“Each generation must… discover its mission, fulfil it or betray it…  But the native intellectuals who wish to create an authentic work of art must realise that the truths of a nation are in the first place its realities”.

1.  Frantz Fanon Third World Perspective on Contemporary art and Culture, 1987: Third Text 2nd edition (Kala Press) p.77

The following written piece clarifies / expands the issues within a collective body of works entitled ‘Conflict and Consciousness’. The series aims to advance the comprehension of specific pieces through referencing socio-politics and economic theories.

The works examine the fragmentation of information/arguments/counter theories/misinformation that function to promote a distortion of reality.  The essay will concentrates on historical events and their influence on contemporary issues, reinforced in part through personal experience. The section entitled ‘Autonomy’ will cross-reference art with socio-economics.

The essay will question the obvious and what global populations accept as ‘the norm’ macro organisations will be scrutinized as will the ‘individual’. I will emphasise different perspectives on individual social and art-related issues through identifying social inequalities that are maintained and their integral links with the spectators’ social reality.

Formally my work aims to demystify specific elements within the complexities of our social make-up, as forces exist to serves the interest of global economic structures.  The collective pieces within the installation have been developed to evoke inquiry and allow individuals a process of unravelling fragments of their complex social being, through acknowledging the parts they play within socio-economic structures.  Frantz Fanon [1] in the following quote conveys a part of the feeling behind my intent:

“Each generation must… discover its mission, fulfil it or betray it…  But the native intellectuals who wish to create an authentic work of art must realise that the truths of a nation are in the first place its realities”.  

1.  Frantz Fanon Third World Perspective on Contemporary art and Culture, 1987: Third Text 2nd edition (Kala Press) p.77

Conflict and Consciousness

The following essay functions as an in-depth rationalization of a coherent installation that reflects/incorporates explanatory literature that relates to individual pieces of work, examining socio-economic and political issues and their influences on the human condition.  With a number of pieces the viewer is required/invited to participate in the works. I aim to effect self-enquiry.  The installation consists of several individual pieces, I consider them in the collective the first piece examines how unemployment functions to maintain effective economic systems the introductrary piece is entitled “The Surplus Workers.” (Fig 1)

A surplus workforce is maintained through the movement people from the poorer countries to the richer and is seen as a valuable economic resource.  Economists sometimes speak of emigration as capital export similar to the export of units of production, such expressions emphasises that international economic, governmental institutions consider economic migrants mealy as units to be exploited for financial gain with no consideration for the human factors involved.  Kindelberger [2] quotes Gary Becker’s model, which speaks of children as: “a consumption good, a durable consumption good..., which gives off utility over a long time with heavy depreciation.”

2. C.P. Kindleberger, Europe’s Post-War Growth – the Role of Labour Supply (Cambridge, Mass, Harvard   

  University Press 1967), p, 35.

The following excerpts highlight the social realities of a governmentally maintained economic structure that exist in developed countries.

Female unemployment

The majority of studies on unemployment concentrate on the male population.  The rates of jobless females are much higher than we are lead to believe.  A study conducted by Sinfield in the early eighties suggests that female employment rather than unemployment is frequently seen as the problem.  The increasing numbers of married women in work are seen as one of the causes in the rise of male unemployment.  Work is often seen as a central source of identity for men, but less important for women.  Women are expected to derive their identity from their domestic life.  In 1983 Married women felt the family entraps them into a state of dependence on the male.  

Unemployment can have devastating effects on the young.  The personal effects are considered in the following excerpt from Jeremy Laurance. * He found that school leavers who were unemployed in Leeds tended to experience poorer mental health than those with jobs.  A study based upon the 1971 census in Britain found a 20% higher mortality rate amongst the unemployed and further studies carried out in Edinburgh in 1982 found that amongst the unemployed suicide attempts and actual suicides were 11 times higher then that of the employed.  J. Lawrence concludes there many factors involved in the statistics and unemployment cannot be proven the sole contributor.  Lawrence states the activities of the unemployed, such as excessive smoking, lack of exercise and bad sleeping patterns play a part in the overall outcome.

*Laurance, J. (social scientist) ‘Unemployment: Health Hazards’ New Society (21 March 1986)

Ethnic minorities and unemployment

The following extract is from News Night introduced by Jeremy Paxman. [4] The piece highlights how integration or lack of can influence the lives of specific social groups and be a contributing factor on a maintained surplus workforce.

Members of the panel include Dennis David, (Member of the public) Yasmin Alibahi-Brown, (Institute for Public Policy Research) Herman Ouseley, (Commission for Racial Equality).  Paxman began by stating that:

The official intentions of the Race Relations Act consisted of ethnic minorities maintaining their identity yet integrating into the indigenous population.  The evidence suggests there is still a way to go.  Overt discrimination is banned.  The public face of the nation is an integrated multicultural and all minority groups achieve success.

However, there are different fortunes for different groups.  Ethnic minorities remain disadvantaged and it is clear, the unemployment rate for those of Bangladeshi and Pakistani background is 25.9%, that of their white counterparts 7.8%.  It is not that much better for Africans and Caribbean’s with 20.8% out of work.  Only Indians come close with 12.5% this is despite higher levels of education at the age of eighteen.  65% of Indians go on to full time education, Bangladeshi and Pakistani 61% African /Caribbean 50% whites 38%.  All do better than whites; yet, much of Britain’s elite remains impregnable. Less than 1% of circuit judges are black and of 1,000, QCs 12 are black.

A new poll suggests that Britain remains racist. Nearly half (49%) said people in this country were very or quite racist.  38% think the Race Relations Act is a good idea but hasn’t been properly enforced.  Eighteen percent believe it gives too much special treatment to minorities. Some minority groups believe integration is no longer the way forward.  There is strong evidence that minority groups are looking within their own culture.  Young black males rely on themselves to develop their own music industry, which it is argued, is controlled by white-owned industries.  Banks and financial institutions leave young blacks out in the cold.

