Art Is Not a Mirror It Is a Hammer

On Saturday 12 Nov at vii.30pm, a multidisciplinary activist-artists collective chosen Nether the Hammer will be setting up shop and having a 'pre-launch' at 158 Sydney road, Coburg. The pre-launch will include performances by comedian Toby Halligan, spoken give-and-take creative person Khepa Markhno and 3oB DJ set likewise as visual art by Van Rudd. Overland's Rjurik Davidson spoke to organiser James Crafti.

So you're starting upward a radical cultural infinite chosen Under The Hammer. The name comes from a quote from Mayakovsky (sometimes also attributed to Brecht), which reads, 'Art is not a mirror held up to reality, but a hammer with which to shape it'. Can you lot briefly draw the aim of the space?

Sure. The aim of Under the Hammer is to create a infinite for left wing political art to exist presented/performed/engaged with. Such a space is of import for several reasons. I of the primal reasons is that art that challenges the status quo is ofttimes censored. Van Rudd, who is part of Under the Hammer, has often had his artwork thrown out or rejected from exhibitions. Recently a Pro-Palestine artwork of Rudd'southward was rejected from a 'Human Rights' exhibition because information technology was disquisitional of an Israeli corporation that was paying rent in the same building as the exhibition. More broadly, I think Occupy Melbourne (and other Occupations internationally) shows that there is a real need for wide left cultural spaces that aren't subject to ongoing repression.

I also call back there is a need for art that is explicitly art, in the sense that Mayakovsky meant it – as work to encourage social alter. Given the cultural hegemony that the ruling grade has, alternative ideas tend to be pushed to the fringes and are difficult to find or easy to ignore. In that location is a lot of progressive artwork out at that place – some lefties scrawl through film festival guides and theatre programs trying to find information technology but on the whole it gets lost among the apolitical or reactionary content that reinforces our society. We hope to create a space where there is always some form of activist art, where fine art tin can be seen to be less about grade (as nosotros want to support as many forms as maybe) and more almost content.

Some criticise the idea of political art, suggesting it's a contradiction in terms: arts is not politics, the argument goes. It's certainly a contend that Overland magazine has been engaged in recently. How do you conceive of political art and how volition that bear upon the kinds of projects that Nether The Hammer will undertake?

I retrieve as a Cinema studies student watching the film Mulholland Drive. I finished watching the picture thinking 'What the hell was that all about?' Confused and somewhat disappointed, I borrowed the DVD and went to the extras department. In that location was footage of a Q & A with the cast and coiffure of the movie. The get-go critique said something along the lines of 'That was a fantastic moving-picture show Mr. Lynch, I am not sure what it is about but that is my failing not yours.' I am fairly sure the failing was Lynch's: apart from generally objectifying women in his motion-picture show, the film failed to communicate any idea what so ever and while many have speculated on the 'subconscious meaning', I am non particularly impressed by such an obfuscation of ideas as art. If Mulholland Bulldoze had great concepts backside it, why make it impossible to follow?

I am not maxim that art needs to exist didactic, ideologically pure or that members of Under the Hammer collective will agree will agree with everything we present in our infinite. What I am maxim is that we have the risk to communicate, debate and otherwise engage with actual ideas through various mediums that actually bear on on the world around us. Politics demand to be part of mass consciousness and art is vital in that procedure. I recall with the de-reification of art over the 20th century in particular, more than of us tin now stand upwardly and express ourselves in an artistic mode and we tin can all appoint with what is being expressed.

I have had a few artist friends say that they would like to perform at Nether the Hammer merely they aren't doing political work. My response is to ask them, why not? If you are telling a love story, why wouldn't you think virtually gender relations given it is a primal prism to view the distortions of homo relationships? If the characters in your song, verse form, film, play or sculpture are alienated, why wouldn't you actually seek ways to discuss the reasons economical or otherwise for their alienation? I doesn't have to be economically reductionist to see that there are societal roots to almost human conditions and ideas. That is what we want to go to the eye of. What are people'southward ideas virtually the issues facing the world and how can nosotros address them? This is I believe the goal of art and the goal of Nether the Hammer.

Can y'all requite us an thought of what people can expect from Under the Hammer? What are the commencement plans?

Under the Hammer is having its pre-launch on 12 Nov, but we won't be opening our doors for regular activeness until February 2012 (we are renovating the space). Apart from creating a physical space, we will be simultaneously building and broadening the collective and generating a more cohesive schedule of activeness. As more people get involved we are expecting more than events and exhibitions will be proposed which will in turn excite more people to get involved.

Nosotros have a few events we can reveal though. We will be having a Tamil art exhibition early on in the New year, which will be accompanied by a Tamil cultural nighttime with verse reading and some music. At that place will besides exist an exhibition with Artists of the 17th Parallel every bit part of the Agent Orange justice entrada. We are currently in discussion with satirical band Man Bites God and the Reggae/Latin/funk/hip-hop group known as The Conch to perform. We are in discussion with local lefty comedians about a regular comedy night. We also have tentative back up from Platform Theatre to hold a couple of play readings in that location, early on in the new year's day and Anthony Snowden who films many of Melbourne'southward left events is going to be running a workshop for people interested in filming rallies.

So those are some of the initial projects people can become behind but there is scope to exercise a lot more than actually. We have 365 days of the year to make full and it would exist great if nosotros could make full as many of them as possible with activist-creative person events. If you take a campaign, nosotros can have a fundraiser; if y'all would like to organise a spoken word night we tin tie it in – the possibilities are countless.

How is the collective going to be organised? Who is involved and then far and how tin can people get involved?

Nether the Hammer will operate primarily every bit an open up, democratic, collective. We will set up sub-committees around various types of events, creative mediums etc. We already have several people interested in performing comedy; I retrieve they should form a working group and we can come across if they can organise regular comedy result. We want to ensure that the strength of Nether the Hammer is its ability to bring various progressive communities together, and so there will also need to exist a lot of interaction between our various sub-groups. Some more details will be revealed at our launch on the twelfth.

As for who is involved and then far, Nether the Hammer is an initiative being launched by members of the Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) such as myself, Melanie Mayze and Van Rudd. It is great that the RSP is supporting this initiative, however we are also articulate that nosotros want this space to be ane that involves a broad diversity of left fly artists and activists, not only those in the RSP. We are interested in building a politically inclusive space.

There is a debate in Occupy Melbourne at the moment with some more bourgeois individuals arguing that different groups should exit their 'politics' and their 'isms' at the door. I call up the opposite is true. I want everyone to bring their ideologies, their thoughts and feelings and share them. We desire to build a culture of date not disengagement.

People should come along on the 12th if they can. Otherwise people tin can send us an electronic mail if yous want to submit a proposal to us in terms of an issue/exhibition. If you email u.s.a., we tin also put you on our e-list.

Overland is a not-for-profit magazine with a proud history of supporting writers, and publishing ideas and voices oft excluded from other places.

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Source: https://overland.org.au/2011/11/under-the-hammer/

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