The great artist when he comes,

uses everything that has been discovered or

known about his art up to that point, being able to accept or reject in a time so short it seems that the knowledge was born with him,

rather than that he takes instantly what it takes the ordinary man a lifetime

to know, and then the great artist goes beyond

what has been done or known and makes something of his own.

 

ERNEST HEMINGWAY-Journalist -Author

“Death in the Afternoon”

 

 

Arts and journalism are fields which have a symbiotic relationship for ages. As journalists use art to bring stories off the page, artists adopt reporting techniques to address social issues. Journalism documents while art also creates a visual culture.

In my current practice, I wanted to intermingle my art with my journalistic skills and my world view which has been shaped both the chaos, complexity, dystopic assumptions of journalism and serenity, simplicity and utopic inspiration of art. And during this journey, I found out how important to use the art for journalistic purposes like saving the world (a kind of mental state that most journalists have) and how crucial art is to make a journalistic product effective, impressive and permanent.

My interdisciplinary practice&project “A Modest Proposal: Let’s Eat Children”, I am concentrating on journalism and taking my main reference from literature.  My subject matters are children in the war-torn regions and their re-definition by modern men. Although there are currently many ongoing war regions on Earth, I focus on Yemen and Yemeni kids.  I chose Yemen and children because the children are under the threat of not only war or migration but also starvation mostly due to the results of this catastrophic conditions and modern men's ignoring these kids and their conditions. In order to expand my search, I have investigated how similar cases have reflections in World literature and art. The British author Jonathan Swift’s A Modest Proposal: Let's Eat Children is my reference point, an article criticizing the authority and social conditions in a satirical way.  Rene Magritte, one of my favorite surrealist painters, is my influence and inspiration. His witty and thought-provoking paintings helped me to associate my intention with the other fields I chose to interact with. I aim to push my viewer to question the conceiving the reality they are living in, and become hypersensitive to the world around them.  And that Surrealists definitely have the intention to change the world completely coincides with mine.  "The primary aim of Surrealism, to change lives and to transform m the world, has always been considered as extra artistic.”(Gablik,200,p. 74) Related to its title, I also search for the relation of eating with art that takes me to the kitchen as an artist and act like a chef on duty! Gingerbread man is my protagonist and symbol that I associate with Yemeni children for particular-private real-life stories.

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Grenfell Kitchen Community Hubb- Cookie making Event 1/ May 1, 2019

 

 

Journalism through Painting

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The use of journalism in arts dates back to the French Revolution. As an inevitable result of social changes in the societies, portraying simple cheerful social gatherings events evolved into reflections of crowded social unrests, combats or unpleasant happenings.  Artists of the time began using images from these social scenes like Eugene Delacroix who painted the iconic “Liberty Leading the People” as a commemoration of the July Revolution of 1830, or Théodore Géricault who in his “The Raft of the Medusa (1819)” depicted the sinking of a French frigate and death of people due to incompetence of the captain and carelessness of the French government for the rescue operation. Gericault not only documented the drastic scene for the record of the history through a photography quality painting but also made an exhaustive interview with two of the survivors.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Liberty Leading the People is a painting by Eugène Delacroix commemorating the July Revolution of, 1830

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Raft of the Medusa by Theodore Gericault for the record of the history of a catastrophic frigate wreck, 1819

 

Drawing on Newsprints

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Political drawing and cartoons became an indispensable tool in journalism during the flourishing years of printing in 1930s-40s. In addition to photography-which was also relatively new-, newspapers hired artists to use hand painted-hand drawn images in order to empower their content of articles.  Terdiman states the use of drawing gives a kind of visual satisfaction to the reader, which is one of the fundamentals of art. “This, I believe, is presented as the allegory of the photographically mediated journalistic account of the world: a passively received presentation, issued as if without meditation and offering passing visual satisfaction in its promise of easily ascertained fragments standing in metonymic relation to experientially remote things ” (Terdiman,118).

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Will Arnold, “550 New Yorkers Will Spend Christmas Like This,” PM, December

 

Since then, political cartoons and drawings have been a smart way of Fleet Street creating a mashup of art, satire, and politics that has been rectifying complicated subjects down to concise images.

In the 20th century, photography also started to be used as the first technological instrument of art and journalism. Ara Guler, an Armenian-Turkish photographer, known as the Eye of Istanbul used his photography skills to document and report historical personalities and events. When addressed as a photography artist, he rephrased saying “I am rather a photojournalist than an artist."

Guler`s quote simply proves the transitivity between arts and journalism.          

