Artivism: What is artivism? Why is it important?
Artivism. What does it mean? Why did I choose to name my podcast the Women Mind the Water Artivist Series? And what is the difference between artivism and an artivist?
What is the Meaning of Artivism?
A simple definition is that artivism is the combination of two words activism + artist. An artivist is an artist whose work is a reflection of her activism. Do a Google search and chances are you’ll find the word artivism linked decades ago to the Chicano movement. The date varies depending on what site you read; however, the art show is decidedly linked to activism. It calls for social change. A more definite date is 2009. That’s when the Center for Artistic Activism was established. It was founded to teach practices that use “the best of each to leverage creativity and culture and successfully bring about social change.” Steve Duncombe, one of the Center’s founders, had done his own research to try and find the historical roots of artivism. He came to realize that EVERY successful activist movement no matter how far back he looked involved elements of creativity, culture, and innovation. In other words, “successful activism is artistic activism.” The creative expression used to cultivate awareness embraces many artistic disciplines including visual art, written word, and, in the case of some of the artivists I’ve featured on my Artivist Series podcast, cake, felt, dance and much more.
“If we look back historically, artists have always been the culture changers who have reflected or documented what was going on culturally, from Goya to all of the incredible feminist artists and painters, and conceptual artists who I love.”
Dianna Cohen, Women Mind the Water Artivist Series podcast guest and co-founder of Plastic Pollution Coalition.
Artivism is not limited to issues of social change. What the artists on my podcast have in common is a love of nature. They are driven by a variety of issues such as climate change, plastic pollution, extinction, and others. Furthermore, these artists do not communicate their concerns with a singular form of art. Their message their work conveys may be strike like a hammer or whisper softly but it resonates with our emotions. It is a universal language that gets under our skin and leaves an impression behind our eyeballs.
“Activists are mainly artivists because something happened in their life, something turned them around, where they decided to switch their art to protect the planet.”
Janina Rossitter, Women Mind the Water Artivist Series podcast guest
Artivism for the Ocean and Sea Life
My brand of artivism is deeply rooted in the Ocean. I am interested in calling attention to the impact of human activity upon the ocean and her creatures. In my own art, I create images of marine animals, ocean-inspired videos and installations. All are meant to stimulate conversation about a range of issues relating to the ocean and hopefully encourage others to take action. The aim of the entire body of work that is Women Mind the Water is to share stories and art that raises awareness of the connection between humans and water, reflects upon the ways humans engage with, and encourages taking responsibility for the ocean.
Pam Longobardi, an American contemporary artist and ecofeminist was a guest on the Women Mind the Water Artivist Series. Her Drifters Project creates sculptural installations from plastic debris that she has collected from marine and coastal environments across the globe. In her work, Pam Longobardi is making a visual statement about global consumption and the vast amounts of plastic objects that impact most remote places and their inhabitants around the globe.
“I have a particular interest in the combination of art, science, and activism. It’s a sort of triangulation that involves both sides of the mind and the heart, the heart of the activist. And so I think that is also something that is a necessary combination. We will need this for all aspects of humanity moving.”
Pam Longobardi, Women Mind the Water Artivist Series guest
Another example of an artivist is Dianna Cohen. She is an American visual artist as well as CEO and co-founder of the Plastic Pollution Coalition. The organization advocates for the reduction of plastic pollution. Dianne considers herself a painter although her body of work includes collage work made from plastic bags. She began by deconstructing the bags and layering them, putting them together, cutting them, and creating different shapes.
“Artists have always been the culture changers who have reflected or documented what was going on culturally, from Goya to all of the incredible feminist artists and painters, and conceptual artists who I love… I really value in the work that we do to raise awareness about plastic pollution, and that connection as well, to climate and climate change and how it impacts human health. They include Alvero Solera Arpa, who is an artist based in Catalonia, in Spain. He makes these life-sized imaginary, contemporary dinosaur sculptures out of the bones of animals, and he wires them and creates them in a way with rebar so that they look like they're running or in motion, and he fills the chest cavities with plastic pollution. And those pieces to me are very, very powerful. They remind me, as well, of photographs taken by Susan Middleton and Chris Jordan of dead adolescent Laysan albatross on Midway Island, who have died, and then in situ as the body decomposes, all that's left is an entire stomach or gut that was full of plastic. And this is plastic that was fed to them by the parents, lovingly, thinking that it was food, so regurgitated, fed to the babies, and the babies die with their stomachs full of plastic. And for me, those photographs, and then Alvero's sculptures, represent a metaphor for what we’re doing to ourselves, and we don’t realize… And those examples for me, are very powerful examples of how to connect with people and communicate with them on a different level. So not just telling them something, not just cerebrally, but hit them here, hit them here, in different parts of their body. Resonate with different shockers, make someone feel sick to their stomach when they see something. Evoking these kinds of emotional responses from people often are the thing that will make them change.”
I hope this brief overview has been helpful to you in understanding what artivism is and how artivists create art that communicates issues about which they are passionate.