street roots
9
Nov. 21, 2014
HAZELWOOD, from page 8
everything they need, and for some people
- they won’t read that essay. Art can speak
to them more directly. I think the ability of
art to speak to people is partially selective,
but it also encapsulates things very quickly,
and it gives people a context for all the
information they might need to take in. The
details can be filled in later through other
means.
E.G.: I found an older essay you wrote titled
"Art, Artists and Activism: 1930s to Today”
In it you say that the political artist should not
ask whether political art is effective, but how it
can have a bigger effect in the world. Have you
asked yourself this question, and i f so, what
was the answer?
A.H.: There’s a lot of time spent in the
art world wondering
about what is art and .
E.G.: Your essay in
what is not art, and
the book, "We Won’t Be "M y work Is attacking the
whether political art
Made Invisible: Art of
powerful. So my target is the is art and whether
Homeless Activism,”
system as it exists and trying political art does
describes the growing
anything. I think it’s
influences of art in the to nndermine that system. I
not an important
homeless community,
th in k it's jnst a difference in question to ask. To
What role do you think
perspectiver
X have tried
anybody who’s
art will play in the
committed to a
he u p liftin g 1st my
future of political
political cause, the
imagery rather than
activism in the
important question is,
homeless community?
negative, bnt 1 feel like if
“How does it work?”
yon show the dark side of
and “How does it
A.H.: I think it
things, people acknowledge function?” There are
needs to constantly
different kinds of
it, and people understand
be replenished with
political a r t street
new energies and new that that's what straggling
posters that are
directions. A lot of
brings."
basically telling
organizations end up
people to “come to
working with the
this rally.” That has a
same artist over and
different function than
over again. I teach at San Quentin, and I
a piece trying to explain something. To me
met an artist there, who is out now - he’s
what’s interesting in political art is that it
homeless, and he’s making art for Street ;
can explain stances to people, without them
Sheet and for the WRAP, and he did the
agreeing with it necessarily from the
cover art for the book. He has energy and
beginning, but they can look at it, and they
connection to the issues. The first print he
can learn something from it, and they can
did for WRAP was about the prison-to-
say, “Hey - this is something I now
homeless pipeline, which is something he’s
understand.” When the artist asks the
experienced personally. If we don’t
question of themselves, “What is the value
constantly renew the artists involved, we
of this? Or the teaching? Or is it expressing
end up with a kind of stale artwork that
the points of view of this organization?” I
doesn’t really speak to how the issues are
think that’s the valuable question to ask.
changing and to people’s perceptions and
needs. I think the important thing is to
E.G.: Is there a particular issue where you
keep people involved and keep the art
think that art was particularly useful in
rolling and relating to the movement
sharing more information with people at a
glance?
really effective.
E.G.: Do you think the art’s becoming stale
or are there a lot of new energies entering into
A.H.: WRAP, when it first started,
E.G.: Your political art spans many issues,
the scene?
published a report called “Without
from democracy and student debt to
Housing.” Four artists and myself made
homelessness and the U.S.-Mexico border, but
A.H.: Well it comes and goes. There are
posters based on data. The information was
times when the artwork is really powerful
very dense. It was about federal spending on one topic stands out as a sort of anomaly: Why
feature the current plight of U.S. postal
and really connected. I think that any
housing, and it’s an issue that will make
workers in your art?
homeless-rights group needs to be on the
people’s eyes glaze over. But if you take
lookout for connecting to artists. Artists are
those numbers and turn them into
A.H.: I work on a lot of local issues, and
sometimes very willing to be a part of
something visually interesting to people,
things, and sometimes they need to be
that kind of encapsulates a story of what has the Berkeley post office is being sold off. So
drawn in. Once those connections are made, happened and why the federal government’s
I’m working with this group that’s trying to
they can be very powerful connections. At
organize to save the Berkeley post office,
lack of spending on affordable housing has
the moment I think it’s really positive. The
and to me it connects with the same issue
led directly to a rise in homelessness, and if
previous book I did, “Hobos to Street
you put that into a visual, then all of a
of the destruction of the public commons
People,” which is a survey of artwork about
sudden, the question becomes, not “What’s
that the government is cutting spending on
homelessness from 1930s to the present -
wrong with this person?” but, “What’s
things that are useful for people: The
wrong with this society?” and I think that’s
the art in history you see is up and down.
commons, education — and I even include
more to
There are those whose teeth are
swords, whose teeth are Wires, to
deronr the poor from off the earth,
the needy from among mortals.
h w rtJM M i
"Beast of Hatred”
by A rt Hazelwood
depicts ways in
which people
experiencing poverty
are dehumanized.
Within the belly o f
the beast is the
media, the head
represents
governments and
corporations, and
one arm is the
criminal system
while the other is
vigilantes - all are
aspects of this beast
that spews out
negative comments
about the poor, says
Hazelwood.
post office in that — public housing, all these
attacks on the commons are all part of the
neoliberal agenda, and I feel any way I can
fight back is a valuable thing to do.
(To read about Portland postal workers’
fight against closures and privatization, see
page 3.)
E.G.: There is a very threatening nature to
many of your posters - an almost apocalyptic
feel to the images. They are quite powerful.
How do you decide what images to use when
attempting to illustrate a particular point, and
do you feel that these types of images are more
effective than say, less dark images might be?
A.H.: That’s a constant question that I
have to deal with. I have a friend who’s a
political artist and his work is almost always
positive and shows iconic images of people
trying to uplift His work is uplifting and
powerless, and my work is attacking the
powerful. So my target is the system as it
exists and trying to undermine that system.
I think it’s just a difference in perspective, I
have tried more to be uplifting in my
imagery rather than negative, but I feel like
if you show the dark side of things, people
acknowledge it, and people understand that
that’s what struggling brings. Sometimes I’ll
work with WRAP or the editor of Street
Sheet and we’ll talk about an issue and
they’ll explain what they want and we’ll run
it by some other people in the organization.
For example, right now I’m working on a
poster for 25 years of the Street Sheet It’s
back and forth about what is important to
show, in the end the images is the Street
Sheet shining a light on all the negative
things in the last 25 years that have
happened to poor people in San Francisco.
“House Keys Not Handcuffs: Homeless
Organizing, A rt and Politics in San
Francisco and Beyond” is available for a
$30 donation at wraphome.org.