(LP) Action-Interview at WBAI Radio Station - N.Y. by The Guerrilla Art Action Group
Recorded performance by the artist group The Guerrilla Art Action Group, formed in 1969 by artists Jon Hendricks and Jean Toche. .
On January 5, 1970, this live performance at WBAI Radio Station-N.Y. A series of statements are read out describing the issues that lie between people and race. Some of the remarks are directed at the general public, while others question artists for their role in an inhuman, oppressive and corrupt system.
``How long will you accept being an oppressed lazy person manipulated by society?''
``Do you feel guilty about being an oppressor?''
``That is more important to you. Is it to sell your paintings or to help people?"
"What is more important to you? Displaying in a museum or fighting for the human rights of the oppressed. Is that it?"
These questions, like many of the group's activities, suggest that there is a separation between art and life, or that art is free from the systemic discrimination and corruption that permeates all aspects of American society. It shakes the idea that you can enjoy it. The group explored an artist model for political and social change, encouraging fellow artists to focus on direct personal experience and expression rather than aesthetic abstraction. They use art to distract people from the atrocities of war, while supporting and abetting the military, within a racist and sexist cultural system that relies on corporate funding. He felt that the artist had lost his humanity in the will to act.
"As long as there is business value, racism and poverty will continue."
"As long as art is a business, it will be racist and oppressive."
" Are you guilty of supporting a racist and oppressive cultural institution?"
The background to this conversation, as well as much of the Guerrilla Art Action Group's work, is the Vietnam War, the ongoing struggle for civil rights, and the role of artists in cultural institutions. I had serious doubts about. They put on a guerrilla performance, drawing attention to the lack of morals of cultural institutions and the US government. Although this recording was made just a few months before its activities, the group has been involved with the Museum of Modern Art selling $1 million worth of art to give money to needy communities of all races, and the Vietnam War with other museums. It had already taken a series of actions calling for it to close until the end of the war, and for the Rockefeller family, who profited from the production of weapons used in the war, to be removed from the board of directors.
Thegatefold sleeve contains the full text of the performance.
Limited to 500 copies.
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Title: Action-Interview at WBAI Radio Station-N.Y.
Artist: The Guerrilla Art Action Group
Primary Information, 2018
LP, 43:12 minutes
Gatefold Sleeve, 314 x 316 mm
Edition of 500 copies
¥2,500 + tax