Why Artworks?
On the one hand, for as long as there is no consensus over whether art should be political, we are in danger of detracting from revolutionary art. On the other, perhaps it is this claim for autonomy which offers the Revolutionary protection.
Triple Chaser. Forensic Architecture.
“Aesthetics is the doorway into research.” - Eyal Weizman, Lead Architect, Forensic Architecture
Contrary to the notion ‘art for art’s sake’, art departs from life. Abstract art might distance itself from objective referents, but it cannot escape its place of origin. At the same time, what does set art apart from the rest of the world is its withdrawal from the instrumental rationality of Capitalism. Its status as a practice which occupies an autonomous space outside the ‘real world’ relieves it from the bureaucratic administration of everyday life. Art museums are among a host of cultural institutions that are unique in their aim to educate the public beyond the demands of the market.
Historically, those who work in art have used their aesthetic practices to bring urgent political concerns into the museum space. Intentionally or otherwise, they have sparked dialogue about ‘real life’ and the results have foregrounded social and political change. I will refer to these people as ‘art workers’ - a term which infers a host of different meanings, and in this context, I use ‘art workers’ to describe those who continue to interrogate crisis of democracy, state violence, enslavement, border regimes, climate disaster, patriarchy and gentrification through the framework of contemporary art. I am interested in the strategies and forms exercised by art workers to address urgent political concerns and effect tangible change. The protest art which emerged around the Vietnam War in the late 1960s is my point of departure in considering the history of the Art Worker. A potent period when considering the unfolding crisis of the Whitney Museum with its controversial Vice Chairman Warren B. Kanders. The situation begs the question: can art shift not only public perception, but the axis of power within institutional governance?
The multidisciplinary research group Forensic Architecture have helped me understand the ‘use value’ of aesthetic practices in engendering political change, whilst Decolonize This Place and other action-oriented groups organising the protests at the Whitney Museum, underline the importance of a more direct approach to challenging institutions. My theory is that it is exactly because of the aforementioned unsolved tension between the autonomy of art, and its place in the ‘real world’, that a space is generated in which ‘performative art action;, such as the work of Forensic Architecture, emerges.
Anti-Vietnam War protestors march on Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, D.C., November 27, 1965. Image: Bettmann Archive / Getty.
It was under the transformative era of the late 1960s and early 1970s that the term ‘art worker’ first came about. During this time, the intersection between art and politics was characterised by the resistance to the Vietnam War. Photographic images had profound effects on shifting public perception away from a pro-war incentive broadcast on television. The conflict became the subject for many artists grappling with the war’s toll on human life. According to Julia Bryan-Wilson, The Art Workers’ Coalition, which protested the war and agitated for artistic rights, expanded the definition of artistic labour. This ‘protest art’ is well remembered for its conceptual performances which reflected how disturbed people felt about the war.
Blood Bath (1969), performed by artists Jon Hendricks and Jean Toche, bears as a particularly potent work. Hendricks and Toche, who founded the Guerrilla Art Action Group (GAAG) in 1969, entered the Museum of Modern Art with bags of blood hidden under their clothes and began fighting, creating a particularly gory affair. During the performance, the artists distributed leaflets which called for the immediate resignation of the Rockefellers from MoMA’s Board of Trustees. This antiwar “happening” was a result of public awareness of the financial imprecation of the Rockefeller family and military-industrial complex. People were disturbed to find the mutual dependence between the federal government and private defence industry had led to unwarranted influence from defence contractors in government council. The GAAG condemned the museum for being part of the power structure that had led to the Vietnam War and demanded it stop operating on “dirty money”. Toche’s leaflet, which called for a “kidnapping” of the museum’s trustees, directors, creators and benefactors, to be held as war hostages, led to his arrest and psychological examination. The trial proceeded for an entire year.
Bloodbath made indistinct what counts as Art (and thus does not have to comply with the letter of the law) and what is Politics. When Jean Toche appropriated the voice of authority as to be taken seriously, it was deemed a credible threat. In the end, it was the very curators and directors he had “threatened” to kidnap which came to his defence in the name of Aesthetic Freedom. The event was both real and not, but it was art that proved as an alibi for Jean Toche. Needless to say the museum remained bound to the Rockefeller family. That said, the GAAG did effectively engage in a dialogue with its leadership resulting in the display of iconic anti-war poster And babies (1969).
The Crisis of the Whitney is revealing once again this potential of art to push back at a different, but as desperate, political situation. Since November 2018, activists have been demanding Warren B. Kanders be removed from his position as Vice Chairman. The protests followed a Hyperallergic report which detailed defence manufacturing company Safariland, at which Kanders is CEO, was responsible for supplying the weapons used against migrants at the U.S/Mexico border. That month the U.S. authorities had closed the country’s busiest border crossing in Tijuana, Mexico to push back Central American migrants from entering the United States. A number of daily peaceful protests took place before the rising tensions gave way to a rush toward the U.S. border on 25 November. It was on Mexican soil that the U.S. officers halted the migrants with a barrage of tear gas canisters, manufactured by Safariland. Kanders & Co Inc had purchased the company in 2012 for $12.4 million.
