In our films, we have shown artists using their work as a way to give back to communities, directly engaging with a broader public as a means of connection and collaboration. Thomas Hirschhorn’s Gramsci Monument created a site-specific sculpture with a community, for the community. Oliver Herring’s TASK encourages a community of participants to take creative risks together. And by collaborating directly with local schools and museums, performances from Nick Cave’s Heard series have brought communities together for a single transformative moment.
At Art21, we share that passion for connecting people through the power of contemporary art. As Cave says in our film, “I want to use art as a form of diplomacy.” You can help make that possible—bringing contemporary art to a global audience—through a year-end donation to Art21.
Featured Video from the Art21 Library
Nick Cave in “Chicago”
From Season 8 of Art21’s broadcast series Art in the Twenty-First Century
Nick Cave creates “Soundsuits”–surreally majestic objects blending fashion and sculpture–that originated as metaphorical suits of armor in response to the Rodney King beatings and have evolved into vehicles for empowerment.
“This place of dreaming within my work really is the place that I find that I exist in most of the time,” says the artist. “What do I need to put in place to allow you to dream?”
Featured Art21 Playlist
The Anarchic Potential of Color
Bright and busy to the cusp of chaotic, the color employed by the artists in these films can’t be contained by a traditional palette. Instead, the hues fill compositions and entire walls to express the artist’s larger ideas, using color as a starting point to explore notions of memory, space, identity and more.
Inspired by the use of color inside and outside the art world, these artists fuse multiple influences to illuminate new ideas.
Highlights from the Art21 Magazine
Orawan Arunrak. Exit – Entrance, 2017. Installation view, Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin. Photo: Wolfgang Bellwinkel. Courtesy of the artist. © Orawan Arunrak.
From the November / December “Empathy” issue:
- Artist Cauleen Smith and Culture Type editor Victoria L. Valentine select twelve texts that offer rare perspectives for “How Did We Get Here? A Reading List for Understanding Race in America.”
- Curator Roger Nelson introduces the participatory practice of Thai artist Orawan Arunrak, who complicates categories of identity and perception by creating work with many meanings, in many languages, for many people.
Join Art21
Twenty years ago, Art21 established itself as the preeminent chronicler of artists’ lives and creative processes on film. Today, with over 500 hours of film on today’s leading artists, Art21 houses a substantial living archive of contemporary art, available to viewers around the world at Art21.org. This is only possible with the support of viewers like you, who make Art21 films a reality.
Please consider making a year-end donation of $21 or more by December 31 to receive early access to a new film from Art21’s Extended Play series, sent right to your inbox.
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