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 RT and the role of the artist in a capitalist society is dictated by the dominant class. Both the art and the artist are commodities, manipulated to create profit. Commerce is the antithesis of art. The contradiction for the artist is that art comes from a type of individual isolation that is necessary for the creative process, yet this is a luxury most artists cannot afford. Another contradiction implied by the need for isolation -- to make art about social justice issues, means being involved in all the messy contradictions and journeys of discovery that do not necessarily take place in a studio. Art happens when the viewer decides whether or not what she is looking at is art; what the artist thinks about her own work, is usually irrelevant. I don't want to go down the road of activist/artist definitions, because it is all meaningless. Before art can be a weapon, it first has to be art. Sue Coe, from an interview with Alan Kaufman |