Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak and Socially Engaged Arts Practice

written by Claire Briegel INTRODUCTION Spivak's discursive workperhaps best described in short as active theoryengages with a multidisciplinary approach to the essential ethical concerns surrounding postcolonialism. The profound crux of this concern is whilst not being conse!uently reducible to one of representation and relation. "or Spivak representation is about ethical relation to the #ther and relating is about how identity and imagination is read and formed. $n essential and irreducible component of these terms is responsibility and the unrelenting urgency of the need to find 'transnational literacy' that allows for the reading of difference in non%essentialist non%hierarchical ways& in other words a commitment to a transnational imagination where one's privilege can be comparatively unlearned 'The Spivak Reader, p. (). *hilst we can speak about such comparative commitments in Spivak's thinking in relation to education philosophy reading and theorising it is important to situate them within the pedagogical interventions and activism that make up Spivak's pro+ectwhere theory is always strategic. This work is specifically aligned to the status of the Subalternthe most 'oppressed and invisible constituencies' of peoplemade as such by both discourses of coloni,ation and decoloni,ation which are inherently tied up with the international division of labour and global capitalism 'TSR, p. -). This essay will make every effort to respect the commitment and goal of this strategy at the same time as it seeks to find broader correspondences between socially engaged arts and cultural practice that could be informed or better understood through Spivak's work. Because of the variety of cultural texts this essay will refer to in relation to socially engaged practice the way in which . will move from more general terms to specific examples and in line with Spivak's work itself this essay will not restrict the position of the term post%coloniality 'to citi,ens of decoloni,ed countries alone'. There will be an acceptance or agreement that as /ark Sanders puts it0 '.n globali,ation as soon as one enters a relation of connectedness in distance 'in the mode of tele-), one is implicated' 'Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, live theory, p. 12). . will argue that this insistence and Spivak's work as a whole has something uni!ue and essential to offer to any cultural practice working in between art and activism or within the realms of art and social engagement. *hilst this essay will move between cultural examples of aesthetics art and activism in order to do +ustice to a broad array of nuanced practices the cultural text framing my argument will be the working practices of art and activist group *ochen3lausur. i The extensive textual information available on their website is richly informed by art histories as well as being 2

strategically written as a manifestation of their practice and theory. The aim of the essay will not be to apply Spivak's theories to their practices to decide on their successes or failures but rather to open up a space of 'affirmative deconstruction' where we can speak more openly about the aims and responsibilities of such pro+ects in terms of their position in the era of 4lobali,ation framed by Spivak's pragmatic and theoretical exploration of aesthetic education ' The Post-Colonial Critic, p.12).

SPI !", SOCI!# $NG!G$%$NT, &OC'$N"#!USUR To engender a working definition of social engagement in art and cultural practices for the purpose of this exploration . will refer to *ochen3lausur's text '"rom the #b+ect to the Concrete .ntervention' found on their website. By way of working through and 'reconstellating' the 'historic precursors' of social engagement the text can be read as a kind of manifesto of the group's own practiceswhich are situated as relational to other practices within the wider cultural fabric. ii *ochen3lausur declare that art's 'formal%aesthetic discussion has run its course' and been replaced by a fundamental !uestion of functionality. *hen *ochen3lausur describe the former !uestion's 'myriad self%referential somersaults' as 'inflationary' . can't help but liken this to Spivak's criti!ue of the 'narcissistic touchstone of *estern imperial and masculine identities' as inherent in making cross%difference ethical relations impossible ' TSR, p.5). *ochen3lausur seem to be suggesting that !uestions figured in purely aesthetic termsin other words not relating in any significant way to the social world in which they are situatedare unethical because they do not pose any 'contribution to the solution of real problems' outside themselves as ob+ect. This is an important consideration to which we will return 'and criti!ue) in relation to Spivak's theory of conceptualism which we will find does not offer a simple conclusion. $n important contribution not to overlook is the impossibility inferred of such a thing as pure aesthetics and the suggestion that aesthetics and politics are not separable. The initial 'demateriali,ation' of the aesthetic art ob+ect can be detailed in what is broadly termed the Conceptual $rt movement of the late -6's and early 76's where art began to subvert its self%referential !ualities through its inherent criti!ue of aesthetic readings of the social world. *ith the backdrop of the 8ietnam *ar the $rt *orkers' Coalition's '$nd Babies' poster reads as a kind of 9ost%Barthean aesthetic challenge to the supposed truthful representation of the image and call for a comprehension of the realities of such devastation. iii .n a sense this was also a call for responsibility and was echoed by many conceptual works of the timebut in light of the term 'engagement' we are now occupied with considering0 'to whom was this work calling for 1

