The role of the artist as a political voice and activist is one that even I’m a little unsure of. When an artist presents a work that takes on a political stance, it’s made with an agenda: to make money, and to convince the viewer of the artist’s beliefs. The problem with that is the viewer might be completely against the opinions being presented. For example, in the movie I saw recently, Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11, Moore played the part of a political voice, as he used satire, juxtaposition and other techniques to criticize George W. Bush’s presidency. While all the information he presented was true, it was also put together in a way to make the former president look like a complete idiot. The film was structured so that you couldn’t see Bush as anything other than a lucky fool who managed to become president and mess up the country’s response to 9/11.
So the role of an artist as a political voice is one that is full of controversy. One of those reasons comes from the fact that often times artist’s work gets criticized heavily. If people believe that the material is offensive they want it banned; or if the film is being funded by a certaion company they might drop it. This was the case with Fahrenheit 9/11, the film was supposed to be financed by Miramax Films, but its parent company, Disney required Miramax to drop the film. The reason this was an issue was because the opinion being put forth by Michael Moore was too outright, with no room for disagreement.
Artists should have the ability to present their work and their opinion without issues and controversy. It’s not the artist’s problem if the viewer disagrees with the views, the viewer has the ability to get up and stop watching. (It’s not like the artist is tying you to the chair, taping your eyelids open and forcing you to watch their work, because if that were the case there is something really wrong with that artist…) And its up to the viewer to decide if they agree with the artist’s opinion or not. The knowledgeable viewer, who has his or her own opinion on a particular topic knows better than to take a film at face value and be swayed easily; while a person who is not well versed and well read on a subject will be easily influenced. An artist’s job is not to educate, so one should not expect an unbiased work, an artist expresses what he or she sees and feels. So if an artist feels that our former President is an idiot, or believes that the government is corrupt, etc, then he or she should be able to say so. Whether you choose to believe them or not is entirely your own decision.
