The reason I’m posting this in the wee hours with a really hectic work week stretching before me is that I stumbled across some really inspiring writing by anther radical art collective in London. It’s not that I agree with everything they’re saying or that it encapsulates what artRiot is about, but it’s a piece of writing that made me stop and think and it was inspiring. It also manages to express a couple of ideas that I couldn’t have put better. Read (or even order) the full Manifesto here, published on the ever inspiring Adbusters, but here’s a bit I want to quote directly:

1. No more neutrality! No more special cases! No more culture of the gods! All art must take sides!
2. No more false universalism! No more minority culture for the masses! No more diluted art on the high street! Art for all means art by all! Art for all means art riddled with the same differences and divisions as the world can bear!
3. No more ambiguity! No more irony! No more pussy-footing-around! Artists, it is time to say something and stand by what you say!
4. Down with art’s shopkeepers! Down with luxury trading! Down with giving-the-collectors-what-they-want! The private sector is about freedom and diversity, not anxiety and uniformity. Sell, by all means, but for fuck’s sake, sell SOMETHING!
5. Down with the art police! Down with the protectors of the common good! Down with the experts and officials who keep the art world shipshape! There are no experts on happiness! There are no experts on liberation! There are no experts on art!
6. There is no more beauty except in struggle. No aesthetics without aggression. No taste without power. Beauty is ideological! Beauty is no hiding place for art! Protest is more beautiful than the return to beauty in art. Art must strive to be as beautiful as emancipation, liberation and resistance!

Thanks to the Freee collective – check them out.

And more by Jagath from the artRiot 2010 opening night:

The collective will be meeting soon to plot & talk inspiring ideas for the future. Contact us if you want to be involved.

This Saturday night drums will roll, instruments will be thrown, tear-gas will be fired… but the people will emerge from the riot with paint on our hands, ideas in our minds, pencils in our hands, revolutionary songs on our lips and scrawled across the road in our wake, those famous words might echo again, “beneath the pavement, the beach.”

Opening Performance Night
6pm Saturday 11 September
Upstairs, Annandale Hotel, 17 Parramatta Rd

Special screenings of the film Gaia Retouched, part of the artRiot exhibition, will take place Sat 18th September from 12-2pm. Punk Monk Propaganda will be there for chats, beer and to snip locks of your hair…

RSVP on facebook and share the event with comrades & conspirators.

While the exhibition itself runs for another two weeks til Saturday 25th September.

At this very late stage, we can announce that the following 13 talented & inspirational artists will be part of artRiot 2010:

• Alana Hunt – performance/interactive installation
• Conor Ashleigh – printed photography
• Dean Christie – mixed media sculpture
• Erland Howden – photography & design
• Fern York – mixed media hangings
• Frances Howe – drawing
• Ingrid Dernee – audio-visual installation
• Jagath Dheerasekara – slide-show photography
• Jocelyn Howden – mosaic
• Joel Tarling – cartoon
• The Lurkers – subversive bluegrass music
• Punk Monk Propaganda – audio-visual installation
• Rosa Campbell – food sculpture

Thank you to all the artists who submitted works for consideration and congratulations to the artists who were selected.

See you Saturday night!

T-Shirt: How to have an artRiot

T-Shirt: artRiot logo

artRiot sticker

There’s even kids clothes…

submit proposals by next Wed 11 Aug.

We are particularly looking for performance/musical artists but welcome works in any medium. Submit your proposal here.

Don’t forget, the selection criteria

1. The proposed work shows a genuine capacity to directly motivate an action or change people’s behaviour with the intention of radical social change. /10
2. The proposed work demonstrates strong artistic ability relevant to the medium – eg. aesthetically, musically or linguistically. /10
3. The proposed work has the potential to integrate well with other accepted proposals while differing enough in form, subject matter or medium to add to the diversity of the overall exhibition. /5

You read it right, the riot starts at 6pm, Sat 11 Sept 2010, upstairs at the Annandale Hotel on Parramatta Rd, just west of Sydney’s CBD. The opening night of artRiot 2010 will including performances, opportunities to change the world, radical works from across Sydney and a chance to speak to the artists who make it all happen.

You can’t have a riot without people, right? artRiot is formed around the idea of bringing politically radical art to the forefront of the Sydney art scene – getting the brilliant art of artists working to change the world out there to the people it can change. We’re about to hit full production mode with promotion & logistics – and could use your help! Drop us a line if you can pitch in. Up top is the postcard/flyer we’re getting printed & we should have posters on the same theme soon.

artRiot is a collective – we’re all volunteering our time and money to make this happen – but we fuckin’ love it.

Round Two closes midnight Mon, 9th August.

Banksy steam roller stencil

The exhibition will run for two weeks from 11 – 26 Sept 2010 upstairs at the Annandale Hotel. Opening night on Saturday 11 August will include performance works. Artists offered a place in the exhibition will be asked to contribute a $30 entrance fee to go toward making everything happen but anyone is more than welcome to apply for a fee waiver if you can’t afford it.