responsiveness and responsibility:'. *ochen3lausur suggest that although 'important precursors of today's political $ctivism' works like these whilst 'dealing with issues like race class nation and gender' remained 'diligently staged' due to continuing to be presented in traditional gallery contexts and thus only reaching an elite audience. This conundrum is one to which we will come return shortly within the context of Spivak's idea of 'unlearning one's privilege as one's loss' and thinking about audience and participation ' TSR, p.(). Conceptualism steadily moved into institutional criti!ue most widely associated with artist ;ans ;aacke whose work sought to problemati,e art world institutions and highlighted the limited demographic they spoke to through the use of politici,ed !uestionnaires. iv This action then started to become in *ochen3lausur's words more 'concrete' with interventions like the $rtist 9lacement 4roup which placed artists within organisations where they would have a say in policy making related to education healthcare and government. This 'reflection on the social responsibility of art' manifested in a multitude of strands and actions between the late -6's and <6's which are detailed and dissected by *ochen3lausur but for the sake of being concise and in order to move onto a more strategic focus through Spivak's work . will skip to the group's final statement of 'the group's) socially engaged practice now. *ochen3lausur declare0 'at the end of the century $ctivist art no longer overestimates its capabilities. But it does not underestimate them either. .t makes modest contributions.' These contributions are they say 'limited'. . see this limit as a crucial point upon which *ochen3lausur mark the very possibility of 'concrete strategies for effecting change'& it is an acceptance rather than a nihilistic begrudging it seems of some of the realistic ''im)possibilities' and complications of engaging oppressed constituencies. They say0
$s a potential basis for action art has political capital at its disposal that should not be underestimated. The use of this potential to manipulate social circumstances is a practice of art +ust as valid as the manipulation of traditional materials. The group *ochen3lausur takes this function of art and its historic precursors as its point of departure. *ochen3lausur sets precise tasks for itself and in intensive actions that are limited in time attempts to work out solutions to the problems it has recogni,ed.

They say that these matters are and we will return to this complex matter through Spivak 'not to be confused with an excess of moralistic fervour'. .t is at this crux that Spivak's thought can offer a valuable criti!ue aside from uniform discourse and perhaps most importantly 'in Spivak's terms) an alternative to thinking from above as opposed to learning from below.