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Ara Guler with Dali, 1972

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Conceptual Art Takes the Stage

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The collaboration of art and journalism evolved into a new phase with the introduction of conceptual art by the 1960s and ’70s.

The idea behind was now more important than the finished art object.  Conceptual art was fed by Dada and avant-garde but was more political and using techniques of journalism to a wide range such as reporting, using interviews, photo captions, and collages, sound recordings.

Yoko Ono's "Written Instructions" were merely based on using the empty advertising spaces in newspapers or magazines that the artist used as a channel to convey her profound messages of artistic philosophy and peace reach people throughout the World.

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Yoko Ono, Grapefruit(written instructions),1964

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The humanitarian approach and an optimistically utopic theory of the world are the common ideas and feelings I share with Yoko. Through my art, I also want to transmit the message that “another world is possible.”  This may either make me have a political stand or not, but the thing I want to do is to depict something political as artistic rather than something artistic as political. So, concepts like beauty, world peace, unity, equality are core ideas behind my artifact in addition to the diversity of art schools I am inspired from and techniques I benefit accordingly.  Tania Bruguera, a contemporary conceptual performance artist who makes installations to bring about the social and political problems of our age says in her political statement, “Art can also be used with political purposes, but that is not political art, it is art-propaganda. Political art has doubts, not certainties; it has intentions, not programs; it shares with those who find it, not imposes on them; it is defined while it is done; it is an experience, not an image; it is something entering the field of emotions and that is more complex than a unit of thought. Political art is the one that is made when it is unfashionable and when it is uncomfortable, legally uncomfortable, civically uncomfortable, humanely uncomfortable. It affects us. Political art is uncomfortable knowledge.” (Bruguera, 2010. website available in the bibliography)

Migrations, crowds, bio sociology -the human body in numbers- are the main themes she indicates and highlights. She likes the integration of the viewer and interaction with the art creation, which has a reference to the isolation of the human soul in today's society who are lacking physical affection and closeness.  Bruguera performs art at a wide range and in a multidisciplinary way as a contemporary artist. Performance, events, action, film, installation, sculpture are fields she produces. It is a big inspiration to me as well because I believe art and paintings are not merely imprisoned to canvas and frames. An artist's imagination should be much beyond it. From an aesthetic relational perspective,   installations and conceptual sculptures and integration of artwork with people support and strengthen the meaning of my painting and my goals I target to achieve through painting. Nicolas Bourriaud defines art in an alter modern age as taking its theoretical horizon from the realm of human intersections and its social context, rather than the assertion of an independent and symbolic space (Bourriaud,14).

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Tanya Bruguera, HyundaiCommission Turbine Hall,2018 at Tate Modern

Utility and Benevolence through Aesthetic Art

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Tanya has a term for the art she makes. She calls this approach Arte Útil (useful art), in which people engage as users rather than only viewers. The main aim is to create a change in society and human perception. The audience is intervened in art performance as the subject rather than a passive object. Bishop’s opinion “participatory art is the ultimate political art” supports Bruguera. (Bishop,2012,p.65). When she is asked can art change the way we act,  Bruguera, answers, “Useful art is about transforming people's lives, even on a small scale? It is art as activism and activism as art.” (Bruguera interview, video link in the bibliography)

 In my perception of art, too, art is something that should not be imprisoned into museums or houses; it is not something that you can keep at a certain remote from people. My imagination stretches my thoughts to far beyond.  My installation of cookie making with refugee children for children in Yemen is the outcome of this mindset and opinion.

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Grenfell Kitchen Community Hubb- Cookie making Event 2/ May 1, 2019

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Gingerbread man cookie is chosen as a symbol that can be associated with the eating, cozy atmosphere of a home, family, and happiness. However, on the contrary, these are all things Yemeni children in particular and many children in war regions are lacking. That makes the cookies also a symbol of hope. In the making process, members of my platform Artopia-Arts for Global Good took place. It was a volunteer action and even the cookie making, touching, creating, and talking about our project and Yemeni children created a sense of sensitivity in the members of the group. This goes parallel with Bruguera’s intention with her artistic performances, but I use a different terminology-if appropriate- which is benevolent art. In this kind of art, people, artists, collectors, galleries unite together to find a solution to a global problem. This is the way, I believe, we can, art can change the world for better.  It has a certain distance to politics but has an activist feature.

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Suzanne Lacy, The Crystal Quilt, 1985

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In 1987 in the US Suzanne Lacy brought 430 women over the age of 60 together to share their views on old age.  The resulting performance, The Crystal Quilt, was broadcast live on television and attended by over 3,000 people. It aimed to gather women from different ethnicities and backgrounds to build a new conception of old women in the media. Lacy said about her installation, “It had a more social impact in that region, but do one or two events ever change the way people – other than those who directly experience it – see? This raises this issue of whether you can expect art to create social change, and at what point is it no longer art.”(Tate,1985 website available). 

