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The Aesthetics of Dissent and Engagement: Art Out in the Real World

Gazala, Mona
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1586429023510714

Abstract Details

2020, Master of Fine Arts, Ohio State University, Art.
Columbus city schools are shut down for three days in October 2019 due to a lack of air conditioning in poorly-maintained school buildings. At the same time, it is revealed that millions in city funds may have been misappropriated to build a new soccer stadium. How can we as a city re-imagine civic priorities? How can social justice be locally organized? And what part do artists play in supporting change and justice; or conversely, in perpetuating the status quo? This paper reviews some of my work and observations over the past several years as an artist/activist and as a social practice artist, with the more recent events surrounding the “Save the Crew” soccer stadium campaign being the focus of my thesis exhibition artwork. In conjunction with this recent project, I will be presenting the 2017-2018 “As Seen in Franklinton” community photography campaign. In both of these projects, a marketing campaign or phrase was subverted to draw attention to the people who are not being served by Columbus’s neoliberal politics. I will explore the intersections of art and real life issues, in what ways the creative class has either helped draw attention to inequities in Columbus, or conversely, reaped the benefits of that inequity. What obligations do artists, academics, and culture-makers have to recognize and counter systemic oppression, racism, classism, and inequality? How can we lower barriers to participation in both art and social justice movements? And does political art - does anything we do as artists - even make a difference, in the real world?
Carmel Buckley (Advisor)
63 p.
Fine Arts; Urban Planning
art; social practice; socially engaged art; gentrification; art and activism; Columbus; art and politics; Mona Gazala

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Gazala, M. (2020). The Aesthetics of Dissent and Engagement: Art Out in the Real World [Master's thesis, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1586429023510714

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Gazala, Mona. The Aesthetics of Dissent and Engagement: Art Out in the Real World. 2020. Ohio State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1586429023510714.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Gazala, Mona. "The Aesthetics of Dissent and Engagement: Art Out in the Real World." Master's thesis, Ohio State University, 2020. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1586429023510714

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1586429023510714
419
© 2020, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.