!PP#(ING T'$ORI$S .f we were to place *ochen3lausur's profile so far into ideological lines for the purpose of this investigation 'whilst crude . hope this will be useful to an attempt at application) they would be0 a marked distinction between self%referential or conceptual art work and artistic contributions which contribute to solving 'real problems' with a clear favouring of the latter. a re+ection of any art work and action *ochen3lausur consider to be staged and largely by default disseminated to elite audiences in contrast to socially responsible art work that disseminates towards or works with broader audiences. a cynicism towards art work made without a realistic recourse to art's limits as well as art made with utopian moralistic intentions in favour of concrete and strategic manipulations of social circumstance. .n ';arlem' 'as well as other essays from !n !esthetic $d)cation in the $ra o* Glo+ali,ation, 1621) a publication text on the work of photographer $lice $ttie Spivak reflects upon the work of conceptuali,ation in art. >eferring to the piece %ap by Taiwanese artist Tsong 9u Spivak offers a problemati,ation of the clear differentiation between work that is conceptual and work that is concrete. The work installed in ;ong 3ong ?niversity of Science and Technology comprised a re% assemblage of a map of China which began in the shape of Taiwanand was then open to be rearranged by visitorsas well as a cement monument engraved with the figure '2<<7' 'the year of official repatriation). Spivak notes that 'the artist could be conceptuali,ing this as a fro,en series of bilateralities... @withA rough concrete blocks weigh@ingA down bodies that must drown without a trace'. .n answer to the !uestion 'to what concept might @2<<7A refer:' Spivak replies that 'the power of conceptual art is that as the visual pushes towards the verbal !uestions like these cannot be definitively answered' '!$$G, p. (66). .t is at after this point that Spivak's argument takes on a significant double bind of undecidabilitywhich may at first be read with frustration for its seeming impenetrabilitybut which . will try to dismantle carefully. ;aving asserted the strength of conceptualism in 'piercing out but not through' grand historical narratives and disarming any attempt to fix identity the text takes a rather dissenting tone0 '@the cultural workers' conceptuali,ation of identityA feeds the souls of those in charge of cultural explanations who visit museums and exhibitions' going on to tell us that '@sheA spent five months in ;ong 3ong. . never saw anyone looking at %ap- Culture had run away elsewhere' '!$$G, p. (66). This leads her to ask simultaneously0 'who sends the collective messages of identity: *ho receives them:' which she explores discursively through the dynamics involved with representing imagining (

and naming ;arlem ?nited States 'please see endnotes for more details). v She explores the metonymic staging of the place by dominant discourses as a 'package' pertaining to be both 'global' and 'local' as well as the district being sub+ect to both globali,ed cultural nostalgia and social development '!$$G, p. (6=). $s such this place is sub+ect to a 'vanishing present' that will erase the non%dominant voices without trace ' !$$G, p. (65). $ttie's photographs seem to document this 'differentiating present' with the camera's ga,e focused on public mourning and inscriptions being left by people 'suspended' in this place ' !$$G, p. (6-). Spivak notes that 'the inscribed collectivities in the photographs are hardly ever women and of course never !ueer' whilst there are prosthetic representations of women in Per*ect Co.*ort and 'ats/$0ercise 1aith 2!$$G, p. (25)-vi Such images capture a moment trapped between the fixing and loss of identities particular to such a place in the era of globali,ation& as such the images themselves cannot be lexiconi,ed into answers. Thus Spivak returns to her !uestion though now worded differently0 'was there ever a felicitous sender and receiver of those inscriptions that $lice photographed:' 2!$$G, p. (1-). ;er answer to this !uestion is expansive and . think key to an understanding of how Spivak's aesthetic education can add to an understanding of socially engaged art pro+ects0
.t is the negotiability of senders and receivers that allows teleiopoiesis touching the distant other with imaginative effort. The !uestion of negotiability like all necessary impossibilities must be forever begged assumed as possible before proof... . ask you to negotiate between the rock of social history and the hard place of seamless culture to honour what we cannot grasp. .s there anyone out there any more for such negotiations except in name:

The problem lies herein of speaking about sending and receiving in art work. *hilst the !uestion of 'who for:' is a !uestion of great importance to socially engaged practitioners and indeed for Spivak herself the answering of this we are warned should remain negotiable. $ny attempt by $ttie's photographs to fix a Subaltern voice in inscription would have made the work complicit with harmful discourses& at the same time this would also have been true of any attempt to address or name a particular audience for risk of falsely authenticating an #ther's experience and identity. *hilst this leaves many !uestions unanswered there is a strong warning here that . think translates well into thinking through pro+ects working directly and strategically with groups like those of *ochen3lausurthat is to learn from audiences rather than attempting to know them or claiming to speak for them. This is of particular resonance when put into the contemporary and difficult context of arts funding in socially engaged arts which has a tendency to ask for results rather than process and uniform groups rather than undisclosed or open publics. vii 5

