{"id":61769,"date":"2018-02-13T15:25:30","date_gmt":"2018-02-13T14:25:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/?p=61769"},"modified":"2018-02-13T15:25:30","modified_gmt":"2018-02-13T14:25:30","slug":"bob-roberta-smith-activist-art","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/article\/bob-roberta-smith-activist-art\/","title":{"rendered":"When Art Meets Activism, The Whole World Is An Art School: Bob and Roberta Smith"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cTHE WHOLE WORLD IS AN ART SCHOOL!\u201d is the emblazoned across press releases at von Bartha Gallery. This motto is typical of the work of Bob and Roberta Smith, who has been a guiding force for activism in the arts since the early 2000s. The preferred medium for this activism is painting catchy taglines in vibrant typefaces, resulting in works that bear a resemblance to circus memorabilia. At von Bartha, these canvases-cum-placards are accompanied by brightly coloured Christmas lights, illuminating slogans paying homage to Captain Beefheart, Ian Curtis and Amy Winehouse. Arranged throughout the space are benches filled with paper and pink paint, inviting audiences to paint \u201cpink on pink\u201d. Smith\u2019s still life sculptures, implicitly meant to stir audience members\u2019 own creativity, take up the rest of the space; made up of gherkins and pear-like shapes, they look more like balloon animals than any traditional memento mori classroom set-up. In the middle of it all is Patrick Brill, a.k.a. Bob and Roberta Smith, strumming a ukulele in a porkpie hat.
\n\"\"
\nAs an artist-cum-activist, Bob and Roberta Smith has recently found himself in hallowed company. We live in an age where Nan Goldin has declared war on Sackler Pharmaceuticals; where the work of Barbara Kruger and Jenny Holzer has been inseparable from the #notsurprised<\/a> und #metoo movements<\/a>; and where Glasgow\u2019s Transmission Gallery hasn\u2019t been afraid to take its fight against funding cuts to the public. Art activism is ever present, and it\u2019s definitely becoming more than posturing and aesthetics confined to the white cube. When Sleek sat down with Bob and Roberta Smith, not only was he opening his working-art-school-cum-retrospective in Basel<\/a>; he was also fresh off the back of declaring \u201cart is a human right for children\u201d on BBC News. Who better \u2014 and when better \u2014 to discuss the changing and integral relationship between art and activism?
\nBob and Roberta Smith is a pseudonym or character duo that you created about 20 years ago. It has been in flux throughout your practice, and even at times embodied or co-opted by others. Who is Bob and Roberta Smith now?<\/strong><\/em>
\nWell at this moment in time it’s really me. I created them to avoid this ego-maniacal way that artists have of presenting themselves, but I guess over the years, it’s come back to just being me (laughing). Saying that, it did all come out of looking at fiction and the way in which you can make up stories in fiction. I wanted to take this tool and make art instead of writing a book. I\u2019ve noticed that the way art is viewed is always based on what the artist experiences \u2014 a person sees something and then they articulate it. Whereas in literature, you are not hampered by that scenario. So my work was really about making up a lot of untruths with a certain amount of authority. However, I have to say that on some levels, this whole backstory of Bob and Roberta Smith was too complicated for the art world, especially when I got my sister involved, or gave the characters away to people in Japan or Germany.
\n\"\"
\nIn what sense was it too complicated \u2014 is it because art is first and foremost a visual experience?<\/strong><\/em>
\nTo be successful in the art world, you have to play it straight: \u201cI\u2019m Tracey Emin this is my bed, this is my experience\u201d or \u201cI\u2019m going to cut this cow in half\u201d, and that’s your work. Nothing cryptic there. The dynamics of success in the art world do not depend on complexity or funny poetics directions, unfortunately. So as my art career advanced over the last 20 years, I have created layers of complexity so you can read the work on various levels and through various voices, depending on how much you want to take away from it.
\nThese voices are not limited to the gallery \u2014 you have a fondness for public debate, right?<\/strong><\/em>
\nYes. I\u2019m often tapping into social media, TV and opening my works up to the public. In fact, with the exhibition aligning with the public art cuts in the UK, we managed to get on BBC News with a banner that announced that \u201cart is a human right for children,\u201d which was great. Obviously its complex the way this came about, but I\u2019m definitely not an artist who wants my work to end up in a freezer in Geneva, unseen.