A teargas canister manufactured by Safariland, discovered at the San Ysidro Land Port of Entry by immigration journalist Patrick Timmons.
Within hours of the attack it was discovered through the circulation of images on social media that these were the same gas canisters used at protests in Ferguson in 2015, and the Dakota Access Pipeline, amongst others. In response to the revelations, almost 100 staff members at the Whitney signed an open letter addressed to the leadership of the museum urging them to ask for Kanders’ resignation. The letter encouraged the museum to follow the lead of its staff, for whose politics Kanders’ position unfairly compromised. It read “continuing to accept funding - even, or perhaps especially, transformative funding - from individuals who are knowingly complicit in the injustices committed on our own land and across our borders is negative peace. We demand positive peace.”
As the major Andy Warhol retrospective was well underway, for which Kanders is listed a “significant contributor”, Decolonize This Place began staging protests drawing further attention to the controversy. The movement, which centres around indigenous struggle, released a series of collaged images of the Warhol exhibition, photographs of the gas attacks at the border and of Kanders himself. Still, the museum leadership remained unmoved. Director Adam Weinberg responded to the protesting community with a plea for conversation. At the same time, in a lengthy statement Warren Kanders claimed he was “not the problem the authors of the letter seek to solve”.
Decolonize This Place planned strategies for continuing their protest at the museum in a staged “Nine Weeks of Art and Action” occurring every Friday, leading up to the Whitney Biennial. They joined forces with over 30 action-orientated organisations, one of which was W.A.G.E (Working Artists and The Greater Economy). This group became the focus of attention when the New York Times reported they had effectively pressured the Whitney Museum into paying biennial artists their recommended fee of £1,500.
A protest held by Decolonize This Place held at the Whitney Museum on March 22, 2019. Speaking here is Alicia Boyd, of the group Movement to Protect the People.
When in February the artist list for the Whitney Biennial was released, it was revealed that acclaimed sculptor Michael Rakowitz had turned down his offer to participate in the major show, as reported by the New York Times. Whilst most artists remained committed to participating in the biennial, over half signed an open letter in Verso Books proposing the museum remove Kanders from the board. Now having garnered over 200 signatures, including those of eminent critics and theorists, the letter stands as a defiant gesture in the face of toxic philanthropy. As the letter raises, museums have been historically entangled with the power structures of settler colonialism, white supremacy, and capitalism. They have converted private revenue, however objectionably obtained, into social prestige. For this, museums have long faced scrutiny - note the case of Jean Toche.
What is different today is our ever expanding, and quickening, access to what profiting for these funders really looks like. Knowing Kanders supports both culture and the arms trade is one thing, seeing innocent children flee his tear gas grenades at the U.S. border fence - in real time - is another. When several major cultural institutions across the U.K and U.S. announced they would cut ties with the Sackler family following mounting criticism for their connection to the Opioid Epidemic, it demonstrated a shifting landscape. Sadly, as the art museum is priced out of the market, and public funding for cultural institutions decreases, museums have learnt to depend on donations from the (sometimes) controversially ultra-rich. If museums choose to take the moral high ground, their Board of Trustees should surely reflect their politics. Differentiating between ‘dirty’ and ‘clean’ money will not be straightforward, but turning a blind eye clearly does not wash in today’s culture of accountability.
Mr. Kanders and his wife, Allison Kanders, at a museum event in 2016. Image: Patrick McMullan, via Getty Images.
The Whitney Museum has long self identified as a progressive institution and with its most diverse line-up yet, its 79th biennial was set make moves in the right direction. Over half of the participating artists were people of colour, and along with its leading curators Rujeko Hockley and Jane Panetta, over 50% were women and over 75% were under forty. The political undercurrent did not go unnoticed, though some critics suggested the art work failed to make any ‘real difference’. In The Art Newspaper, Linda Yablonsky argued the biennial missed a radical spirit, writing “some artists in the show identify as activists, but there are no revolutionaries among them”.
Decolonize This Place responded to the criticism, accusing the reviews of attempting to measure the level of risk art works take against white supremacy: “White supremacy doesn’t get to decide whether or not our work or actions are radical enough to liberate our peoples from white supremacy”. A powerful point when we consider who gets to decide whether art ‘works’. It would make sense that art is best placed to be critiqued by those who identify with the experiences it represents.
