[The Seven by Nine Squares home page] [YAWN 18] [Art Strike 1990-1993]

Struck by the Art Strike

What would I do with my free time? Art! What a fantasy, to actually have time to create things. God, what I'd do! Fuck it, I'll make believe I have time! I'll make time-to finish up old projects, start new ones, to send out more art than ever before. The mere idea of a three-year break is so inspiring I ought to share it with other obligation-minded, work-a-day people. In fact the idea needs a catchy name and a few slogans to go with it. Perhaps we can infect the underground with it, maybe influence all of society! How about the Art Glut? In the world of polyartistry, more is better. Let's perpetuate the art glut! Let's produce more & more & more art! Cover your city with posted artwork (try spraying poster backs with evaporated milk) wage a sticker campaign, fill the countryside with large scale sculptural structures! Write every day, dance, start a magazine, play music, make tapes, perform, perform, make a mask and wear it every day but October 31st. Celebrate the "anyone can do it" philosophy by doing it! Sure there will be drivel next to masterworks-so what? Why should the range of quality and diversity in art be different from that in any other realm? Art needn't be an elitist activity; that's the problematic misconception in the first place.

Collaborate like mad! Let's interconnect all networks. Everyone knows someone with some special interest. Let's tie them together in the name of collective creativity! Build life-size bizarre chess piece sculptures played by members of a chess club moving their pieces to live music on a "board" of rare prairie grasses grown by avid agriculturalists. Learn from the children: leave them be and watch them create all day long. Play with your food! Make food art and enjoy eating it. The Art Glut is a nonstop celebration. If we as humans have anything special, it is exactly our ability to be creative! Don't renege this sacred quality-indulge in it! Have neighborhood TV-painting parties. Paint your clothes, too. Film it all on cable access. Recycle! Make something practical and beautiful out of beer cans and cigarette packages. Teach courses on dumpster diving so people of all classes can experience the simultaneous joys of treasure hunting and recycling!

[Xexoxial Endarchy

The preceding text was excerpted from the essay "Struck by the Art Strike (an Art Glut preamble)" by Elizabeth Was.