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No Escape

Manifesto for Change: Evolution/Revolution

2018年8月16日2018年8月16日

Taro Qureshi

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2018年8月16日2018年8月17日

Xinyi Li

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2018年8月16日2018年8月17日

Liqiao Zeng

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2018年8月16日2018年8月17日

Mowen Li

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Manifesto for Change: No Escape

There can be NO ESCAPE from the chain gang of existence. At the moment of our death our life is rewound and lived again.

There is NO ESCAPE for an artist from their work. It is permanent and must inform their entire existence.

There is NO ESCAPE for an artist from their moral obligations. They are not celebrities, or superheroes or wizards. They are workers.

Just as the victims of our government had NO ESCAPE from their burning tower blocks we have NO ESCAPE from the implications of this upon our artistic practice. This is the problem of making art in a world where you burn to death as the result of a money saving financial decision

OR sleep in a gutter because your property was destroyed

OR die of a preventable illness because you can’t afford healthcare

OR die of consumption because they freeze your benefits

OR waste away at old age because your pension dried out

There is NO ESCAPE from Anxiety. For a creator this is the most crucial antidote to the poison of creation – which is the ultimate act of egotism and conceit.

Wealth is NO ESCAPE.

We, the artists define our practice as a tending to the human scar which expands wetly every day. If our work does not continue with this SINGULAR GOAL at it’s core then we must abandon it and hurl our tools in the Thames.

We, the artists believe art should not only be for the privileged. Our position as students at the RCA is an uncomfortable one. We must leverage this discomfort and go to our work with the utmost authenticity.

We, the artists stand opposed to the culture class divide. Art is the language of rebellion; it is not surprising that it has been gradually made inaccessible to the working classes and fed to the wealthy – those with the capital to prop up the completely absurd and unregulated art market. It is no wonder the river of creativity, driven into a canal has become a stagnant swamp filled with ash.

We, the artists challenge all established art institutions to stop the gentrification of self expression. Even during the Ice Age, where a gatherer was required to hunt for 20 hours a day, there were paintings. It is the bedrock of the human collective unconscious. It is a skill that must be developed and tended for as one does the body.

We the artists are committed to defending the power of fine art as a revolutionary language.

We, the artists believe in full freedom of movement for all peoples of the world.

 

by

Taro, Xinyi, Liqiao, Mowen

Aug 2018

 

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