After Donald Trump’s election, entire sectors of society have expressed their rejection of some actions that the neo President decided to put in place. Rivers of protesters have filled streets, avenues and plazas in almost every city in the country to defend the rights of women, immigrants, the environment.
There are many artists who have expressed deep discomfort through their creativity. They have organized individual and collective exhibitions, and the protest has been joined by institutions such as the MoMA, which has exhibited works by artists from the countries included in the presidential decree known as «Muslim ban», and the Davis Museum of Wellesley College, Massachusetts, which has launched the «Art-less» initiative, by covering all the works and collections created or donated by an immigrant, with black cloth, for the purpose of highlighting the impact that the contribution of artists and collectors who have come from different parts of the world have on national art. In New York, hundreds of people have visited the collectives Nasty woman—organized by Roxanne Jackson and Jessamyn Fiore, along with web designer Barbara Smith and curator Angel Bellaran—, or Unnatural Election, by artist Andrea Arroyo.
Arroyo, who, as a woman and of Mexican origin, has felt doubly assaulted by many expressions of President Donald Trump, has gathered in a few weeks more than 200 drawings by artists from around the world, who shared her discomfort. Born there from was the collective Unnatural Election, exposed by the Kimmell Galleries of New York University.
It is not the first time Arroyo reacts in this way to a social and political situation that generates pain and concern. She did it to remember the women murdered in Ciudad Juarez, she did it with the collective Tributo a los Desaparecidos, when, after the tragedy of the primary school teachers of Ayotzinapa, she wanted to denounce the forced disappearances in Mexico, and she also did it with the collective AriZONA Artists Respond To the Immigration Issue, when, during the Obama administration, the law that has caused a huge number of immigration deportations
The Mexican-American artist is convinced that art can change the world, because it touches deep fibers of our being and forces us to reflect, to contact with others, to break loneliness and to create solidarity.
It is her point of view, and it is her right to express it. Even more so if one lives in a country like the United States, which has defended freedom of expression and thought, as fundamental values, since its inception.
However, following an interview of Arroyo for Univision, President Trump’s Diversity Advisor Juan Pablo Andrade sent a release in which he said: «This artist is obviously a Hillary Clinton supporter. She spends her time introducing Potus as a racist, an enemy of women, a Nazi and even an unconstitutional President, which is absolutely disrespectful.
And then we ask ourselves: Can art be called disrespectful? And, even more: Can art be respectful?
Both questions seem rhetorical, since art is, before anything else, a free expression, it is creativity; and creativity is neither good nor bad, it may be liked or not, it can excite or irritate, it can touch very deep fibers of our being or leave us totally indifferent.
Is the art that carries political messages within somehow different? Once again, another question arises: Is there an artistic expression that does not send political, social, human messages? Can we imagine an artist totally alien to what happens around him?
Art is the medium through which the artist expresses his interiority; a stroke, a drawing, a verse, a music, all contain emotions, thoughts, disappointments, rages, joys. The artist is first and foremost a human being who dreams a world more in line with his way of being, who lives intense frustrations and deep passions and reflects them in his/her work.
His/her feelings, political position, social criticism do not necessarily have to coincide with those who admire his/her works. Nobody has an obligation to see, read, listen to music, that he/she does not like; but, even more important is the opposite: no one has to create to please.»