What possibilities for political transformation can be opened up through imagination, fantasy, and art? Can the left create instrumental change or is the game rigged? This week artist and writer Jacob Wren considers these questions, as well as ideas about the artist as political activist and the balance between egoism and conciliation in collaborative projects.
“Sometimes I think that the secret ingredient in art is art. Another thing that has come to the forefront of my mind over the years is how little room for art there is in art; how much of the structural and institutional ways of thinking in and around art keep out what I think of as art. For me art has to be something where you don’t know everything about it when you start. What I’m trying to do when I make work […] is discover something that I’m not entirely able to articulate.” – Jacob Wren
Wren, Jacob, Polyamorous Love Song, Toronto: Book Thug, 2014.
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What possibilities for political transformation can be opened up through imagination, fantasy, and art? Can the left create instrumental change or is the game rigged? This week artist and writer Jacob Wren considers these questions, as well as ideas about the artist as political activist and the balance between egoism and conciliation in collaborative projects.
“Sometimes I think that the secret ingredient in art is art. Another thing that has come to the forefront of my mind over the years is how little room for art there is in art; how much of the structural and institutional ways of thinking in and around art keep out what I think of as art. For me art has to be something where you don’t know everything about it when you start. What I’m trying to do when I make work […] is discover something that I’m not entirely able to articulate.” – Jacob Wren
Wren, Jacob, Polyamorous Love Song, Toronto: Book Thug, 2014.
Spherical Sphagnum and Paul Chartrand (The Secret Ingredient – 17/09/14)
The Secret Ingredient
53 minutes 18 seconds
10 years ago
Spherical Sphagnum and Paul Chartrand (The Secret Ingredient – 17/09/14)
Socially-engaged artist Paul Chartrand discusses his work Kokedama: A Fragmented Garden at the Niagara Artists Centre in St. Catharines Ontario. Hear about the political side of houseplants, spider plants, staghorn and boston ferns, morning glories, and succulents: these green guerrillas that rebel against the concrete jungle and accelerate the reclamation of the city by nature. Consider plant balls as new communities and red wigglers that munch on constitutional documents in this artist’s search for nature’s self-renewing propulsion in the face of the stagnating structures of urban systems.
“There’s not necessarily one miracle ingredient, but it definitely involves the ability to reflect on one’s own personal circumstances and the issues that surround that in order to create a meaningful response. Offering that to others in way that sparks conversation is the best thing an artist can do. Art is almost inevitably a self-portrait.” - Paul Chartrand
The Secret Ingredient
What possibilities for political transformation can be opened up through imagination, fantasy, and art? Can the left create instrumental change or is the game rigged? This week artist and writer Jacob Wren considers these questions, as well as ideas about the artist as political activist and the balance between egoism and conciliation in collaborative projects.
“Sometimes I think that the secret ingredient in art is art. Another thing that has come to the forefront of my mind over the years is how little room for art there is in art; how much of the structural and institutional ways of thinking in and around art keep out what I think of as art. For me art has to be something where you don’t know everything about it when you start. What I’m trying to do when I make work […] is discover something that I’m not entirely able to articulate.” – Jacob Wren
Wren, Jacob, Polyamorous Love Song, Toronto: Book Thug, 2014.
