How do you make great activist art?

“I think good activist art should try to engage rather than shock or alienate,” explains artist Katy Bauer. “It’s easy to shock and alienate. It’s difficult to educate and inspire.”

Katy Bauer is a Bristol-based artist whose thought-provoking but wonderfully accessible work addresses activism, radical politics and community engagement. Her How Does an Activist Eat Potatoes series at Bristol’s Bear Pit outdoor gallery in 2013 celebrated progressive thinkers and change makers from Hunter S. Thompson to Nelson Mandela to Albert Einstein.

Throughout her career, an internal debate has been raging about how to create truly successful activist art. “Ultimately it has one duty, and that is to function,” she explains. “If it encourages most viewers to think about an issue, then it is successful activist art. If it repels most viewers – even if the artist’s intentions are good – then it is unsuccessful activist art. It’s a numbers game.”

For Katy, activist art must go beyond preaching to the choir. If it only registers with people who already feel the same way, then however witty or technically impressive the piece is, it has failed to create the desired shift in consciousness. “What I try to do is make work that is touching somehow,” Katy explains. “That sounds corny, but I want to tap into people’s sense of fairness and decency rather that tout any party line. And it shouldn’t be too ranty because if you tell people off they’ll immediately reject what you’re saying, but if you appeal to their better nature they’ll tell themselves off.”

If that all seems like an uphill battle, Katy is upbeat. Activism isn’t as complex as people make out. “[It’s about] just standing up I suppose. It amazes me how complicit we are,” she explains. “All we have to do to encourage injustice is to ignore it, but the reverse is also true, if we stood up to injustice then we would curtail it very quickly.”

As Katy’s new show Brave: Celebrating Compassionate Resistance goes on display at Sidcot Arts Centre, we asked her to share her influences and inspirations.

Tony Benn’s Grace

Grace is the rarest quality, and, in a culture that conspires against it, very hard to learn. Veteran progressive MP Tony Benn had it. I think he was the greatest all rounder. Brutally hounded by his opponents for years, he never resorted to sniping, and despite his fame and astonishing workload his kindness and consideration were legendary.

I visited him once. He was very old then and not in good health, but he asked and answered questions keenly for more than an hour. As I walked away from the flats where he lived I heard a frail voice above me calling, “Goodbye! Goodbye!” It was Tony, he was leaning out of the third floor window, waving and smiling. And he didn’t even know me.

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