With Asians, integration has taken hard knocks and although second generation Asians are quite affluent, with Hindus we see a return to their own culture and values.  The following is the perspective of an individual from the black community; Dennis David: “Integration has never happened.  Minority groups have always been concentrated around major cities similarly in government and business black people are at the bottom of the ladder; they’re ghettoised in many ways.”

J, P.  Q. “Is it acutely preferable to be separate?”

D.D.  A. “Black people have not been allowed to be integrated.”    

J.P. Q.”Is this an increasingly common belief among minority groups?”                       Y.A.B.  A (Institute for Public Policy Research) “I definitely detect this kind of disillusionment as an excuse to disengage and it is happening very much with younger people.”

J.P.  Q. Is integration a dying idea?

H.O.  A. (Commission for Racial Equality) “You can certainly see a lot of positives in people saying: “Hey! We haven’t succeeded within this society and its’ structures we’ve got to make alternative arrangements.” “Certainly, radical black or white cultures appear negative and appear as though they are separatists but it’s because of this rejectionist feeling they have.  The alienation from society and certainly racism and discrimination, which continues to have forced many black people, and indeed sections of the black population towards something that is separatist and negative. Whereas I think, they are looking for some way of seeing themselves servicing and probably moving on in this society. (Specialist education)

H.O. “Many Asians and blacks are sending their children to fee-paying schools, that’s where the best education is.  A lot are locked into what one might call ghettos in the urban areas, where there’s poverty. Both black and white, locked into poor schools; and part of that dilemma, even though some of those schools may be black schools, they are very often the poor quality schools with low levels of attainment.  There are examples of when resources have been focused and you see ethnic minorities doing quite well, going on into higher education. But they’re coming back and hitting barriers in the labour market, not getting into jobs, so the frustration feeds back on itself.”

Jeremy Paxman News night 1996

* Source: Office for National Statistics.  

* Source: NPQ Poll for IPPR. Sample size 1000.

Economic manipulation/exploitation is far more complex than a black and white issue; it encapsulates class structures gender/race and numerous other elements.  My work concentrates on specific economic influences, examining distinctive characteristics in relation to institutionalised discrimination functional to the economic system, the control/exploitation of specific social groups, as with economic scapegoats causing racial conflict focusing attention away from failing economic systems. The unemployed are often entrapped in a cycle of poverty and all that it initials, homelessness/crime/mental illness and imprisonment.

Numerous obstacles do exist to discourage/prevent various social groups gaining social/economic/artistic equality many people feel the need to use bogus names to disguise their race and conform to a western idea of integration, which is another failing idea within the British social structure and extends to the world of contemporary British art.  The following will briefly examine how institutions of art promote a cycle of inequality in maintaining a separatist forum.

In communicating the issues within my practice I felt it crucial in identify the obstacles and restrictive environments that may affect the communicative processes, as the diversity of issues within my work investigates maintained inequalities within the socio-economic system which extends to the structures of inequality within the world of contemporary British art.

In maintaining a separatist forum there are limited opportunities and alternatives, reinforcing the argument that minority groups face difficulties, becoming reliant on alternate venues.  A point publicized by Rasheed Araeen contemporary artist & editor of Third Text who argues that the western world has a dominant culture, which is in conflict with non-white artists and the establishment, through political influences, compromises these institutions.  Institutions of modern art marginalize Third World artists and that imperial/capitalism plays an integral part in that marginalization.  Through this process black artists in Britain have become separate with the so-called ‘Ethnic Minority arts’ a form of neo-colonialism. Ethnic minorities have a public forum, which has little point as minority communities generally support exhibitions by black artists communicating more often than not black issues to a black audience. Minority artists to an extent have reinforced their own marginalization through an unfortunate cycle of reliance on specific support structures within there own communities, their already limited alternatives are further restricted through subjective and constrained processes promoting religion and alternative stereotypical ideas, fulfilling the requirements of the audience, which alienates them from mainstream art.  If content fails to progress, art becomes stagnant/predictable and the art form and artists fail through categorisation/pigeonholing, which renders their art second rate.  This process is maintained to protect the a western market often reinforced through devalued third world art, factors such as word association and terminology associated with African art primitive/ritual. This work is generally considered superficial whereas the work by artists such as Picasso, Miro, Moore and numerous others who were influenced by so called ‘primitive’ work, is considered high art.  I would question whether students should be encouraged, discouraged or merely informed that black art as well as feminist works are considered second rate in the social arena of contemporary art.

Jimmie Durham * through his work with the use of fabricated artefacts (fig 2) conveys the ignorance and the stereotypes of American Indians such as arrows labelled as  (thin, wavy, short and fat) accepted as part of their existence.  Art works representing a culture, for example American Indians in the collective. Their ‘artefacts’ do not fulfil market force requirements, as opposed to the individual artist, reinforced through his/her signature.

Controlling elements exist regardless of race or gender Anthony Gormleys ‘Field’ (fig3) to an extent, communicates market force requirements. The piece produced in communities around the world, different cultures becoming aware of each other but the work could only have been purchased as a valid piece in association with an individual artist.  

Many barriers do exist, the greatest dividing factor being unawareness, social Integration is becoming more evident in its divisions whole communities preferring gated social segregation in California London and now available throughout the world at a price.  These divisions communicate heightened levels of social and economic inequalities; there are dilemmas within social system that confront its population, accepting a system that is failing through discrimination is the responsibility of its population.

*Jimmie Durham (artist) Third World Perspective on Contemporary art and Culture, 1987: Third Text 2nd edition (Kala Press) pp. 68-73.

*Smith. D. 1977: Racial Disadvantage in Britain, (Harmondsworth, Penguin Books).

*Brown, C. and Gay, P. 1985: Racial Discrimination: Seventeen Years after the Act, London, Policy Studies Institute

Economic systems are structured to fill a criterion that serves economic demand, this process, defines the influencing factors incorporated in the piece entitled ‘Surplus Workers’ and the untitled tin of beans (fig 4) dealing with the issue of petty theft. I must emphasise that failing in-itself serves the economic system.

