Xenofact

Art Is Unstoppable

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We’re all used to hearing about how oppressive governments crack down on art. They don’t like free expression. They want to control information. They also like to destroy joy because they are controlling assholes.

But I’d add something else to these control freaks – art is terrifying to them. Art is something that is a threat to dictators and they must control it.

Think about what Art is – not even good art, but sincere art. Art is personal expression, thoughts and feelings turned into another form. It often combines different media forms, like sound and visuals together, or penmanship and words. Art is a bundle of ideas, of feelings, that works it’s way into your head – that’s what art is, and even intentionally obscure art can intrigue people to actively engage.

Art spreads. Art infiltrates. Art infects. Art can be symbiotic with the people who encounter it. This is the kind of thing that unsettled a would-be tyrant.

A play, a stunt, a book, a song can soar across the radio waves and the internet and change people. Art is communication, and communication will go as fast as it can (and sometimes as slow as needed). A piece of art can change people fast and dictators don’t like change and they aren’t happy with fast either.

And you might not know they’ve changed. Someone may have become changed by a book or by a TV show or a bootleg tape and you won’t know! People become different people but you can’ tell. Well, can’t tell until too late, and dictators fear people not being what they seem.

People infected with art might even make more art. They get inspired to do things. Art combines with the appreciator’s own ideas to make something new. That fast-spreading art can produce even more art that risks the control a dictator wants. Von Neuman’s catastrophie with bright brushes and a poison pen.

Finally, dictators are not creative people. They’re not imaginative. Art is creative. Art is imaginative. Dictators can’t understand it, can’t deal with it, so the have to destroy it or control it.

(Some Dictators even posture as artists, but you know, they never really are.)

So of course they feel threatened by art. They can’t control it, can’t stop it, can’t do it and it’s lurking right behind them.

Of course that means if we keep doing art we keep breaking dictators. And as I’ve noted art and spirituality are pretty much the same thing, who knows what you can do to would-be tyrants with just some innocent art with spiritual elements . . .

-Xenofact

Lives of The Orange Men: A Retrospective

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As of late, I’ve been experimenting with an idea: after watching a video, reading a book (or chapter), and so on asking “what did I learn.” So as part of this experiment, I’d like to talk about “Lives of the Orange Men” by Major Waldemar Fydrych.

The book is about the Orange Alternative, an anti-communist movement in the 1980s that used surrealism, “situations,” art, and mockery against the government. Though most famous for their guerilla paintings of orange dwarves and doing protests wearing orange “dwarf hats,” they did far more. From what I can tell, historians consider them to have played a notable role in Poland’s freedom (or being free-er). So you know that a book on art, culture, protest, and surrealism is going to get my attention.

The book is not a typical historical book – being made by surrealists it’s also a surrealist piece. Written in an overblown style reminiscent of State Communist propaganda, it follows the lives of certain members of the Orange Alternative and their actions. How much is true and how much is made up? Well, that’s part of the challenge the book presents to you, even if it has some handy appendices.

The Orange Alternative also had a kind of pseudomilitary organization, which leads to both grandiose statements and even more ways to mock things. I’m not sure if some of the members are making fun of themselves or not. Maybe that’s good.

So what did I get reading this work of both history AND art? What lessons can I share?

Some Things Have To Be Experienced: Whatever I summarize here this is over half for my benefit. The way to get the full benefit of this book is to read it – and I recommend you do. This book has to be experienced.

Style Can be Substance: The parodic nature of the writing, the overblown style, actually helped me “get” the Orange Alternative intuitively. They knew how to get people, how to make an impression (and how to annoy the authorities). Style matters.

It’s A Lifestyle: The Orange Alternative members lived this stuff. Yes they had lives (which they document) but the book and some of the acts recorded within speak to this protest and movements being a lifestyle. So dive in, people.

Know the Culture: Hijack cultural elements, historical events, pop culture, etc. Understand what you are hijacking, and how it works. Culturejacking also can lend cover to your action, further confusing authorities.

Not Everything Transfers: Reading about the protests and situations set up to confuse Polish authorities, some ideas do not transfer to other situations and contexts. It became clear that certain stunts wouldn’t fly elsewhere because of cultural, economic, racial, and other issues.