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Art and journalism are not only about practice but also a learning procedure. In order to expand my knowledge, I took interviews with an academic in Oxford who had a BA in English language and Literature about the relation of the metaphor "eating children" and its literal meaning today in Yemen case. Ayse Gur Geden says, “In Jonathan Swift's article he strictly criticizes the Irish government's policies and relations with England. As always, In Irish potato famine, children were the ones most affected and some lost their lives due to malnutrition. Today, in Yemen, too, because of governments’ combat with each other, children are in a dramatic condition. We are not only eating them metaphorically but literally by child abuse, child labor, etc. And it is true that the world mainstream media ignore the case. I hope your art project acts like a journalist that makes the voice of children heard."

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Ayse Gur Geden Interview, April 22, 2019, Oxford

 

Jonathan Darby, a portrait artist, acts like a journalist as well for the sake of children. He is working for children charities and documenting children’s living conditions traveling around the third world countries.  In his bio, it is written, “Jonathan’s artistic concern deals with socio-political and humanitarian themes. His work portrays people in a cultural context where the innocent and vulnerable have been impacted by forces of social, economic and political change. His focus is on children, as he believes they can and will determine the future. The experiences they encounter now may have severe consequences for them and the future of their society.” (Mutantspace,2019, website available).   Knowingly or unknowingly, he is also performing benevolence art and aesthetic journalism.

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Jonathan Darby, Roney,2008                                         Jonathan Darby, Paolino,2011

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Nevertheless, Jason Hill in his book Art as Reporter says “Art is not always soft to reflect the truth. Blood, violence, bombs, war scenes, and guns are some of the symbols art inherits from real-life scenes like journalism.”(Hill, 2018, 139). It is indisputable that those are elements that increase the impact of artwork on the audience. If the target is to raise emotions like hatred, isolation, polarisation, it is the correct route to follow. However, if you want to reveal something unpleasant or harmful or dangerous, and you aim to show them in an optimistic way, an artist should prefer a softer and smoother or maybe cheerful way of doing it. Gunduz Agayev is an illustrator transforming war into peace. He turns devastating historic photos of children ravaged by violent conflict and famine into happy illustrations. He re-creates iconic photos such as 'Napalm Girl' from the Vietnam War and 'The Vulture and the Little Girl' from the Sudan famine. However, this point of view is subject to disagreements. Some people may praise this level of optimism and hopefulness while others find it distasteful and offensive.

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     Gunduz Akayev, Napal Bombing                                                          Napal Bombing,1972

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      Kevin Carter, 1993, Starving Child and Vultur               Gunduz Akhayev, Vultur and the Kid

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The abstract artist famous for her monochromic simplicity and pastel tones, Agnes Martine describes the philosophy of her art as optimistic as well. She says, “All artwork is about beauty; all positive work represents it and celebrates it. All negative art protests the lack of beauty in our lives. When I think of art I think of beauty.” (Haskell,1992,pg.94).

 

How Surrealism Functions for Journalistic Art?

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Abstraction and figurative are a way to convey your message, former in an implicit and relatively smooth and mysterious way, and the latter explicit and direct way. On the other hand, surrealism stands somewhere in between. The mystery about surrealism is also a school that can well support your journalistic art and paintings. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

             

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                           Dilek Yalçın, Dear Cutter, 2019

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Belgian surrealist artist Rene Magritte’s paintings became my inspiration. His way of making the audience think without aiming to make them think is one of the reasons. Magritte does what he does quite in a relaxed and careless manner that you feel a desire to understand what he wants to tell in his paintings. “An image is more like another image than it is like the thing it represents.” That means an image may represent a pipe but the pipe does not represent the image.” (Gablik,2000,p. 131)

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Magritte, This is not a Pipe,1936

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Picasso, a surrealist, describes the artist as a weapon which is a very common metaphor also for journalists.