Educational institutions

Educational institutions are structured with a hidden curriculum.  The functions of educational institutions are in place to provide the economic system with a workforce.  If global economic systems are is to succeed, they require a hard-working, docile, obedient and highly motivated workforce, which is too divided and fragmented to challenge authority.  The hidden curriculum perpetuates these objectives - the educational establishments function as houses for conditioning.

Economic system requires a surplus of skilled labour.  This maintains a high level of unemployment and ensures that all levels of skill have to compete with each other for jobs.  Employers can pay low wages through being able to threaten dismissal and replacement by the reserve army of skilled workers.  Education tends to over-educate the workforce to ensure competitiveness.

Ivan Illich* previously self-sufficient peoples have become dependant on teachers for schooling, television for entertainment and employers for subsistence.  He points out that compulsory education is now accepted throughout the world.  He emphasises that this should be questioned.  He draws on education feeding economic requirements where the hidden curriculum in schools condition children to conform.  Schools do not promote equality and individual creative abilities. Illich argues that education should be provided at the age the individual requires it, not only in adolescent years, and supports a choice of study subjects rather than the standard curriculum.

A level of awareness on the selective conditioning within educational institutions is vital in overcoming the lack of social progression.

* Ball, S.J. (Sociologist) Beachside Comprehensive. A Case-study of secondary schooling (CUP, Cambridge, 1981)

* Bowles, S. and Gintis, H. (Sociologists) Schooling in Capitalist America (RKP, London, 1976)

* Illich, I. (Sociologist) Deschooling Society (Penguin, Harmondsworth 1973)

Personal Perspective (Education)

We assume within the state system there is a level of equality through opportunity; with hindsight and the knowledge of studies on education I can to some extent reinforce the fact that many hidden agendas perpetuate inequality.  A pupil a year above me during my school days can mirror my educational experiences.  Fifteen years on the Terry Donnelley studies along-side me at a further education institute. He makes the following point on a comprehensive education system at an all-boys school in the early 1980s, the hidden agenda of the school was to take on troublesome pupils from other school, in other words gathering and controlling all the bad apples.  Individuals not aware of the hidden agenda of the school entered a second-rate institution. Terry Donnelley: ‘it was a form of de-education’. He found the academic level of education remained constant from the first year of secondary school to the final year. There was no potential for development within the lowest band in a comprehensive school.

The present educational league tables maintain a segregation of pupils based on ability insuring inequality and a future surplus workforce.

The majority of the surplus workers are amongst the poorest in society living in a poverty trap.  Crime is seen as a survival strategy by the unemployed.  At the bottom of the economic ladder people exist on inadequate diets, unsanitary living conditions and a higher mortality rate. A survey conducted in (1990s) Britain concluded that the vast majority felt the poor were the makers of their own situation and were scroungers living of government handouts. In reality a quarter of those on the poverty line are in paid employment but paid insufficient wages causing them to remain in poverty.  People with ill health and the elderly make up a part of those claiming benefits. Poverty is often in areas set away from the privileged, which makes it all the more easily to ignore.

Many western European countries have seen campaigns insisting that migrants be forcibly returned to their country of origin especially in the event those migrants are unemployed or commit a crime. The West German Government estimates that the far right Nazi members number some 20,000 with close links with other far right organisations in Europe and Britain and the USA.  Recently 1997 the German army has seen the re-emergence of Nazism within its ranks this is a form of economic scapegoting.

Personal Perspective (piece 2 untitled) (fig 4)                         

The second piece investigates a reliant on petty crime a desperate situation, questioning the moral dilemmas of petty crime and if there is any justification for it through the inequality of the social structure in which we exist. I have little objection to petty crime, as further in the essay criminal activities are discussed, in relation to those in control and those who serve global economic systems.    

Understanding a means of existing is never straightforward to comprehend.  

One should bear in mind statistics on crime/race/poverty/inequality have always been manipulated to benefit the major players in politics i.e.  in a particular area muggings were attributed to blacks, not surprising as the majority in that area consists of blacks.  The media rarely conveys the racial identity of joy riders.  The majority of violent attacks are racially motivated and are directed at the young black population within the United Kingdom.  In the 1990s, tens of thousands of people have illegally entered developed countries, required for cheap labour, in England servicing the hotel industry, in America earning $1.20cent an hour for picking fruit these so called illegal aliens do not appear on official employment statistics.  

Castles S. and Kosack G. 1973: Immigrant workers and Class structure in Western Europe (Oxford University Press)

In Britain the surplus workforce consists of not only official statistics on unemployment but also the homeless numbering some 75.000.  The prison population that is nearing 70.000 for the male population and almost 3.000 for the female population of England.  I have to an extent underlined a few specifics which otherwise can often confuse the issue of crime. The following will concentrate on working class crime in relation to corporate crime.

Working Class & Corporate Crime international

The third piece in the show, (fig 5) is entitled “Working class crime- corporate crime” reflecting what the title suggests, the relationship between the tin of beans that identifies the petty in petty crime, the working classes and the surplus workers are one of the same they are in conflict to serve the economic system one just happens to be a step above the other.  In defining the third piece, the first and second pieces should be taken into account as they are influencing factors.

The criminal activities of the economic system that exploits to such an extent that even under its own structural rules it would be defined as criminal, the workers are expendable economic units in the same economic structure in which the interests of powerful corporations are preserved governing and policing two dynamic structures insure stability of the masses.  

William Chambliss* argues that crime is widespread in every social stratum in capitalist society.  Official statistics give the impression that crime is largely a working class phenomenon. The law is simply structured to be selective: largely investigations are concentrated around the working classes.

* Chambliss, W. (sociologist) 1987 On the Take: From petty crooks to Presidents

Frank Pearce* examines illegal activities by American business corporations, he claims that working class crime is minute in comparison to the great sums illegally pocketed by private enterprise.  The US Federal Trade Commission estimates that annually in the USA fifty five million is attributed to robbery (working class) and a massive one billion to business fraud that from the late eighties has doubled and is still rising.  A single price fixing conspiracy criminally converted more money each year it had continued than all of the hundreds of thousands of larcenies burglaries, or thefts in the entire United States in that same year. Clearly, crime is an integral part of a manipulated economic structure.  

