Conclusion
With Intent to Inspire Social Change
Through the activities in this WebQuest module, you've developed an understanding of the concept of Social Commentary Art, and you've explored the relationship between the Visual Arts and social criticism. You've been introduced to important visual artists Banksy, and Chris Jordan, and you've begun to explore their messages and criticisms of society.
Most importantly, you've begun to explore your own messages of social criticism, and you've began to discover ways of implementing social commentary into your own visual creations.
Remember the objective: When your intention is to inspire social change you have to make sure that the commentary is at the forefront of the art. Make it obvious enough for people to get it without insulting your viewer's intelligence.
For further reading and exploration of Social Commentary Art, take a look at some to these additional resources.
(1) FURTHER EXAMPLES
Nick Rodriques’ Human Interaction Series
This resource also falls under the category of providing thought provoking
examples. Although perhaps not as
internationally recognized as Chris Jordan or Banksy, Nick Rodrigues’ artworks
provide an essential perspective of sculptural and performance art for social
commentary. Nick Rodriques creates
artworks that are his “way of talking about the issues we all see but cannot
change.” Nick’s Portable Cellular Phone
Booth from 2002 offers a bit of necessary humour to an often bleak and serious
topic (social commentary).
http://www.nickrodrigues.com/art/phoneBooth.html
(2) FURTHER READING
Articles Related to “Art as Social Commentary”
Suite101.com provides an extensive list of nearly 50 web-articles that have
been written on a topic related to “Art as Social Commentary.” This page may provide an essential resource
of materials for students to further their reading about this topic. A quick skim of the page shows that there are
topics from a variety of time periods and cultures. This resource may help to provide a historic
perspective to expressionist art (Eastern
European History Culture Clues, The
Pre-Raphaelites) or
even modern perspective from a variety of cultures (Pakistani-American
Artist Challenges Stereotypes, Analysis
of Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart). I imagine this being a great resource to
include reading (and summarizing) assignments into the art class.
http://www.suite101.com/reference/art_as_social_commentary
(3) FURTHER EXAMPLES: IMAGE GALLERY
Satire & Social Commentary Portrayed in Art
This page contains a
listing of original art by international artists with a focus on satirical and
social issues portrayed in art throughout the centuries. Although its primary purpose is to sell prints
of these artworks, it offers a wide selection of international fine art
etchings, lithographs, watercolors, paintings, drawings or other mediums of
original graphic art from the Renaissance to the contemporary art period. This resource features original satirical
artworks from some of the genre’s most important artists: from Francisco Goya, and William Hogarth,
Thomas Rowlandson, William Bunbury, to modern artists Charles Bragg, and Arnie
Levin (to offer just a few). This would
be a great resource of visual examples, especially for those students who may
have difficulty searching for other examples on their own. There are literally hundreds of artists here
who have made artwork for the purpose of satirizing their social culture.
http://www.artoftheprint.com/mainpages/artindsatirical.htm
(4) FURTHER READING & EXAMPLES (AMERICAN PERSPECTIVE)
Art & Social Issues in American Culture
This resource, from the Columbus Museum of Art in Ohio, provides examples of
American Social Commentary Art from the period of 1930-1970. This resource has information for both
teachers and students, and offers perspective on a varied of American social
issues from this time period. Issues of
Economics (rural and urban poverty, labour disputes), War (WWI through the
Vietnam War), and Race & Ethnicity (Lynching, Anti-Semitism, Civil-Rights,
Race Relations, and Spirituality), can be explored. Great visual examples and links to essential
American artist of this time period are provided.
http://artandsocialissues.cmaohio.org/index.html
(5) A Link to Ontario’s Curriculum and Further
Resources
The Socially-based Curriculum Unit from
the Ontario Secondary School Teacher’s Federation provides a document of further
resources that fit this module. This
is great resource for those that may need a prompt to find further topics or
prompt for social commentary or criticism. From this list, I particularly like the following resource: Global Aware Independent
Media. Global Aware’s postcards are
comprised of images from all over the world, and provide excellent examples of
socially commentary from the Graphic Arts perspective.
http://globalfairtrade.ca/cat-postcards.cfm