PovertyAsArtisticMaterial

ThoughtStorms Wiki

Context : CulturalStuff

As my friend DariusSokolov once put it : "the middle class love looking at pictures of poor people"

What do artists want with poverty? Are we well intentioned? Trying to draw attention to poverty? To salve its pain? Are we patronizing? hoping to bring enlightened culture to those benighted souls without it? Are we exploitative? Choosing themes and images loaded with emotional force as a cheap way to win attention to ourselves?

Is it purely financial? Often it's easier to get funding for artistic projects with a "social inclusion" angle.

Well isn't this just an example of the funding working properly? The funders want to stimulate artists to think about the excluded, and the artists follow that signal?

For the record, BSBLOrk playing at a large shopping centre occupied by the homeless workers movement.