There is also crucially a criti!ue here about any clear distinction being made between work which asks aesthetic or representational !uestions and those that work directly with collectivities. The warning seems to be both affirmative and bleak. "irstly *e must not underestimate the undecidability of the representational realm and the responsibility we have as cultural practitioners therefore to work with it in 'learning to learn from below' ' Gayatri Spivak, ed. /orton p. 276). This . think Spivak is suggesting should not be about founding a specifically 'non%elite' public B and her work wills us to recognise the ethical problem of trying to do so 'both in generalising a non%elite as well as naming one). .n the same sense as the work of deconstruction though not in Spivak's words 'able to found a political pro+ect of any kind'cannot be overlooked in the role of education so too we are warned that conceptual workseven if not strategically aligned to publicsshould not necessarily be overlooked. This . think is especially true if we take the task of responsibility being informed by our position, and that this rethinking of position can take place on many levels. This means not bypassing works involving a varied level of 'real' participation and a focus on cultural re%dissemination % like Say Parsley '166C) an audio%visual play on a Shibboleth which deconstructs the power of language by Caroline Bergvall. viii The space of culture too is the space of real problems& there is therefore a space for works that interrupt the cultural dominant even if they are not strategically positioned to their audience and this is precisely because they are not directive. But we have not yet answered the !uestion of where this leaves pro+ects like *ochen3lausur's which 'develop and reali,e proposals % small%scale but very concrete % for improving sociopolitical deficits'. Such pro+ects are usually aligned with marginali,ed constituencies like in their recent pro+ect working with a group of unemployed women to start up a small business in the socio%economically deprived Drumchapel 4lasgow. ix *e must not forget that though deconstructive in its ethics of responsibility Spivak's pro+ect is a pragmatic and active one that works against the 'apathy of self%centrali,ation' at the same time as it eschews being 'field%work' B an anthropological paradigm that Spivak warns against ' TSR, p. 262). '*orking with' should certainly not be about 'speaking for' and more about accepting some of the impossibilities of speaking out freely by learning to 'be silent together' or speak with rather than for ' !$$G, p. (2-). 9erhaps some of the most successful pro+ects and art works 'in my opinion) seem do as such& for example 9etra Bauer's Sisters3, a collaborative documentary film pro+ect made with the Southall Black Sisters B a politically engaged organisation working with black and minority women. x The work here is as much about the duration and the workings of the pro+ect than the final document and its subse!uent gallery screening although the availability of this as an archive is important. So then perhaps the answer 'though this will not be obli!ue and will simply call for further and ongoing investigation) lies in the !uestionasked by *ochen3lausur and others working inside -

and outside the fieldwhy art: CONC#USIONS *ochen3lausur answer this !uestion affirmatively0 'art has political capital at its disposal that should not be underestimated'... @*ochen3lausur's workA becomes art through its recognition and that comes about within institutional mechanisms. Every art remains a fully harmless raw material until these mechanisms take this raw material and circulate an opinion about it.' There is a real political imperative here and art holds a firm possibility of being strategic. There seems to be a strong relation of depth here with what Spivak calls the ' strate4ic use of positivist essentialism in a scrupulously visible political interest' by which she means using a certain self%consciousness about imposed identities to allow space for subversive reflexes ' In the other &orlds5 essays in C)lt)ral Politics, p 165). *hat Spivak's thought offers to *ochen3lausur's dictum is a reminder of the identity politics inherent in any appropriable political capital. $t the centre of any social engagement should be a 'pedagogic attention to learn the weave of torn cultural fabric'& in other words essential to any strategy should be an ethical relation to the #ther ' GCT5 #T, p. 1(). There is no clear%cut delineation between art artist strategy and participant because learning should take a durational format whereby cultural practitioners make every effort to listen to others. *hilst this pro+ect might be about facilitation it should never rely on top%heavy political relation where the artist essentially knows best. The limits of Spivak's theoretical pragmatic and pedagogic work are also its strengths. Through Spivak and *ochen3lausur we have seen that art's ethical dimension relies on its ability to be congruent about its own limits and this is also true of the application of 'theory' to any broader 'cultural text'. . have not answered the !uestions posed and nor have . strictly sub+ected *ochen3lausur's pro+ects to an applied criti!ue. Between Spivak and *ochen3lausur however . feel we have uncovered a space of ethics where a breadth of discussions relating to socially engaged arts practice can take place. This will not be reducible to !uestions and answers but will demand an ongoing call of responsibility for the ethical relationship within aesthetic political and collective pro+ects.

