MyTwoCents wrote:
No artist has any particular duty or responsibility to be directly political in the manner you suggest.
No one artist, you're right. But none of them are, at least about Ireland. We had 164 artists recently get angry enough to advocate a boycott of Israel. Ignoring the rights and wrongs of that - where are the artists getting angry over Ireland? Where's the vicious satire here? We had a nude painting of Cowen and, er, that's it.
We just do cozy nudge-nudge satire instead, the kind that politicians can have a self-deprecating laugh at, just to show that they're really great guys. That's all this particular art is. I imagine Seanie would quite happily view it while munching on a canapé. Personally, without pointing out
who was responsible, art like this just reinforces the "sure everyone is to blame therefore noone is to blame" meme.
As I said, the description ends with:
Quote:
‘Liffeytown’ presents itself, hopefully, as the last of these ‘ghost estates’ — as a beacon that its time has passed and been replaced by a more sensitively attuned city.
There's absolutely no grounds for such optimism. The exact same people and institutions are in power. If Art (with a capital A) doesn't confront this kind of thing, it's useless.
Here's my idea for art today: a photo montage of Bertie's face using the photos of the 527 people who killed themselves during 2009 (up 25% on 2008). Maybe I'll get an Arts Council grant.
P.
No artist has any particular duty or responsibility to be directly political in the manner you suggest.
, not cynical, even if you think that's the more realistic stance. C'mon, surely it's possible Irish society 