Why Art is an Act of Resistance
“Resistance and change often begin in art, and very often in our art; the art of words…the name of our beautiful reward is not profit, it is freedom.”
— Ursula Le Guin
“This is not how a human face looks” “The proportion is not right”
At first, resistance towards making art sounds like the inner critic.
That “my drawing is not up to par so I am not an artist”.
I’ve been noticing that these critiques are ideas that originated from colonialism of what art is and isn’t.
Colonization of art has changed the way we see art culturally, politically and socially.
Under censorship and control (aka. capitalism), our creative practices has become commodified - where art should be made for profit and for some form of gain.
Art is an act of resistance
How can we start to make art for ourselves as resistance from colonialism and for joy?
How can we connect with our images and art making that isn’t based from a lens towards the fine arts?
…working with art and images as a means to resist socio-political oppression.
Anti-oppressive art therapists are working to reclaim our creative practice and decolonize art making with art therapy and contesting to structural oppression from the psychotherapy field.
Shaun McNiff wrote in his book, Trust the Process: An Artist's Guide to Letting Go, that “art therapists are like refugees from the art world”. I’d like to think of us as rebels of the art world instead.
So how have you been rebelling in your creative practice?
“All of that art-for-art’s-sake stuff is BS. What are these people talking about? Are you really telling me that Shakespeare and Aeschylus weren’t writing about kings? All good art is political! There is none that isn’t.
I’m not interested in art that is not in the world. And it’s not just the narrative, it’s not just the story; it’s the language and the structure and what’s going on behind it.”
―Toni Morrison
Some forms of art as resistance I have been working with are:
Making zines: a form of self-publishing art that came from feminist, activist movements popularized from the 80s. When I first started working as an art therapist, I created a workshop called, Zine Therapy (I was obsessed with making them). Zines are easy to distribute, low budget, and the content is filtered through the creator’s POV. My current faves are by Bianca ✨
Cartoons and memes: sometimes opinionated, other times sensitive, maybe brightly coloured or humorous, through a critical lens through doodles/animations or storytelling with images … like my friend's work by John! ✨
Clay/pottery: when I play with this earthy medium, themes around politics of the body and ‘smashing’ the patriarchy come up (💁♀️to get those air bubbles out). I love the meditative and trance-like feeling when I’m on the wheel… the way this medium holds memory and can be both delicate and forgiving—like healing with trauma.
If you wanted to share your thoughts, feel free to email me at linda@deciphercounselling.com.
Save this practice and come back to it for another day. If you know someone who may like this, share this blog post with them!
Thanks so much for being here :-)