Friday, November 2, 2007
Art of Protest Ch. 4 and Daniel Joseph Martinez
Daniel Joseph Martinez's work is very interesting because it gets very political. It ties in very well with chapter 4 of The Art of Protest. In the Art of Protest the Chicano movement artists' use murals to convey their messages. Martinez uses site-specific installation to show his work but i am sure that a lot of the murals that were completed in Chicano movement were site specific as well. In a lot of cases they only fit in the spots they were placed and they were put there for a reason, especially the murals that were done on walls. Martinez's piece of museum tags is almost a reaction to the culture clash of American-Mexicans and white-Americans. I found it interesting that the murals could cause such a stir and change in thinking. Art can speak so much and things can be interpreted in many different ways. I liked how on pg 126 they point out the word community. I believe that there are many different ways to use this word. A community can be almost any type of close encountered people. People who have something in common. Whether it's money, race, religion, etc. I personally feel that having a sense of community where you live is very important. I think that most of these movements revolve around that sense of community and how people feel that all communities should be created equal. That can go for anyone and any cause.
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It's interesting that Martinez denies that his work is political or activist based. Not to mention he waits for invitations to do his work and then hits them really hard with a straight-forward message. I don't necessarily agree with him because it is political. It is so political. He doesn't belong to an organization, but he belongs to a history and a community like you said. He may have different tactics, which are pretty powerful--who knows. He's probably trying to lay low and keep his sneaky reputation. If he came out and was like "I represent this!" people would probably ignore him. I like his subtly. What stuck out to me most in Chapter 4, was that the murals were an example of graffiti "redirected" and taken to a better, more aesthetic cause...just as "gang violence can be redirected to be more politically charged."
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