 "What do you think an artist is? An imbecile who only has eyes if he's a painter, ears if he's a musician, or a lyre in every chamber of his heart if he's a poet – or even, if he's a boxer, only some muscles? Quite the contrary, he is at the same time a political being constantly alert to the horrifying, passionate or pleasing events in the world, shaping himself completely in their image. How is it possible to be uninterested in other men and by virtue of what cold nonchalance can you detach yourself from the life that they supply so copiously? No, painting is not made to decorate apartments. It's an offensive and defensive weapon against the enemy."(Danchev,2010)

Let alone his very well-known Guernica which Picasso created in response to the bombing of Guernica by Nazis, his “Massacre in Korea” is also a good example including journalistic features: communicative, depictive, narrative, real.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Picasso, Massacre in Korea, 1951

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If journalism is the narration of an event from the first hand and presents a view on the world, art is there to provide a view on the view, another way to make us question how we perceive the world, events or people. This is also what makes the line between two fields blur.  Cramerotti, an artist and art theorist, narrates his very first-hand experience with this when, in 2003, he was commissioned to make a work about a bridge in Istanbul connecting Europe and Asia, and produced a sound installation involving interviews with residents. "I realized I was commissioned to make artwork but came back with a journalistic installation," he says. ( Cramerotti,2009,p. 75).

 

Basically and simply, art and journalism witness both the history and individual experience. The difference between journalists and artists is art does this explicitly and intentionally while journalism tries to take a more objective or at least dispassionate stand. And they have their own responsibilities towards society. Journalism has to tell the truth, if you are to distort the truth, you are doing false journalism whilst art has the freedom either to reflect the truth or distort it according to the reality of its creator, the artist. This point makes the sharpest difference between two fields that frequently feed each other.

 

 

 

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REFERENCES

Books

Bishop, C. (2012). Artificial Hells: Participatory Art and the Politics of Spectatorship.  London: Verso.p.65

Bourriaud, N. (2007). Postproduction. New York, NY: Lukas & Sternberg.

Bourriaud, N., Pleasance, S., Woods, F. and Copeland, M. (2010). Relational Aesthetics. France: Presses du réel.p.14

Cramerotti, A. (2009). Aesthetic Journalism. Chicago: Intellect-University of Chicago Press, p.75

Danchev, A. and Picasso, P. (2008). Picasso furioso. Paris: Dilecta.p.47

Gablik, S. (2000). Magritte. New York, N.Y.: Thames and Hudson.

Haskell, B. (1994). Agnes Martin. New York: H.N. Abrams.p.94

Hill, J. (2018). Artist as a reporter.Oakland: University of California Press.p. 139.

 

Web Sites

Jonathandarby.com. (2019). Info Jonathan Darby. [online] Available at: http://www.jonathandarby.com/info/ [Accessed 4 May 2019].

Mutantspace. (2019). Jonathan Darby Paintings: Socio-Political Portraits | mutantspace. [online] Available at: http://www.mutantspace.com/jonathan-darby-paintings-socio-political-portraits/ [Accessed 13 May 2019].

Tate. (1985). Suzanne Lacy: The Crystal Quilt | Tate. [online] Available at: https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern-tanks/display/suzanne-lacy-crystal-quilt [Accessed 13 March 2019].

The Guardian. (2019). Picasso's politics. [online] Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2010/may/08/pablo-picasso-politics-exhibition-tate [Accessed  14 March 2019].

Videos

YouTube. (2019). Art + activism = artivism | Tania Bruguera. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C38sPtBj4uo [Accessed 11 May 2019].

YouTube. (2019). Art + activism = artivism | Tania Bruguera. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C38sPtBj4uo [Accessed 11 May 2019].

 

 

 

 

 

Bibliography

Books :

 

Deutsche, R. (2002). Evictions: Art andSpatiall Politics. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.

Klanten ,R., Hubner M. ,A.Bieber ( 2011). Art & Agenda: Political Art and Activism. 1st ed. Berlin: Die Gestalten Verlag.

Hemingway, E. (2015). Death in the Afternoon. [Place of publication not identified]: Scribner.

More, T. (1966). Utopia (1516). Leeds: Scolar

Swift, J. (2000). Modest Proposal, A. South Bend: Infomotions, Inc.

Helguera, P. (2011). Education for socially engaged art. New York: Jorge Pinto Books.

Caws, M. (2010). Surrealism. London, England: Phaidon.

Sylvester, D. and Magritte, R. (2009). Magritte. Brussels: Mercatorfonds.

Journals:

Gaber, I. (2015). Book Review: Performance art. British Journalism Review, 26(3), pp.69-71.

Eberhard, W. (1990). Journalism: State of the Art. American Journalism, 7(4), pp.284-285.

Holland, E. and Terdiman, R. (1988). Discourse/Counter-Discourse: The Theory and Practice of Symbolic Resistance in Nineteenth-Century France. SubStance, 17(3), p.75.

Magritte, R., Torczyner, H,  and Miller, R. (1977). Magritte, idea,  and images. New York: H. N. Abrams.