Creative Voices

Written by S. Hargis

Art is a voice. It is given attention, reflection and contemplation; rare things to receive. So if you are an artist wielding a public voice, why not say something useful?

Art and politics have had a long and interesting relationship. The power of image has been used to bend public opinion and manipulate thought. It has also been used as a revolutionary tool, a vehicle to break out from the confines and speak. Art was a powerful tool, but has it lost its sting? Has the power of image been castrated by advertising to the point were young artists are no longer interested in using art as an engine for change?

I happen to think that despite the overkill of image, it still as merit for getting the point across and that's really all you need to raise awareness and start transitions. We need a new generation of young artists out to initiate change.

Sheldon Edwards is a young contemporary artist who created a series of political work that, 15 months later, still sits on my mind. Sheldon's Low Hanging Fruit series (exhibited in They Were Young Once - 2007 at Satellite Gallery) depicted hollow silicon fruit, soft jelly-like and fragile, filled with bullet shells. The title references a business term describing vulnerable opportunities ripe for the picking, in this case, 3rd world countries and the weapons trade.

This is direct, bold political art and it serves its purpose well. It embedded a representational image, a symbol into the minds of those who looked at it and it was visually stunning. The sagging almost eaten looking fruit juxtaposed with cold hard metal, ammunition pouring out from its open womb, made a memorable and sombre image beautifully crystallising exploitation.

Work like that, image cues that become part of our visual vocabulary can be there to fortify our thoughts and actions surrounding issues. They filter out into the social consciousness and plant the seeds of awareness and change.

Not being a fan of the post modern rhetoric, I think there is always something useful to say. If you can bring important issues, opinions and ideas to the spotlight using something as magnetic and memorable as aesthetics, why not do it?

-SID