Everything Is Art: You can hijack anything to be art – including the people trying to stop you. The Orange Alternative saw the world as their canvas, and it helped them think bigger. It also meant they had a mindset on co-opting things and taking control.

Kindness Is Protest: The Orange Alternative sometimes did giveaways of useful things like toilet paper and sanitary pads. That got attention, got good will, and helped people. Toss in their surrealist attitudes and they did good and confused the government agents. How do you stop guys in costumes distributing toilet paper?

Spectacle Matters: The Orange Alternative did some pretty damn colorful stuff. Fake reenacted naval battles. Marches wearing all red. Protests and writings that tried to be “more patriotic than thou” to further confound authorities. The utter silliness clearly mattered.

Persistence Matters: The Orange Alternative’s constant painting of dwarves, handing out handbills, etc. paid off. Some events were done one after the other. Protest – and art protests – need persistent activity. It also wears the bad guys out. Speaking of . . .

Wear Them Down: It’s clear the Orange Alternative knew how to exhaust the authorities. How do you track down people wearing too much red when other people might be wearing red? Why is this cross-dresser being so nice to you? Where did the cardboard battleship come from and what do you do about it? What the hell is it with all those dwarf paintings? It’s clear the Alternative knew how to exhaust authorities because it’s hard to know what they’re doing.

Destroy Dignity: How do the police address folks wearing funny hats who are handing out toilet paper? Why are you even here? The Orange Alternative had the authorities dealing with stupid situations and trying to act like they were a threat. But there was no threat, no violence, not even cruel words. Agents both obvious and secret weren’t sure how to handle these people and felt a little stupid.

Have Fun: Pretty obvious. It was clear the Orange Alternative crew was enjoying this.

So that’s my summary. I recommend you still read the book, but perhaps this will give you ideas of using art politically and socially – and what art can do. In this case, it played a role in liberating a country.

-Xenofact

Religious Art Without Either

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My own experiments in surrealist art and how art connects with spirituality have graced a few of these pages. Until I started doing my own art I hadn’t given much consideration to art and spirituality – as most of my interest was written work and meditations. Some art inspired me and I did find “project plan” type diagrams like The Six Realms useful, but I hadn’t thought of it until my own work.

But as I started doing art I started viscerally appreciating the power of art and spirituality. I appreciated my own inspirations much better, as I got them. There’s something powerful about art, bridging all those gaps between feelings and ideas, going where words cannot. The hyperdetailed art of the Six Realms of Buddhism, awe-inspiring pictures of gods, hilarious art of the Eight Immortals – all of those can be rationally analyzed and felt.

Just as spirituality connects things together so does art. No wonder they go together – and are really inseparable.

Which is what brings me to religiously kitschy art. You know the kind, the stuff that is standard, pandering, sometimes pseudo-realistic, and where the message is extremely obvious. The kind of stuff that Queen Coke Francis mocked in one of her videos (also she’s just hilarious and here makeup is on point).

Kitschy religious art kind of fascinates me. It feels dead to me. It’s message is obvious, sometimes in the title or spelled out. The look is often cartoony but without that “edge” where the style brings a benefit of inspiration or feeling, or so realistic it might have well been a photo. The kind of stuff AI churns out because so many people churned it out. I mean I’m talking still work, but I suppose it applies to media like TV.

I always wondered why people would enjoy this art because there’s nothing there. There’s no inspiration to it, nothing to fire you up or inspire you. There’s nothing stylized, no edge to the art to catch on your mind and make you think. It’s just so simple . . .

. . . and then I realized that’s the point.


Kitschy religious art is not about helping you feel or get inspired or go deeper.. It’s about reinforcing what you’re supposed to feel and what others want you to think and feel. In most cases I think about signaling, showing who you are and what you think, it’s not there to help you you think anything deeper.

Which is the point.

In fact, this”art” has to be short of any detail, any extra, any edge. If you take any liberties, get a bit stylish, etc. you risk inspiring people. Anything playful, any attempts to be really artsy risks getting people to feel something, to speculate, to feel something. Kitschy religious art has to avoid any risk because for all you know it might actually do something for you. No wonder so much of it is simple.

Of course this leads me to wonder how kitsch can be used to conceal inspiration or how one might inspire people to put a bit more into their kitsch that may produce deeper thoughts . . .

–Xenofact