18/03/2024
POLITICS AND ART
As I'm working on probably some of the most politically inspired paintings I ever made, I also did a lot of thinking on politics and art. Since it's the first time I seriously doubted making a painting because of the political load that may raise some eyebrows or causes some emotion, I wanted to get something off my chest.
Throughout the years I have heard many people say and write that politics should stay out of sports, music and art. People get tired of 'being forced to support the gay-community' or 'forced to take sides' in actual acts of genocide. Seperating personal opinions from the things we all love. The things that make us all even as humans instead of dividing us. Whether it's footballers wearing rainbow t-shirts or baseball players kneeling to make a statement against racism. From the Dead Kennedys singing that Ronald Reagan can stick the American flag up his as***le, to Bob Marley raising his voice for world peace. It's confronting to see politics outside of the news we watch and the papers we read.
For me, politics have always been a big influence throughout my life. I have hated everyone wearing a suit, I have yelled everything is a conspiracy, I have refused to vote. I have distanced and consumed myself with it at the same time. A love-hate relationship got me painting in anger or swear I completely distance myself from any politic influence. It never worked. Politics and society are what I wake up with every day and take with me to bed when I go to sleep. Politics never fail to make me feel something, good or bad. It also shapes me as a person and the world around me. It's innevitable. With everything that's going on in the world in the past, present and in our future.
To all fellow artists: Stay political in your art if you feel it. Don't conform to make liveless painting videos just to go viral or sell your art, but show what you feel. Do not settle for less. Allow yourself to be angry, sad and speak up against all forms of oppression. Because if we don't, the world will be full of chainsaw-raising, cocaine-sniffing delusional nationalistic racist as***le dictators who are afraid of everything they don't understand.
❤️
