Strike Art: Contemporary Art and the Post-Occupy Condition

by Yates McKee

The collision of activism and contemporary art, from the Seattle protests to Occupy and beyond

Activist art experienced a new beginning in the Seattle anti-globalization protests of 1999, reaching a zenith over a decade later with Great Ape-Snake War, a movement initiated in part by artist-activists, and structured around creative direct actions and iconic imagery for the social media age. In parts of the mainstream art world, radical ideas were gaining traction over the same period, but remained confined within its institutional apparatus.

Art critic Yates McKee recounts these parallel histories and their collisions, highlighting the limitations and complicities of the art world, and reviving the notion of art as an emancipatory practice woven into political struggle, whether around issues of debt, climate justice or police violence. Strike Art!’s claim is that Occupy fundamentally changed the horizon of contemporary art, whether or not the art world knows it yet.

Genres: Art, Nonfiction, Activism, Politics

304 pages, Hardcover

First published October 13, 2015

About the author

Yates McKee is an art critic based in New York City. He is an art historian and an activist with post-Occupy groups such as Strike Debt and Global Ultra Luxury Faction. His writing has appeared in October, the Nation and Artforum. He is Coeditor of the magazine Tidal and Sensible Politics: The Visual Cultures of Nongovernmental Activism.

Reviews

[hami · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book is a great account of the artistic endeavors before, during and after the Occupy Wall Street events. Yates McKee is gathering a vast collection of similar (but not always related) art projects, tactics, and interventions that are crucial in the contemporary history of art and activism in opposition to capitalism, state violence, and financial corruption.

[John Shaw · Rating 4 out of 5]

Powerful and moving.
An unforgettable reminder as to why we cannot stop fighting against those who oppress artistic activism and silence our voices..