* Pearce, F. (SOCIOLOGIST)

A noted case in the USA: A partner in a New York firm of brokers was found guilty of illegal trading. His activities involved the total sum of $20,000,000. He was fined $30,000 and given a suspended prison sentence.  The same judge on the same day sentenced a black shipping clerk to a year’s imprisonment for stealing a $100 television set.

The following examples of corporate crime highlight the systems value of profit over human factors the first including influence over legislation.  Attempts in recent years to control the manufacture and the supply of amphetamines failed, as drug corporations had put pressure on politicians not to interfere with the lax controls.  Ninety percent of amphetamines were legally manufactured, which fed an illicit market. Large drug corporations are responsible for putting profit before public health.  The USA has declared an all out war on drugs that are not a source of corporate income.

William Chambliss makes a point on non-decision making; he argues that the ruling bodies have the power to prevent many issues from ever reaching a decision.

A few break through the barriers of false class-consciousness. Angela Davis* former leader or the Black Panthers, a militant black American organisation, claims. ‘The real criminals in this society are not all the people who populate the prisons across the state but those who have stolen the wealth of the world from the people’. She considers the real criminals to be those in control of the superstructure, the ruling class. Such views are kept from becoming widespread and developing into major issues. An interesting development over recent years (1990s) has seen companies entering the prison system to enable them to exploit the inmates; the ultimate in controlled exploitation in developed countries, a form of institutionalised slave labour available across the US.  

Historically, under imperialism, laws were introduced by the state, which represented the interests of the ruling class. State involvement in maintaining global exploitation and inequalities is now examined historically considering its influence on contemporary forms of imperialism  

During slavery the constant struggle for freedom caused conflict, which called for constant supervision to maintain, rendering it unliveable.  The offer of superficial financial gain motivated the workers and made them more efficient.

William Chambliss study of English laws in East African colonies found that laws were introduced that served the dominant class.  Taxes were introduced; non-payment of these taxes was punishable by fines or imprisonment.  The tax could only be paid by working on the plantations. Wages were paid at such a low rate the Africans were unable to pay the full amount this tied them to the plantation for the whole of the growing season.  

*Angela Davis, Haralambos, M. 1991: Themes and Perspectives (Harper Collins) p. 627

6.  Gilroy, Paul 1987: ‘There Ain’t no Black in the Union Jack’ (London Hutchinson)

Historically governments have been involved in wiping out whole peoples.  Undeveloped parts of the globe have remained, having been plundered with the removal of capital; the means of development. Industrialisation in Europe was financed through these exploits. Undeveloped countries are geared through the control of the West to serve them the raw materials required.  A recent example of the capitalist exploits of the home market as well as the Third World can be seen in the production of Disney goods.  In the poorer of the Third World countries, allowing for minimal outlay i.e., in wages, work, conditions and general human rights in order to guarantee maximum profit on the home market.

Neo-Imperialism (piece 4 Maintaining Underdevelopment) (fig 6)

The economic subjugation of a country for financial gain. The political/ economic dominance of countries and structuring a society to meet its needs is evident, and capitalists themselves are aware of their limitations internationally.  The capitalist market is globally controlled by a small number of giant firms with close connections with powerful financial institutions.  It is important to point out that the state and private capital are inter-linked in the process of exploitation and the accumulation of wealth. Globally, America has control over dependant countries financially.  Direct rule has been abandoned almost everywhere.  Politically independent states of Latin America, Asia and Africa remain tied to the world market in a position of economic dependence.  The path to industrialisation, which was previously taken by the now developed countries, seems closed.  Giant foreign corporations and banks decide their future economic destinies.  Sections of the world that are not of the capitalist persuasion are left to stagnate often causing conflict within a social structure other than capitalism.  The world’s system of exploitation for capital has terrifying consequences, condemning millions to poverty and a lingering death due to malnutrition.

A documentary (1997) on the purchasing power of giant companies looked at the way in which TESCO insures the quality and prices of their products.  Mange Tout being the product and Africa the place of production.  Tesco heads of purchasing were presented with gifts. The working population saw them as kings and Gods. Throughout this documentary, there was a continuous reference to a dinner conversation in England.  A group of middle class Individuals eating the product.  The most disturbing fact about this programme came across during this table conversation, the sheer ignorance and dismissive nature. Individuals were arguing that without developed countries exploiting the third world they would not be able to function with regards to technology, even the ability to drive, the consensus being that people in the third world were incapable in the operation of such machinery.  The reapers earn the equivalent of about 1p for picking 150g of Mange Tout; on the shelves in Tesco it sells for 99p. [7]

The following section will concentrate on the American government and its involvement in maintaining a neo-colonial slave labour with the approval of the Pentagon and conducted through the USA Department of Defence.  The United States is involved in maintaining underdevelopment throughout the world, maintaining populations in poverty for exploitation.  The methods used include maintaining unawareness of the mechanics of exploitation.  Intellectuals who are conscious of the economic exploits are bought-off by the US.  Invited to study in America, given the ‘red carpet’ treatment and offered scholarships this enables control over their information.  Even though the USA is instrumental in maintaining poverty every developed country is involved in third world exploitation.

The following is an extract from an international venture with some 500 intellectuals involved.  The Havana Appeal was put forward in 1968.

  

   Imperialism seeks by the varied techniques of indoctrination to ensure social

conformity and political passivity.  At the same time a systematic effort is made to mobilize technicians, men of science and intellectuals generally in the service of capitalistic and neo-colonial interests and purposes.  Thus talent and skills which should and could contribute to the task of progress and liberation become instead instruments for the commercialisation of values, the degradation of culture and the maintenance of the capitalist economic and social order.  It is the fundamental interest and the imperative duty of intellectuals to resist this aggression and to take up without delay the challenge thus posed to them.  What is required of them is the support for the struggle of national liberation.  Social emancipation and culture de-colonisation for all the people in Asia.  Africa and Latin America and for the struggle against imperialism, waged in its very centre by an ever greater number of black and white citizens of the United States. And to enter the political struggle against conservative, retrograde and racist forces to demystify the latter’s’ ideologies and to attack the structure upon which these rest and the interests they serve… [8]

8. Andre, Frank Gunder’ Critique and Anti-Critique, Professor of Development Economics and Social Sciences and Director of the Institute for Socio-Economic Studies of Developed Regions, Amsterdam. pp, 11-12.