Kanders said “the politicisation of every aspect of public life, including commercial organisation and cultural institutions, is not productive or healthy”, but the the museum has always been used as a political tool. His statement does not appear on message with the Whitney’s claim as an institution for ‘progressive artists’. His inference here, intentional or not, is that one makes a choice about whether the everyday is political. The activist Marz Saffore, who identifies as a black queer woman reminds us: “There is no separation between politics and livelihood… Just by being in this body, just by being in my skin, that is the case”. The Whitney cannot escape its history, but it does have a choice to undergo a collective process of decolonisation.
A protester holding a poster distributed by Decolonize This Place.
Rather than withdrawing their contribution, Forensic Architecture saw the biennial as an opportunity to address the current crisis. As a team of artists, filmmakers, writers, data analysts, technologists and academics, they use their diverse range of skills to collaborate on advanced spatial and media investigations into cases of human rights violations. Based in London, they locate and analyse footage and testimonies working with and on behalf of affected communities to reconstruct events of political violence. Presenting at international courtrooms and parliamentary inquiries, the collective also invite the wider public to re-look at past events in cultural institutions.
Featuring at the Whitney Biennial, the film Triple Chaser (2019) presents their extensive investigation into weapons manufactured by companies owned by the museum’s Vice Chairman. The film features an algorithm, created from scanning footage of tear-gas attacks around the world, which can detect the use Safariland gas grenades. Whilst the export of military equipment from the U.S. is an issue of public record, the sale and export of tear gas is not. Only through images from tear gas attacks which appear online - often via social media - mean people can learn where, and by who, gas canisters are being used.
Forensic Architecture has not only held up a mirror to the effects of tear gas on the human body, and how giants such as Warren Kanders profit from the use of such weapons. Its work creates real-world results. The algorithm has exposed that Safariland gas canisters have been used against civilians in fourteen countries. It has also brought to light that the Israeli Army may be using Sierra manufactured bullets in Gaza (as Executive Chairman of Clarus Corporation, Kanders oversaw its acquisition of Sierra Bullets in 2017.) Since Forensic Architecture shared its findings with the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR), Sierra Bullets is facing legal notice for potentially aiding war crimes.
Forensic Architecture’s Triple Chaser forces viewers to reckon with their own morality. When Kanders invests in a ‘good cause’, is he seeking cleansing from his dirty business? Is this how we legitimise these tycoons, who seek the grace of forgiveness by mass popular seduction? In the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church, indulgence is "a way to reduce the amount of punishment one has to undergo for sins”. Perhaps there is nothing new here.
Triple Chaser. Forensic Architecture.
Forensic Architecture are pushing the boundaries of what art exhibitions are for. In the past, we have understood art as ineffective or else subject to the socioeconomic conditions that govern everyday life. Jean Toche may have been righteous in contesting the ethics of MoMA’s funding, but in the end his actions needed to remain conceptual to avoid legal prosecution. In all their efforts to pressure the Whitney Museum to address its teargas problem, Decolonize This Place must submit to the constraints of circumstance.
Law reform happens in the courtroom, not the gallery, but oscillating between both, Forensic Architecture acts as an arbiter to share the truth. The museum becomes a platform to reveal a new perspective on past events. As researchers, Forensic Architecture takes on the role of Artist to guarantee their voice heard. Meanwhile their machine learning algorithm can actually assist future investigations into political violence.
As the notion of artistic labour expands further, we see that art can function as both a social and aesthetic practice to address urgent political concerns. The ‘autonomy’ of art is more than license to fictionalise, or a ticket to dismiss it as a kind of fiction. At a time when we face increasing threats to democracy, perhaps Art can offer Research a kind of special protection. The artist and writer R. Cronk called art’s ‘supposed autonomy’ a sham. In many ways I agree. But it does seem that this undecidedness about art’s independence from life gives it a freedom seldom found elsewhere.
Following months of protests, Warren Kanders stepped down from the board of the Whitney Museum in July 2019.
During the revived Black Lives Matter protests of May 2020, in which police officers deployed tear gas frequently and heavily, as revealed by footage circulated online, Safariland announced it will no longer produce the chemical agent.
You can watch Forensic Architecture’s ‘Tripe-Chaser’ and view an up to date report of their position on the Crisis of the Whitney here.
Recommended Texts
The Pseudo-Autonomy of Art, Essay by R.Cronk: https://www.westland.net/venice/art/cronk/autonomy.htm
Art Workers: Radical Practice in the Vietnam War Era, by Julia Bryan-Wilson: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Art-Workers-Radical-Practice-Vietnam/dp/0520269756
References
Art Review (2019) ‘Art Previewed’, Art Review, May, p. 37.
