Clicktivism – can logging into a website and adding your name to a petition really change the world of art, asks Nadine Botha?
If 2011 was the year that “clicktivism” made it into the Collins dictionary, 2014 is the year it made it into the art world, courtesy of Cape Town.
In September, a Change.org petition against showing Cape Town artist Brett Bailey’s Exhibit B at the Barbican Gallery in London drew worldwide attention – and 22 988 supporters.
The exhibition – a performance artwork that recreates a colonial human zoo in which black people are put on exhibit in historical scenarios – was again petitioned in November to prevent its showing in Paris, drawing 20 433 signatories, who believe that it is racist.
Meanwhile, right in the Mother City, an Avaaz.org petition calling for the removal of the Perceiving Freedom artwork from the Sea Point promenade has received just over 1 000 signatures over the past month.
Read: Monstrous shades colours perceptions about role of art
The appeal to Mayor Patricia de Lille and Western Cape Premier Helen Zille demands a full investigation into the process whereby the controversial supersized Ray Bans by artist Michael Elion was approved.
Can logging into a website and adding your name to a list really change the world of art?
Read the full story by Nadine Botha in the Mail & Guardian
PHOTO: Protesters worldwide clicked to petition against Brett Bailey’s ‘Exhibit B’. (Franck Pennant, AFP)
