IF YOU DON’T ACT, someone else will decide everything. Borders and maps are an abstract painting created by world leaders, and the rest of us buy it; a good painter knows when to stop. All the man-made barriers are artificial things.
Who said any of that can’t involve intervention? Isn’t that what all art is—intervention into space, nature, materials, presence, movement, and ideas? Well, so is activism, except activists are less fixated on originality than artists are. Both of these disciplines are self-reflexive; they have no start or end to their lifelong journey; and they require reconsideration of the notions that came before them. There are quintessential behaviors that get associated with artists and activists, such as the painter who applies pigment to canvas or the activist who chants at demonstrations.
But in fact, a guerrilla gardener is behaving as both artist and activist simultaneously. There are no rules for art and activism other than to challenge the status quo. Those who attempt to distance themselves from the bureaucracy assembled on their behalf with the nauseating, privileged whine of “I’m not political” do so because they think compassion alone may not be enough.
But that’s what I relished most about my poppy paintings being held at the peace protests—the number of people who intentionally showed up without any signs or flags but accepted a painting to hold from a stranger. Perhaps it was because they were fond of the painting alone or t.