Greenberger, A. (2019) ‘For Whitney Biennial, One Participant Targets Controversial Whitney Patron’, Art News, 13 May. Available at: http://www.artnews.com/ 2019/05/13/forensic-architecture-whitney-biennial-warren-b-kanders/ (Accessed: 03.07.19)
Greenberger, A. (2018) ‘I Am Not the Problem’: Whitney Vice Chair Responds to Open Letter Calling for Action Against Him’, Art News, 12 March. Available at: http://www.artnews.com/2018/12/03/not-problem-whitney-vice-chair-responds-open-letter-calling-action/ (Accessed: 03.07.19)
Saltz, J. (2019) ‘The New Whitney Biennial Made Me See Art History in a New Way.’, Vulture, 14 May. Available at: https://www.vulture.com/2019/05/whitney-biennial-review-jerry-saltz.html (Accessed 03.07.19)
Linden, C. (2011) ‘Holding Up the Sign’, Art Practical, 7 December. Available at: https://www.artpractical.com/feature/holding_up_the_sign/ (Accessed: 03.07.19)
Weber, J. (2018) ‘A Whitney Museum Vice Chairman Owns a Manufacturer Supplying Tear Gas at the Border’, Hyperallergic, 27 November. Available at: hyperallergic.com/472964/a-whitney-museum-vice-chairman-owns-a-manufacturer-supplying-tear-gas-at-the-border/. (Accessed: 03.07.19)
Weber, J. Small, Z. Vartanian, H. (2018) ‘Whitney Museum Staffers Demand Answers After Vice Chair’s Relationship to Tear Gas Manufacturer Is Revealed’, Hyperallergic, 30 November. Available at: https://hyperallergic.com/473702/whitney-tear-gas-manufacturer-is-revealed/ (Accessed 03.07.19)
Weber, J. Vartanian, H. (2019) ‘Forensic Architecture’s Project at Whitney Biennial Reveals Museum Vice Chair’s Company May Be Complicit in War Crimes’, Hyperallergic, May 13. Available at: https://hyperallergic.com/500055/forensic-architecture-whitney-biennial/ (Accessed: 03.07.19)
Yablonsky, L. (2019) ‘Everything is good at the Whitney Biennial but nothing makes a difference’, The Art Newspaper, 14 May. Available at: https://www.theartnewspaper.com/review/whitney-biennial-2019 (Accessed 03.07.19)
The Guerrilla Art Action Group (GAAG) (1969) Bloodbath [The Museum of Modern Art, 18 November 1969)
Kanders, W. B. (2018) ‘To the Whitney Board of Trustees’, Hyperallergic, 12 March. Available at: http://www.artnews.com/2018/12/03/not-problem-whitney-vice- chair-responds-open-letter-calling-action/ (Accessed: 03.07.19)
The Whitney Museum Staff (2018) ‘Whitney Museum Staffers Demand Answers After Vice Chair’s Relationship to Tear Gas Manufacturer Is Revealed’, Hyperallergic, 30 November. Available at: https://hyperallergic.com/473702/whitney-tear-gas-manufacturer-is-revealed/ (Accessed 03.07.19)
Theorists, Critics and Scholars (2019) ‘Kanders Must Go: An Open Letter from Theorists, Critics, and Scholars’, Verso Books, 29 April. Available at: https:// www.versobooks.com/blogs/4295-kanders-must-go-an-open-letter-from-theorists-critics-and-scholars-updated-list-of-signatories (Accessed: 03.07.19)
Decolonize This Place (2019) From Crisis to Decolonization. Available at: https://www.decolonizethisplace.org/post/crisis-of-the-whitney-week-9-decolonization (Accessed 03.07.19)
NO!art (2018) Jean Toche > About. Available at: http://www.no-art.info/toche/ _memo-en.html (Accessed: 03.07.19)
The Whitney Museum of American Art (2019) Andy Warhol - From A to B and Back Again > About The Exhibition. Available at: https://whitney.org/Exhibitions/AndyWarhol#exhibition-about (Accessed 03.07.19)
Forensic Architecture (2019) About > Agency. Available at: https://forensic-architecture.org/about/agency (Accessed: 03.07.19)
Forensic Architecture (2019) Triple-Chaser > Investigation. Available at: https://forensic-architecture.org/investigation/triple-chaser (Accessed: 03.07.19)
Lumen (2019) Protestantism. Available at: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-worldhistory/chapter/protestantism/ (Accessed: 03.07.19)
Haeberle, Ron L. (photographer) The Art Workers Coalition (designer) (1969) And babies [Poster]. Exhibited at: The Victoria and Albert Museum. London. Height: 633 mm sheet, Width: 946 mm sheet
Luke, B. (2019) Should museums sell works of art? Plus, activism at the Whitney Biennial [The Art News Paper Podcast]. 17 May 2019. Available at: https://soundcloud.com/theartnewspaperweekly/episode-74-mixdown (Accessed: 03.07.19)
