What is “Social Practice Art”
Until 2014 when my first public art project The Other Green Line was underway, I’d never heard of social practice art. It struck me at first as a needlessly academic word for “making art with people,” but a friend informed me that my project was a social practice art project, and this felt really affirming at a time when I was still struggling to call myself an artist at all. I have come to embrace the term because it connects the work I do artistically to a larger world-wide movement and because social practice art challenges the typical definitions of art. “Art” does not have to be a completed object, something to regard or purchase. What if it is something we become a part of when we encounter it? What if its the process, not the product, that is the art?
The Other Green Line - Bohemian Flats Foray, 2014
The social practice artist is interested in big questions and creates space to explore them with their audience. Yoko Ono is one of my heroes for her groundbreaking work engaging audiences in the completion of her pieces. She took and idea, like “What if war was over?” and made us contemplate our individual roles in making that come true with a simple “…if you want it” in small type under a headline “WAR IS OVER!” I even got to become a part of this artwork when I was invited to bring screen printing press to the Walker Art Center to reproduce “War is Over…(if you want it)” with a project by ROLU in 2012.
Printing for ROLU: War Is Over!, Yoko Ono and John Lennon, part of ROLU: When Does Something Become Something Else? Open Field Residency, 2012
The Fluxus movement artists thrilled me in college 101 art classes. In 2001, a visit second Berlin Biennale introduced me to a modern take on the idea of participatory conceptual art with a piece called Happy Berlin (free massage) by Surasi Kusolong — where you could get fully clothed Thai massage in a colorful, foam padded installation at the Kunst-Werke Institute for Contemporary Art. Would Berlin be a happier place if everyone were relaxed? Coming into my own as an artist, I realized that whatever it’s called — socially-engaged art, social practice, participatory art — my favorite medium is people and how we relate to plants, place and each other. And I’ve observed the power of staying curious about these three pillars with each passing year. We can take none of them for granted, and no technology, social media or other modern proxy can take the place of direct experience. Social practice is a giant invitation to feel, relate with, and explore the worlds we inherit and create.
