Art can make visible what is unseen:
1) Through visual metaphor, symbolism and mapping, art can uncover the underlying structures of a society that we generally take for granted as normal. Art can reveal invisible forces and mechanisms that perpetrate an irrational economy, a political clusterfuck, and a collective ideological fog. When we can perceive and name these forces and mechanisms, we discover that the problems they generate are not in fact natural, but are socially constructed monstrosities. We no longer need to accept them.
2) The revolutionary movement, the drive to freedom, is always arising; it is a fundamental urge of living beings. The capitalist class, desperate to maintain dominance, constantly attempts to twist this urge against itself and to conceal it, to make us believe it doesn’t exist. The oppressor culture attempts to co-opt every expression of the revolution, artistic and otherwise, to force it to submit to and serve the profit imperative. Only by exposing and facing this, can we break the spell.
3) By focusing attention on emerging tendencies, art can assist potentialities into existence. Art can shine a light on revolution’s path, revealing what’s happening at those edges of history that are starting to take shape just beyond our general collective perception. When we can see a path, we are no longer lost. We can start to move together in an intentional direction, toward a future we choose.
PS: Art is many things to many people. I’m not asserting a concept of what all art “should” be, but to clarify for myself (and for anyone who finds it useful) some ways that art can contribute to the revolution.
PPS: These functions are not restricted to art, but can also be accomplished through speaking, writing, and other forms of communication.