We know at least a few rockin’ artists out there who were disappointed they missed the cut-off for Round One, so Round Two will be open once again artworks in any medium addressing any social, environmental or political issue. However, works in mediums not currently covered by artists short-listed in Round One will be given special consideration. We’d like to hone in a bit on performance based works (dramatic, musical, spoken for example), radical craft and stencilling & culture jamming. We think through diversity we can create the best and most active experience possible – showing that contemporary Sydney artists can change the world.

Riot Cross Stitch by Cross-stitch ninja on Flickr

Speaking of changing the world, if you submitted in Round One, don’t panic, you’ll be hearing from us soon! One thing we’re going to be discussing with artists who have been short-listed in Round One is creating mobilisation opportunities through the exhibition – in other words, for artRiot, it’s not enough to just have a awesome artwork about edgy, topical political issues – we want you to show us how you think your work can directly motivate an action, ideally at the point of contact. For example, could you fire up the audience with a song about locking on to a coal train then pass round a sheet for people to pledge to take part in a direct action to halt climate change? Could you convey the plight of refugees in Australian detention centres through painting and couple that with a stand providing paper, pens & talking points for your audience to write letters on the spot to their local paper condemning the racist policies of the Federal Government? Could your artwork run right off the wall and into the streets? After all, this is artRiot.

Peaceful Protest by Rainforest Action Network on Flickr

And that brings me to the selection criteria. In the interests of fair judging, each submission will be judged by at least three people from the artRiot collective on the following weighted criteria:

1. The proposed work shows a genuine capacity to directly motivate an action or change people’s behaviour with the intention of radical social change. Judged out of 10.
2. The proposed work demonstrates strong artistic ability relevant to the medium – eg. aesthetically, musically or linguistically. Judged out of 10.
3. The proposed work has the potential to integrate well with other accepted proposals while differing enough in form, subject matter or medium to add to the diversity of the overall exhibition. Judged out of 5.

Enough chin-wagging, get your submissions in!
Click here to fill out the Expression of Interest Form.

This is the first time ever that Sydney will be hosting a fringe festival, joining a wonderful traditional built in places like Edinburgh & Adelaide.

The details?

11-26 September 2010
Annandale Hotel (upstairs)
17 Parramatta Rd, Annandale

Keep an eye out for us on the Sydney Fringe web site & in the programme when it’s out.

News Flash No. 2: Round One Expressions of Interest have now closed.

We received about 12 great submissions which got us really excited about the exhibition, but we’re looking for more. If you submitted an artwork in Round One and haven’t heard from us, please be patient, we’ll get back to you in the next week or so. Stay tuned for Round Two.

After being accepted into ‘the Fringe’ the collective had to make a tough decision: did we have the capacity to run an artRiot exhibition for 2 weeks from the 10th – 26th of September in the Inner West and then back that up with an overlapping 2 week exhibition at the TAP Gallery in Darlinghurst? Could we create a significantly differing event? Could we give both exhibitions the energy that art for radical social change deserves? The tough conclusion we reach was no.

Riot Gear 2078 by Dunechaser on Flickr

The good news? We’re now looking at re-scheduling our TAP Gallery exhibition from September to the festival season in February 2011 with a new cast of artists and exciting new opportunities. That’s right, artRiot is in for the long haul & we’re not going home for tea & cakes just when the riot’s getting started.

The artRiot collective’s inaugural exhibition now has dates and a venue!

20 September – 3 October 2010
TAP Gallery
278 Palmer St, Darlinghurst

Don’t forget, Expressions of Interest are now open.
Round one applications close May 31st.

Get your art in. People will remember the night the riot started.

We are seeking art from Sydney-based artists that can change people’s lives and help to create radical social change for a better future. Expressions of interest are now open for an interactive, multidisciplinary exhibition at the TAP Gallery Annandale Hotel in September 2010.

artRiot is looking for radical works: the exhibition is not targeted at working families and it’s not a feel-good campaign. It’s about meaningful art that is honest, uncompromising and dangerous in a way that dares audiences to believe in a radically different world. We know that art can change the world – from Peter Dombrovski’s pivotal photograph of the Franklin River to the music at the heart of the struggle against the apartheid in South Africa.

We will be selecting 10-15 artists and are looking for works in a broad diversity of mediums. You must be able to demonstrate how your artistic practice concretely contributes to radical social change but it can be around any issue or theme – environmental, human rights, global justice, globalisation, discrimination, peace, etc.

Round one closes May 31st. The exhibition will run from 20 Sept – 3 Oct at the TAP Gallery in Darlinghurst. If you are selected to be part of the exhibition/performance we ask that you contribute a suggested $40 $20 entrance fee, but you are also welcome to apply for a fee waiver. If you know any artists that would be interested, please let them know!

Please fill in the form here with as much detail as possible. Priority will be given to submissions that provide examples of your work. Bear in mind that we can accept existing works or works that you will create between now and September. Good luck!

This exhibition is about changing the world. We are seeking art from Sydney-based artists that can change people’s lives and help to create radical social change for a better future.

We are looking for art in the tradition of the music that was at the heart of the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa, Peter Dombrovski’s pivotal photograph of the Franklin River or the theatre of Brecht. Suggest your own examples in the comments!