Art that interests me has much in common with - belongs to - resistance. It must challenge our preconceptions, disrupt our thoughts; it is outside the norms, outside the law, against bourgeois order; it is not there to cradle us, to reinforce our comfort, to serve up again what we already know. It must take risks; at the risk of not being immediately accepted or acceptable. It is deviant, and in itself a social project. Art can, art must change the world, it is its only justification.
(Quoted from In Her Own Image: Women’s Self-Representation in Twentieth-Century Art, by Danielle Knafo. Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2009.)
Must art change the world? Societies are caught in sweeping change. Shouldn’t most of art preserve time-honored values? What do you think?
For a brief biography of Orlan, and to see her working methods, click here. For images of and relating Orlan, click here. For a brief biography of Danielle Knafo, click here.
Comments