Art of the State - State of the Art

As we enter the Nineties, the rôle of the visual arts is in a state of paradox. Never has there been such a profusion of visual communication in the media, and never has its content been more superficial and establishment/consumer orientated. Its sum total seems to amount to one continuous television advert. The marriage of style and avarice. In many way the society of the spectacle foreseen by the Situationists in the late Sixties has come of age. The media and television in particular has reduced politics, royalty, religion, crime and culture etc. to the level of one continuous soap opera. They all share the same sordid media bed. The push for change and liberation in tbe Sixties of America and Europe has been nullified and superseded by a right-wing revolution. The revolution which the youth of the left in the late Sixties and early Seventies thought was their preserve, was subverted by the right. Greed and materialism are the new gods, while compassion and the spirit are scorned. In many respects much of the progress made up to the Eighties, especially in Britain, has been systematically curtailed both in politics and culture, and replaced with right-wing legislation and philosophy.

This has resulted in the means of communication, information and propaganda being in the hands of a select few. The power élites become more powerful and the rest more unable to change their lives for the better, unless they accept wholesale the new doctrine of consumerism. It is high time the new communication technology is liberated .

(How to become Invisible. Jamie Reid and Margi Clarke.
Painting for stage set - 1982)

One manifestation of the late Eighties is its refusal to accept its own real time. There is an unreal and unhealthy obsession with the past and nostalgia. The Forties, Fifties, Sixties and Seventies pop up every day.
Today's teenager is an unsincere mixture of all the past teen cultures: all style and no content, pinned together like an adman's dream. Surely a new teenage identity will emerge soon, created by teenagers for themselves. This will reject consumption and Americanisation and will move forward and progress Teenage - not staying stagnated and contained by establishment adults' idea of 'Teenage'.
All these manifestations are reflected in the role of the visual in the last decades of the Twentieth Century. They reflect the newconservative materialism - the rape and negation of the imagination.

Style Sucks

The only values and standards are those of material success, pop charts and media value. Visual form is created by the manufacturer and the distributor (the companies); not by the artists, performers or consumers. The gimmick proliferates; the superficial and the glib titivate the establishment media. Censorship prevails because there is no mass outlet for any alternative ideas; only those which are accepted as the propaganda of the status quo appear. There has been great advancement in the visual possibilities of communication through new technology, but most lack substance or integrity and are used to push product and manipulate minds; producing passivity and superficial satisfaction, and negating the possibility of people thinking for themselves and controlling their own lives.

The rôle of the arts is to liberate the spirit and the imaginations; to create a new counter culture.

We have become enslaved by fear: fear of cancer, aids, the bomb, isolation, failure, poverty.
If used spiritually, computers can take us a step nearer, helping to bring back our lost senses.
Long live universal telepathy.
It almost seems that the only way to survive is to be submissive or to join in the spectacle. The 'haves' have never had it so good; the 'have nots' have never been more had.

(Unicorn / Chaos in Cancerland. Jamie Reid and Margi Clarke.
Gouache. 380 x 275 mm - 1982)

It's time to be brave and kindle the fires of hope for the Twenty-first Century.