\n\"\"
\nThis act of participation goes beyond just informing your work, though you have been known to create working art schools as your practice, explicitly saying \u201cthey are not just for children\u201d. What’s your ethos on art and the masses?<\/strong><\/em>
\nWell let’s take painting \u2014 to engage with a painting meaningfully, you don\u2019t have to have drawn it, it can be quite an intellectual process of merely seeing one or hundreds of paintings. I have been trying to bring the mechanics of creativity into my work for over 20 years now. I know (and I\u2019m glad) I\u2019m not unique in this discourse \u2014 many artists have done this too. In fact, Nicolas Bourriaud\u2019s text on Relational Aesthetics highlights this notion of art in the late \u201890s.
\nDo you see yourself fitting into this category of Relational Aesthetics?<\/strong><\/em>
\nNot entirely, because I try to grab hold of the news media when I can. I write occasionally for The Guardian and have an active role in politics. Just the other day I was in parliament speaking against Brexit. I think artists should really speak out, and that’s not really within the context of Bourriaud RA idea.
\nIt’s actually quite novel in the art world to step beyond the safety of the white cube and bring art activism into \u201creal\u201d life. It doesn\u2019t seem to happen as often as it should.<\/strong><\/em>
\nWell I have found it can be a very successful modus, but I think it’s all about believability and authority when you start talking about these subjects. If you’re speaking about something you don\u2019t know anything about, the public and the media sense that. So I always talk about politics from an art perspective and people rally with me. 2010 was a key moment for this in the UK \u2014 we had a change of government and the financial crisis was eminent. They cut funds and squeezed the arts in schools curriculums. The latter wasn\u2019t about money, that was a political move for them to say something different. They wanted to make the schools more utilitarian and less humanistic and I just felt that was wrong, and I do teach and work within this field. So I created the \u201cArt Party\u201d in Scarborough 2014, which attracted a huge amount of artists \u2014 including Jeremy Deller, Cornelia Parker and Richard Wentworth \u2014 and all sorts of people and teachers. We had 2,000 people show up and talk about the importance of the arts in education.
\n\"\"
\nDid it have any knock-on effect in changing policy?<\/strong><\/em>
\nWell the real political effect was that is galvanised people, and it connected people. I also went on to stand against the education minister in the election and called it an artwork. It was very Bob and Roberta \u2014 lots of signs and colour, very non-threatening, but it gave me a chance to speak very directly to him and tell him what I thought of him. On a personal level it led me to think more severely about creative freedom of expression and how that’s discussed all over the world, but especially in places where they want to clamp down on human speech. It can be horrific, such as the case of the child that was shot after wanting to sing on \u201cTurkey\u2019s Got Talent\u201d or the incarceration of Pussy Riot. It’s always the writer, poet, dancer who ends up in prison first. As they have a media profile, the state wants to crush them in front of everyone as a warning to all others not to speak out, and that’s how the system works.
\nI guess for many people, in such dark political times, the last thing on their minds is art. Can you tell me why it’s so important to hold onto that, and how can we do it?<\/strong><\/em>
\nArt always looks forward. Contemporary art is a kind of future gazing. The arts create a new languages which frame the world in new ways allowing new things to be said. In the depths of Americas 1930s depression, Roosevelt devised the New Deal, with the arts central to its mission of hope… Invention in all ways brings hope, but artistic invention brings not only hope but joy, insight and, with a bit of luck, fun.
\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bob and Roberta Smith has been at the forefront of activist art for 2 decades; so who better to ask about how art is responding to these politically bleak times?<\/p>","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":61773,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11856,139],"tags":[10164,10165,7524,10166,4325,10167,10168],"class_list":["post-61769","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sleek-art","category-art","tag-activist-art","tag-art-activism","tag-basel","tag-bob-and-robera-smith","tag-politics","tag-protest-art","tag-von-bartha"],"acf":{"main_category":null,"legacy":"1","exclude_from_ads":null,"hero_title":null,"subtitle":null,"hero":null,"teasers":null,"facebook_image":null,"related_articles":null,"next_article":null,"sleek_card_focus":null,"content":null},"yoast_head":"\nBob and Roberta Smith On How Activist Art is Changing in 2018<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Bob and Roberta Smith has been at the forefront of activist art for two decades; so who better to ask about the changing role of art in these trying times?\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/article\/bob-roberta-smith-activist-art\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"de_DE\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Bob and Roberta Smith On How Activist Art is Changing in 2018\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Bob and Roberta Smith has been at the forefront of activist art for two decades; so who better to ask about the changing role of art in these trying times?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/article\/bob-roberta-smith-activist-art\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sleek Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sleekmag\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-02-13T14:25:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@sleekmag\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@sleekmag\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Verfasst von\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Penny Victoria Rafferty\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Gesch\u00e4tzte Lesezeit\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"7\u00a0Minuten\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/\",\"name\":\"Sleek Magazine\",\"description\":\"Sleek is Germany\u2019s leading independent media house\/brand for creativity and innovation located in Berlin the creative capital of the world. This creativity manifests itself in SLEEK\u2019s quarterly print publication, digital and social media channels.