Third World (fig 7)

The central and concluding piece of the exhibition reflects on the entire show.  The piece deals with the number of children that die every day due to malnutrition.  The other victims, the ‘Surplus Workers’, introduced the show.  We have already discussed the contributory factors, and the central piece is a daunting fact, that forty thousand children die every day of malnutrition.  The majority of the population in the developed countries are unaware of their role in contributing to daily genocide.  The numbers that die are reflected by using economic units (money) concealed, reflecting our blind nature.

I will conclude this section with a continuation of neo-imperialism, as the following is the result of economic exploits, our ignorance in the purchase of numerous products and investments that involve extreme exploitation.  The world health organisation estimates there are some ten million under fives that are close to starvation.  Far more than ten million die in infancy or early childhood every year.  This child mortality rate is attributed to the mother being malnourished.  The estimates of adult malnutrition are estimated at some 700 million even though food production is in excess of feeding every one on the planet.

Frank Gunder chooses to dismiss the term ‘Third World’.  He argues that underdevelopment* is evident and maintained in developed countries, such as the USA where 30 million people are living in third world conditions.  Economically unstable countries are exploited.  The acceptance of aid from developed countries reinforce the American way of life. “Success” “their way of life is barbaric” “Sometimes these poor people don’t really appreciate our help because they are either frantic nationalists or stick to odd ideas of their own worshipping the cow instead of the dollar. Corporations in fact perpetuate the displacement and divisions in cultures (fig 8) a piece communicating that American Indians recognise themselves conveying the imposed fragmentation of a people, they maintain they do not need to be a redefined as a people or culture.  A couple of points that may question as to who really benefits from the third world.  In 1990, the West gave the Third World £35billion in aid. In the same year, the Third World gave the west £96billion in debt repayments.  In Britain, a bag of sugar costs around 65pence, in the Dominican Republic a sugar cane cutter earns less than a penny from each bag of sugar. It is understandable why people do not worship the dollar.  It’s their cause of suffering something they are kept from learning.

There are questions that would make for interesting conclusions.  If the Nazi ideology overtly wiped out three million Jews and the economic system has been responsible for wiping out hundreds of millions of people since world war two, I cannot see many moral dividing factors. In developed countries, there is little or no awareness as to the extreme exploits of capitalism.  I suppose that excludes us from any responsibility we have the freedom to question and the responsibility to know.

The study of the social sciences alone is not enough to influence social change.  To understand the social structure the focus should be on the whole system, incorporating a diverse technique history/human psychology/philosophy/economics/politics one social fact influences another this is one of the major points of the collective pieces within the exhibition.  The issues communicated through my work functions as an introduction to alternative possibilities.

Note*

*Undeveloped a state of non-development.

*Underdevelopment a state maintained at a level that serves the interests of capitalist exploits.  

9. Bennett, Jon and Susan George 1987: The Hunger Machine (Cambridge Polity Press), p. 113

The economic system generates underdevelopment. Historically capitalism and the bourgeoisie ideology have, for some time, been manipulating and employing the social and natural sciences in order for them to achieve their objectives.  People in third world are not allowed to exist freely through intervention and pressures from developed countries in maintaining them in a state of ignorance and poverty. The argument is that underdevelopment remains because of insufficient capital or the lack of intelligence due to traditional institutions or cultures. One must always take account of outside influences and bodies that exists to subvert information.  Underdevelopment is visibly maintained, whenever we come across the homeless or the haunting images of malnourished beings.  We can acknowledge through their predicament, we maintain our lifestyle.  In developed countries immigrants remain a group, maintained as second-class citizens facing numerous barriers in their existence.  So the cycle of inequality continues one exists to maintain life the other exists to maintain and accumulate its wealth, neither really lives.

                            

AUTONOMY economic and artistic

The series conflict and consciousness is an introduction to the sum of my work to date and my future objectives.  The piece entitled ‘Autonomy’ (fig 9) functions as a critical analysis on the collective installation entitled conflict and consciousness specifically in relation to the formal artistic methods of communication. The piece questions the amalgam of artistic formal methods used within my practice, as well as considering art as product, e.g. marketing recognizable formal pieces, artists are repetitively marketed in relation to a familiar piece of work an easily recognizable product, which is distributed to a global art market more often than not under contract to galleries.

Historically the issue of autonomy has been considered from numerous perspectives the freedom of expression in 1923 the left front of the arts (Lef) enjoyed official openness.  The soviet avant-garde participating in the fusion of art with life, being directly involved, in doing so avoiding the art becoming the property of the privileged classes. Trotsky communicated the issue of control as far back as 1922. It remains relevant in the world of contemporary art.

My work takes into account formal diversity, multiplicity of content/ economic controls, over the numerous influences artists’ face.  Formal diversity is at the core of my art practice from figurative to the abstract from architecture to animation diversity allows controls over being marketed in relation to an individual recognizable piece.  My art practice cannot be restricted by form.  It is my intention not to become a product-based artist whose work and content is led by economic influences.

Art and the economic structure

Profit is the first principle of the economic system, which includes art becoming market commodities; this applies to the world of contemporary art. The proverb ‘art goes a-begging’ reflects the position of artists in a capitalist society, vulnerable to the exploits of the market, which has control over what issues are communicated or whatever is functional for the system.  Artists generally accepted the rewards for their abilities without acknowledgement of the science of economics. Monies can be a major detrimental conditioning factor one of power and self-proclaimed superiority.   There is no doubt that works of art end up as commodities; it is far more apparent that art actually begins as a commodity.  The work becomes compromised through the individual pursuit of capital over content. I feel there should be a question of concern when there is no overall distinction between art and product.

