2015 Art & Resistance

Curator Essay

Art & Resistance

Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines resistance as the refusal to accept something new or different; an effort made to stop or to fight against someone or something; and the ability to prevent something from having an effect. When “resistance” is associated with art making, it refers to art that emphasizes social change from a condition that restricts, oppresses, or otherwise works against actualization.

Intellectual thinking usually encompasses resistance in terms of the “dialectic.” George Wilheim Friedrich Hegel conceptualized the dialectic as having three parts: the thesis, the antithesis, and synthesis. Change, and change into its opposite, is always occurring, whether this be at the psychological, social, national or global level. Though the thesis may be defined differently given the situational reality, an antithesis is always present.

The Artnauts Collective was invited to participate in the ART & RESISTANCE Conference at Dar Al-Kalima University College of Arts and Culture in Bethlehem, Palestine in May 2016. We proposed an art exhibition of art by members of the Artnauts Collective. The original proposal was to exhibit art addressing this theme by artists from the United States. This initial idea was immediately expanded to include Palestinian artists from Gaza, the West Bank, and the diaspora. In addition, several art students at Dar Al-Kalima University College of Arts and Culture joined us by exhibiting art on the same theme at the conference. All were included in this exhibition.

The artwork varies in subject matter because artists were not restricted in how they would visually respond to our theme — “art and resistance.” Individual experiences would determine their responses. The objective was to address “resistance” from multiple points of view expressing multiple realities. Hopefully, understanding and empathy would result.

We cannot change the world together without dialogue. Art allows us to approach each other using artwork as a bridge to find common ground. As Herbert Marcuse once wrote (paraphrasing): art cannot change the world, but it can change people who can change the world.