James G: TDCA and Banksy write ups

Theories and Documents of Contemporary Art
I am not really surprised by reading Jesse Helm’s outrage. Throughout his career in the Senate he tried to block legislation creating MLK Day, tried to block the Civil Rights Act, and was generally a pretty horrible person who championed the continuation of racial segregation. Throw in a dash of religious intolerance, and you have all the markings of the radical Republican right. The kind that even John McCain has had to distance himself from this election cycle.
The issue at hand, or at least the way Jesse Helms tried to frame it in order to thinly veil his bigotry, is whether or not the government should have paid for it, or what role government has in the making and funding of art. Jesse Helms comes from a school of thought that thinks government has no role in social issues and should not fund anything that isn’t in the name of national defense. They are champions of the free market, who spout phrases like “the freer the market, the freer the people” and their deregulatory bravado is directly responsible for much misery for many people the past few months. But, the market isn’t created in the interest of the people, as talked about by Marx and as exemplified by the racially targeted predatory lending of the large banks that has thrown our economy into a huge recession.
The government, as opposed to the markets, is erected with the people in mind. Thomas Jefferson, for example, would talk specifically about the role of government being for the benefit of the people. Whether or not Andres Serrano’s “Piss Christ” was obscene shouldn’t matter. The government’s role should be to advance the cultural and artistic achievements of the people. The subject matter should be inconsequential. John Webner seems to realize this modern disconnect between government’s interest and the people’s. He calls for action in the community in creating art to give the artist and the community a voice. The people need to work for themselves in an age of big business interests.


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Banksy and the Communist Manifesto
Banksy works in the community rather than in the gallery walls. In doing this, he is talking directly to the people, forgoing the institution of the museum and avoiding setting a price on his work. Graffiti also has other connotations as being vandalism and illegal, so it immediately sets itself up against the establishment. Marx talks about how the establishment as it is set up is corrupt and broken and actively works against the people. Banksy, when he is working in the street rather than in a gallery, is working against the government.
When he carried his work into the museums and hung it on the walls, he was working against that establishment. Rather than working for the people in this instance, he works against the establishment, becoming a thorn in their side. Banksy is the thorn in the side for the sake of being the thorn. He is not a hacker who works maliciously against the establishment in order to point out flaws and eventually improve it. He is not a reformer who docilely works against a system to change it’s rules. He is just a mosquito, a nuisance who every now and then you think about because he is making you think about him.