In today’s world a few powerful individuals have controlling influence over a population’s social condition.  The media has its giants, Murdoch, the Saatchi advertising empire, the world of computers, Bill Gates who has redefined work practice (downsizing), finding workers function far more efficiently and for an extended period when not under extreme pressures.  It is important to emphasise that they can, and do influence the politics of a nation.  The right wing allegiance together with an advertising campaign with the slogan ‘Labour isn’t working!’ the Saatchis had an influence over the outcome for the Labour Party general election of 1979 election.  In 1978 and still within the Saatchi and Saatchi company reported sales of art netted some £380,000 in a financial year, now Charles Saatchi founder of the advertising empire has a complete influence over contemporary art and issues the communication of content.  One could draw comparisons with the piece neo-imperialism subjugating/manipulating the individual rather than a country. Chris Ofili gives some idea as to the extent of art’s transformation to product in the following statement: “Saatchi art is easy to make. Get hold of the Yellow Pages and you stand a good chance he’ll buy the whole dam lot”.

The established world of contemporary art has little new to offer.  The likes of Warhol mass-produced his work, ‘art for the masses’.

12.  Gavin Turk Shark Infested Waters p. 234

The shock of the new made him and others alike an exciting prospect but today similar works are simply produced with superficial regard to content mirroring historical methods and feeding a market. In 1992 two hundred works that had cost Charles Saatchi [13] £8million were sold at auction for a £23million.  We not only as artists but people that exist in an time where a visual language has a great influence on contemporary culture we have to consider the implications of economics on art as it can be used as a deliberate way of subverting and maintaining corrupt information and creating a false/superficial visual history.

As streamlining of the economic structure continues art as commodity will become more evident, and the concentration of works will be more so controlled and influenced by powerful individuals and corporations. The artist’s alienation from his/her work is a predicament in which the work can only exist through becoming a commodity.  An alternate underground scene exists for works that are not allowed to communicate this includes forms of music, dance and architecture, which are often suppressed, Prince Charles disapproval of the proposed extension for the National Gallery, (1994) describing it as a ‘Carbuncle on an old friend’ discrediting the architects involved.

The subversion of information and the Influences on contemporary art culture.

It is questionable when powerful individuals/corporations have significant influences on contemporary art and culture. Identifying the commercialisation of art in itself is functional for the comprehension of current trends and the regression/progression of art i.e. Saatchi and his system of bulk buying of art.  Contemporary art incorporates individuals directly from commercial industries such as Ron Mueck, having been involved in advertising for some twenty years, the piece representing his farther involves a commercially influenced technical process regardless of how many pieces he produces the end result will be a realistic interpretation of any given form, a form of three dimensional photography.  The Saatchi collection is reinforced through the educational system. Michael Craig Martin (head of Goldsmiths College) dismisses traditional methods of art education, claiming individuals only need the ability of drawing if it is relevant to their practice.  Formal studies are a foundation, allowing individuals to develop an understanding of form far greater than that of a technical process.  It is in the interest of the art market to have passive conformist/docile artists who are easily manipulated for economic gain and rewarded for their contribution in the commercialisation of art. Methods within art Educational institutions are dictated to by trends in the art market and a reliant on the commercial art structures of contemporary art for credibility, both reinforcing each other’s perception of art.  Ultimately Saatchi has a great influence on educational criteria and practice.  To-date he has created a market, which competes with America, one of developing production orientated work.  Art colleges have become factories for an elitist market similar to any other institution that prepares the individual for industry. We must keep in mind Saatchi supports an economic structure that maintains underdevelopment and you will generally find those with a vested interests have few objections to his exploits. This involves the commercialisation and Americanisation of art enabling captive and competitive markets. It seems three years spent in education enables the individual to develop basic skill to produce a single product that is repeatedly produced through his/her career, the regression within art practice has seen artists employed directly for commercial use involved in production to serve the market (1997).  Such as the exploits of Oil of Ulay the agency claims it is art! Television advertising Tracy Emin promoting products on prime time television together with Rachel Whiteread’s mother Pat Whiteread.

13. Art Monthly 11.97 /edition 211 pp. 1-6

If contemporary works controlled by Saatchi become the new establishment, it should make for interesting dissection and documentation as to how Thatcherism influenced art and how work was spewed out by individuals that lived up to the manipulated/conditioned ideology of their time.  It strikes me as odd there is so much happening throughout the world even close to home yet contemporary art seems preoccupied with what’s fashionable.  Individuals in the music ‘industry’, especially so in Britain, are in fact more involved in social progression globally.  Where as the “Young British Artists” one could draw comparisons with Spice girls managed promoted and exploited globally.

Work by individuals such as Jeff Koons and Hurst are actively encouraged to enable investment opportunities. Both fit the criteria for manipulating the masses for self-interest.  Displaying similar processes which, tediously includes nudity as a “shocking” selling point. The monies of the wealthy have to be invested for a return greater than that of the base rate banks offer; especially during recession alternate avenues are found or created.  Works such as those exhibited in ‘Sensation’ with an entrance fee of seven pounds.  It is expected to net over half a million pounds, which gives an idea of the money involved.  There is no doubt as to the great economic influences on the individual, how we examine this in relation to the artist can only be one of personal intellectual insight.  How we view a piece of art, as art or product, it seems the viewer; critic and dealer ultimately determine the future direction of art.  

If capital gains determine success and credibility within the art world then Jeff Koons remains the self-proclaimed greatest living artist; the proclamation is of course a marketing ploy.  Historically, the arts have played an important part in communicating issues and developing theories.  Are future art historians to consider us manufacturers who were preoccupied feeding a system, contemporary art is a pointless reflection on historical processes, as pointless as Punks in the late 1990s?