Bibliography Writings by Spivak !n !esthetic $d)cation in the $ra o* Glo+ali,ation 'Cambridge0 ;arvard ?niversity 9ress 1621) Death o* a Discipline 'Few Gork0 Columbia ?niversity 9ress 166=) In Other &orlds5 $ssays in C)lt)ral Politics 'Hondon0 /ethuen 2<C7) The Postcolonial Critic5 Intervie6s, Strate4ies, Dialo4)es, ed. Sarah ;arasym 'Hondon0 >outledge 2<<6) The Spivak Reader, ed. Donna Handry and 4erald /aclean 'Hondon0 >outledge 2<<-)

Other writings /orton Stephen Gayatri Spivak, $thics, S)+alternity and the Criti7)e o* Postcolonial Reason 'Cambridge0 9olity 9ress 1667) Sanders /ark Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, live theory 'Hondon0 Continuum .nternational 166-)

Websites and online documents *ochen3lausur's website0 http0IIwww.wochenklausur.atIpro+wahl.php:langJen 'last accessed on 5th $pril 162=) Bergvall Caroline ?$ 9oetry Center /ay 166C0 http0IIpoetrycenter.ari,ona.eduIconceptualpoetryIcpKmediaImiscIbergvall.pdf 'last accessed on (th $pril 162=)

ii iii iv

vi vii viii

ix

Extensive information about *ochen3lausur's pro+ects 'apart from the most recent)0 http0IIwww.wochenklausur.atIpro+wahl.php:langJen 'last accessed on 5th $pril 162=) '"rom the #b+ect to the Concrete .ntervention' can be found at0 http0IIwww.wochenklausur.atIkunst.php:langJen "or more information0 http0IImoussemaga,ine.itIarticolo.mm:idJ-6< 'accessed on 2st $pril 162=) "or more information on ;ans ;aacke's archive0 http0IIwww.frie,e.comIissueIreviewIhansKhaackeI 'last accessed on 5th $pril 162=) Spivak introduction to ;arlem may be useful here0 'Throughout the nineteenth century ;arlem was Lan isolated poor rural village.M .n the nineteenth century it became a fashionable residential district. "ollowing the panic of 2C<= property owners rented to blacks and by *orld *ar . much of ;arlem was firmly established as a black residential and commercial area although race and class cross%hatching was considerable... Since the 2<<6's ;arlem has been the focus of ma+or economic Ldevelopment M and the property ownership graph is changing. 9art of the LdevelopmentM package seems to be an invocation of a seamless community and culture marking the neighborhood on left and right finally working in the same interest the $merican dream' ' !$$G, p. (6=). "or more information and images of $lice $ttie's work0 http0IIaliceattie.comI 'last accessed on 5th $pril 162=) "or more research in this area0 http0IIprodmams.rmit.edu.auICnn11vgkb7pw,.pdf 'last accessed on (th $pril 162=) "or a more in%depth analysis please see0 http0IIpoetrycenter.ari,ona.eduIconceptualpoetryIcpKmediaImiscIbergvall.pdf 'last accessed on (th $pril 162=) "or more information on *ochen3lausur's pro+ect in 4lasgow in collaboration with Drumchapel Hife as part of the $cono.y exhibition0 http0IIeconomyexhibition.stills.orgIartistsIwochenklausurI 'last accessed on 5th $pril 162=) "or more information see0 http0IIwww.theshowroom.orgIprogramme.html:idJ71- 21(2 'last accessed on 5th $pril 162=)