Art and Politics - A practical approach

Art and politics talk

Date: Sunday 28 August

Time: 2pm

Venue: New House Art Space, New House, Fays Passage, Guildford, GU1 4SQ

Do I need to bring anything?

Yourselves. But please do also bring your ideas, thoughts and any artwork or graphics you have done on a political theme. The talk will take about 40 minutes but then there will be plenty of time to share your ideas and ask questions and learn from each other.

What came first? Art or politics?

Well, art of course. One of the questions I’m asked as an artist is: How long have you been painting. And the answer is ‘As long as I can remember’. But my personal political involvement started with the EU referendum. I am passionately pro European and believe our place is within the EU. So, by 2015, I was standing on street corners in Reigate and Sutton handing out leaflets. Following the referendum I was involved in the ‘People’s Vote’ campaign, both nationally and locally and all the time I was making art.

Art is solitary but politics is not. Out on the streets there is an almost continuous conversation: With fellow protesters and with the public. Many people will come up and talk, either to agree or disagree. In some strange way this feeds my internal vision. This became even clearer during lockdown. With so few actual voices in my life the voices coming from the radio or podcasts became more and more important. Every day I would tune into the BBC ‘Newscast’ to make sense of the world and so it made sense to paint a picture of Laura Keunssberg. Hearing the ideas of Andy Burnham made me want to paint him too. Usually, I paint people I admire or like but, sometimes, I am motivated by anger. The day after he was elected to lead the Conservative party I painted a very quick sketch of Boris Johnson. This was carried through the streets on one of the ‘People’s Vote’ marches.

So, if you make art, how do you make political art? Get involved, join a party, start the conversation. Do what you believe in. It will push you in ways you didn’t expect. I had to learn how to use photoshop, how to make a placard that doesn’t fall apart, how to convey political meaning by the look in an eye or the tilt of a chin.

Can we change the world through art? I think so. Give it a go.