The purchaser to some extent is responsible for giving a piece of art credibility.  A case for example, Gary Hume’s theory that we are all equal when we ‘pass through those hospital doors.’  A recent experience (1997) would suggest otherwise, my eight-week-old nephew was found to have a cyst on his brain.  For further scans the NHS had to wait for three weeks to hire equipment from a private health company.  Over the past five years several children have died due to the inequality of the health systems.  I would suggest that the numbers are far greater having seen how the system functions.  Individuals that purchase such works can promote their own hidden agendas i.e. equality in the health service.

Moral questions of conduct were being asked in the 1960s.  Trustees of the Museum of Modern Art (New York) were involved in profiting from the Vietnam War, influencing public opinion and promoting the ‘American way of life’ through their interpretation of works such as the stars and stripes by Jasper Johns.  The conspiracies the hidden agendas of the time and the involvement of the CIA insighted public debate and protests, which now have become an important part of that work, art often reflects a time in history.  In addition, of course the lack of any women and blacks in the modern art movement raised even more questions.  I could ask similar questions as to why there is not a single black face in ‘Shark Infested Waters’ a catalogue promoting ‘British’ art in the 1990s

We could consider a more obvious historical example that communicates the issue of subversion with clarity.  Hitler who reinforced the ideas of Alfred Rosenberg, Rosenberg who formed the combat league for German culture in 1929.  Hitler favouring one art form over another, modern art was considered the product of a communist-Jewish conspiracy degenerate and undermining the ‘beauty-ideal’ of the Aryan race.  Hitler described the work as that of ‘fools, liars, or criminals who belong in insane asylums or prisons.      

Rachael Whiteread’s difficulties in erecting a monument representing the holocaust would suggest memories are short lived and xenophobia remains a part of German society.  There is even denial the events ever took place. We are of course still too primitive to have derived any humane knowledge from the holocaust, the former Yugoslavia stands as our failing.

“There was no fine partition between art and propaganda.  There was only a distinction between what was understandable in human experience and what was not”. [14]     Edgar Snow*

14.  Edgar Snow 1987: Third World Perspective on contemporary art and Culture, Third Text 2nd edition (Kala Press) p. 77

I do not detach myself or my work from socio-economic influences. In fact, to an extent I am informed through its influencing and conditioning factors only to become aware of its mechanics.  In our social life obscure elements exist, the purchase of products that may involve extreme exploitation in its production process.  None of us can be blameless but all can be aware giving the people an intellectual instrument to influence social change.   

The formal aspects of my work are obvious its content developed to communicate in an abstract language exclusive to the viewer in a number of pieces.  It is important that work is not constrained to an extent that it loses its content and just becomes another product.

A number of contemporary works reflect avenues that lead to production orientated art with influences such as Pollock and Warhol producers of products from a country that considers equality in the economic sense as being evil.  ‘Art is a business, a promotional system, swept by tides of fashion and snobbery’.  Andy Warhol

The influence of the system will always have some control as we exist in such a maintained economic environment. ‘Social being determines consciousness’, [15] Being aware of ones self in a social system, which always has a way of defending itself, labelling people that opt out as failures or deviants, so even opting out is functional as a gauge for failure. The greatest impact one could make is to continue within the system to achieve ones objectives.  A good example of such a method is evident in the exploits of the Australian Green Party numerous complaints were made about industrial pollution.  The Green Party found the only option they had was to purchase controlling shares in the company in doing so giving them greater control over operations and controls over levels of pollution. This is by no means a new phenomenon.  In the early 20th century feminist middle class women’s use of high fashion covertly supporting ‘The cause’ using the colours white green and purple in their dress, they fought for the vote in Britain.  

An individual that puts the human factor before profit can still function in the economic system.  Anita Roddick owner of the Body Shop works within the economic structure to achieve her objectives.  She has confronted the giant Oil Company Shell on human rights issues.  She has even suggested the use of her shops in certain parts of the world as a covert way for the oppressed being able to communicate.   

15.  Fischer. Ernst, Marx His Own Words (Penguin Books Ltd Harmondsworth, Middlesex England) 1977 p.10

There is no question that when individuals peruse issues from within the system it is legitimate and seems to have significant success.  I use my work as a legitimate form of communication.  Whether I choose to allow myself or my work to be open to manipulation within the system or continue to detach myself from the economic system, I will still be able to deal with the issues that I feel are relevant, a piece of work bought for economic reasons will communicate its content regardless of the purchaser’s intentions. The work will stress its integral associations, literal and otherwise.  The market can be used to the artists’ advantage in relation to the piece. Formal autonomy will continue to allow me to pursue any issue using any formal means in any social structure; the artist remains infinite in his or her interpretations and metaphors. The content of individual works convey artists intentions it’s very easy for artists to become complacent through a manipulated self proclaimed superiority.  One should keep in mind artists are merely guinea pigs in the process of exploitation.

Conclusion

My research has exposed influencing issues associated with each piece of work.  Facts, for example, as to how the situations came to be and how one fact have an integral association with another.  The attributing factors of the ‘Surplus Workers’ convey the way in which class; gender and social inequalities result in crime, homelessness and imprisonment.  This cycle of influence continues throughout the essay as well as through the formal pieces.  The extent to which the economic political and social superstructure is maintained and regenerated is communicated with emphasis on an underlined method of ‘maintaining’ inequality.

Having taken into account the contribution of the social sciences we can conclude that science is a tool that serves the interests of the ruling economic structures and social scientists admit that intellectuals are “bought-off”. Science and the ruling elite are involved in manipulating governments, countries and statistical data to enable them to paint a picture beneficial to their objectives. Thus, governments in developed countries are directly involvement in supporting and maintaining underdevelopment.