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"de\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"de\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/article\/bob-roberta-smith-activist-art\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"\",\"contentUrl\":\"\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/article\/bob-roberta-smith-activist-art\/#webpage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/article\/bob-roberta-smith-activist-art\/\",\"name\":\"Bob and Roberta Smith On How Activist Art is Changing in 2018\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/article\/bob-roberta-smith-activist-art\/#primaryimage\"},\"datePublished\":\"2018-02-13T14:25:30+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-02-13T14:25:30+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/#\/schema\/person\/3dbb609ef2057076dc2070c42466b637\"},\"description\":\"Bob and Roberta Smith has been at the forefront of activist art for two decades; so who better to ask about the changing role of art in these trying times?\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/article\/bob-roberta-smith-activist-art\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"de\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/article\/bob-roberta-smith-activist-art\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/article\/bob-roberta-smith-activist-art\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"When Art Meets Activism, The Whole World Is An Art School: Bob and Roberta Smith\"}]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/#\/schema\/person\/3dbb609ef2057076dc2070c42466b637\",\"name\":\"Penny Victoria Rafferty\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"de\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b58ccecb5356514f03e1b5e16b79f02eb5552cda30da7a6f705115f5f25b67bf?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b58ccecb5356514f03e1b5e16b79f02eb5552cda30da7a6f705115f5f25b67bf?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Penny Victoria Rafferty\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/author\/penny-victoria-rafferty\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Bob and Roberta Smith On How Activist Art is Changing in 2018","description":"Bob and Roberta Smith has been at the forefront of activist art for two decades; so who better to ask about the changing role of art in these trying times?","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/article\/bob-roberta-smith-activist-art\/","og_locale":"de_DE","og_type":"article","og_title":"Bob and Roberta Smith On How Activist Art is Changing in 2018","og_description":"Bob and Roberta Smith has been at the forefront of activist art for two decades; so who better to ask about the changing role of art in these trying times?","og_url":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/article\/bob-roberta-smith-activist-art\/","og_site_name":"Sleek Magazine","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sleekmag\/","article_published_time":"2018-02-13T14:25:30+00:00","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@sleekmag","twitter_site":"@sleekmag","twitter_misc":{"Verfasst von":"Penny Victoria Rafferty","Gesch\u00e4tzte Lesezeit":"7\u00a0Minuten"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/","name":"Schlankes Magazin","description":"Sleek ist Deutschlands f\u00fchrendes unabh\u00e4ngiges Medienhaus\/Marke f\u00fcr Kreativit\u00e4t und Innovation mit Sitz in Berlin, der kreativen Hauptstadt der Welt. Diese Kreativit\u00e4t manifestiert sich in der viertelj\u00e4hrlich erscheinenden Print-Publikation, den digitalen und Social-Media-Kan\u00e4len von SLEEK.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"de"},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"de","@id":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/article\/bob-roberta-smith-activist-art\/#primaryimage","url":"","contentUrl":""},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/article\/bob-roberta-smith-activist-art\/#webpage","url":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/article\/bob-roberta-smith-activist-art\/","name":"Bob and Roberta Smith On How Activist Art is Changing in 2018","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/article\/bob-roberta-smith-activist-art\/#primaryimage"},"datePublished":"2018-02-13T14:25:30+00:00","dateModified":"2018-02-13T14:25:30+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/#\/schema\/person\/3dbb609ef2057076dc2070c42466b637"},"description":"Bob and Roberta Smith has been at the forefront of activist art for two decades; so who better to ask about the changing role of art in these trying times?","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/article\/bob-roberta-smith-activist-art\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"de","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/article\/bob-roberta-smith-activist-art\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/article\/bob-roberta-smith-activist-art\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"When Art Meets Activism, The Whole World Is An Art School: Bob and Roberta Smith"}]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/#\/schema\/person\/3dbb609ef2057076dc2070c42466b637","name":"Penny Victoria Rafferty","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"de","@id":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b58ccecb5356514f03e1b5e16b79f02eb5552cda30da7a6f705115f5f25b67bf?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b58ccecb5356514f03e1b5e16b79f02eb5552cda30da7a6f705115f5f25b67bf?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Penny Victoria Rafferty"},"url":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/author\/penny-victoria-rafferty\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61769"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61769\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}