the Police Reform Act 2002 it is an offence for someone not to give their name and address to an officer if the officer has reason to believe that the person is acting or has been acting in an anti-social way. Peacefully protesting is not antisocial behaviour therefore there should be no reason why you should be forced to unlawfully answer police questions. Kettling is when police surround and seal of a protest. This is a controversial police strategy as it detains people. Article 5 of the European Convention on Human Rights supposedly limits the circumstances in which people can be detained, however kettling is still a widely used police tactic. Police can arrest anyone they feel is breaching the peace. Whether this is justified or justified, resisting arrest is also a criminal offence. This leaves the police with a lot of rules and regulation behind them to wrongly incarcerate individuals and break down the integrity of a protest.
Protesting should not be done just by the most dedicated or the bravest of us all, it should be done by everyone. If you feel strongly about something enough to talk to people about it and shout at your TV, then why can’t you join together and protest about it? There is a strength in protesting. Its more than the number of people that turn up, but in the shared belief that something needs to done. A change has to happen. Make sure the future will thank you in there history books.
There has lo
ng been a de bate on whe ther or not th between crea ere is a link tivity and soc ial deviance. This stems fo r the notion humanities o that we are a ver the more society that v creative subje alu c ts . T h is can be see es the sciences and the system is co n when looke nstr ucted, an d at how the d how respe cted each su education b je c t is. Under this be lief, ar t will a lways be see There is little n as the dev evidence to s iant option. uppor t this lin between crim k. However m inal behaviou r, which is th uch research are similar ch e aracteristics has been foc involved in cre extreme end of social de u v iance, and cre sed on looking into a link ativity and la location and w a tivity. It was fo breaking. Th exploit a favo ese characte und that there urable situati ri s ti c s include the These overla o n , a n d th e use of dive pping charac ability to sca rgent thinkin teristics could na g. be why creati vity has alwa Many influen ys been seen tial creative p as slightly de eople were a deviant I com viant behavio t one time or pletely depen ur to society. another cons dant on the z and now his idered social eitgeist of th paintings sell deviants. Wh e time. Van G for hundreds at is conside ough only so of thousands red socially ld two pieces . Some of Pic prostitutes w of work in his asso’s most hich is not so life time, famous work mething socie depicts begg But the label ty wanted to ars and broadcast. of ar generators a tist is too narrow. Ar tistic nd philosoph Deviance sho ers. Even so uld be exten cial heroes s ded to includ u e innovators c h as Mar tin L Mandela and , idea u th er King, Rosa Mahatma Gh P a rk a s n , d N i, e lson were seen as their time. An trouble make d that’s a be rs in tt er reason th want to be a an any to social devian t.
“Artists rely on the company of other artists which separates them from mainstrem culture. This leads to distrust by memebers of society and the label of social deviant.”
Becker (1963)
“Creativity test scores and scores on measure of deviance are only modestly correlated.” Garson (2009)
Is there a link between creativity and social deviance?