The failings of the social sciences is inevitable enveloped in defining and redefining complex methodology.  How does one communicate through reams of misinformed/manipulated/corrupted literature especially to those who exist in societies under levels of extreme exploitation and often illiterate.  Science in part clears a path documenting obstacles that may hinder exploitation and I would argue that even Marxist theories fuel the exploitative process, providing a template for successful subjugation.  Science in its present form only serves the exploitative process e.g. the unemployed, knowing their numbers is imperative in maintaining underdevelopment, which of course, allows stability within the economic structure.  If social scientists can be influenced and blatantly bought off especially with their extensive knowledge of the socio-economic make up then I feel artists have little hope of overcoming economic influences and exploits.  The language I use even through statistics is one of visible formal objects, colours and metaphors that involve the individual in his/her social understanding and evoking enquiry within their social reality.  My sculptural pieces communicate specifics to those who identify with the ideas conveyed in them whilst they may alienate others.  Having no clear underlining method or one that can be entirely unravelled to allow manipulation, it has been possible to develop beyond the conventional restrictions of science with its innate corruption. One could have art corrupt science, mirroring the manipulative processes within social/economic/political environments.

Thus, Robert Hughes [16] in the series ‘American Visions’ gives his critical explanation of the works of E D Kienholz:

“Did he exaggerate, yes, that’s what moralists do, they don’t want their art to be fair.  Some truths only speak from the weld of exaggeration.”

Through art, the pictures I paint are statements regardless of alternative perspectives.  Their content exists regardless of any external economic influence.  The formal pieces of my work originally concentrated on economics, with little regard to class, gender or ethnicity. My work has developed in as much as it communicates further I can for example account for more than one interpretation e.g. (Fig 1) the surplus workforce exists within the socio-economic structure which covers the first point.  It would also cover countries with no colour distinctions where caste or religion may be the social dividing factors. (Fig 12) The make up of the surplus work force covers another, so I can communicate economic inequalities as well as the class, race and gender inequalities, all in the context of maintaining them in their position. Institutionalised discrimination and the complexities of the social structure influence certain groups in society inadequate social environments create an isolated people scattered and maintained across globe corporate crime, which is fused in a neo-imperialistic processes remains integral in maintaining underdevelopment.

‘Autonomy’ remains a self-critical evaluation of my formal methods of communication, not only for me but also for anybody with critical input, as that is what generates a legitimate language.  

My work in its entirety has developed organically in as much as it deals with social beings, representing a process of existing within the realms of what maintains it.  My contribution also influences consciousness, with emphasis on emerging issues, which further develop with continuous personal contributions.  These enable me to develop a language beyond the conventional, encapsulating socio-economics, art, human psychology and an emerging Philosophy that will continue beyond the introductory pieces.

16.  Hughes, Robert 1996: American Visions 8: The age of Anxiety Luck Trust and Ketchup.

the influence of art on its population is substantial.  A public/contemporary art piece portraying an untouchable (the lowest caste in India) who had achieved success and become a lawyer. This piece of sculpture has been erected in the most impoverished areas of India inspiring the population a people becoming aware of avenues to overcome their impoverished state.

There is no doubt to our technical advances yet the human race remains primitive in its coexistence.   Maybe each generation requires more than a lifetime to develop beyond this state, to developing beyond mathematical equations, in order to avoid atrocities seen in the former Yugoslavia.  Societies are made up of individuals and one should keep in mind that it is easier to manipulate a nation than to control an individual. What we know and what we understand can be determined by social conditions, a form of functional confusion that we must develop beyond. The 1990s have seen statements proclaiming that painting, drawing and even art is dead, promoting superficial requirements in the study of art, providing the market with a passive and docile individuals.  Art is becoming primarily a product through economic influences alienating artists from content (corporate art) and the creative processes.  The market in the 90s considers aesthetics, as a time consuming inconvenience (Saatchi bulk buying) as a name alone is marketable.  In relation to the numerous influences on artists, there is one concluding line, which communicates the artists’ reality.  There’s no such thing as bad art, just bad artists.

References

1.  Franz Fanon, Araeen, R. editor 1987: Third World Perspective on Contemporary art and Culture, Third Text 2nd edition (Kala Press) p.77

2.  Kindleberger, C. P Europe’s Post-War Growth – the Role of Labour Supply (Cambridge, Mass, Harvard University Press 1967), p, 35.

3.  Charles Kingsley (quote) Open University 1993: Social Structure and Divisions Block 2 (Alden Press, Oxford), p. 82.

4.  Jeremy Paxman 1996: News night (BBC2) Friday 22nd November

5.  L. Taylor Rastas of chapeltown 1987: (Adapted from, ‘Britain now’ Illustrated in London News, October), pp. 54-5.

6.  Gilroy, Paul 1987:  ‘There Ain’t no Black in the Union Jack’ (London Hutchinson)

7.  TESCO Documentary 1997: (CENTRIAL) Wednesday 26th February.  

8.  Gunder, Frank A. 1984: Critique & Anti-Critique (Macmillan press LTD), pp.11-12.

9.  Bennett, Jon and Susan George 1987: The Hunger Machine (Cambridge: Polity Press), p. 113.

10. Sara Kent, (text) Emma Rushton 1994: Shark Infested Waters (Philip Wilson Publishers Ltd), pp. 214-215

11.  Dealers 1996: (CHANEL 4) 30th December

12.  Sarah Kent, (text) Gavin Turk Shark Infested Waters (Philip Wilson Publishers Limited), pp. 214-215

13. Art Monthly 1997: (November issue 211), p. 4

14.  Edgar Snow, Rasheed Araeen (editor) 1987: Third World Perspective on Contemporary art and Culture, Third Text 2nd edition (Kala Press) p. 77   

15. Ernst Fischer 1977: Marx His Own Words (Penguin Books Ltd Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England) p.10

16.  Hughes, Robert 1996: America Visions 8: The age of Anxiety Luck Trust and Ketchup.  

Bibliography

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Flowers, Ronald Barri 1978: Women and criminality: (New York Greenwood Press)

Gillen, R. 1978: ‘A study of women shoplifters’, (Harvard University Press)

Gilroy, Paul 1987: ‘There Ain’t no Black in the Union Jack’ (London: Hutchinson)

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Gunder, Frank A. 1984: Critique & Anti-Critique (The Macmillan Press LTD)

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Illich, Ivan D. 1973: Deschooling Society (Harmondsworth: Penguin)

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Regurgitating Something Pacified and Black

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Liberty street 2009