Performance art as an activist tool

“Everything is political.” This statement is both an acknowledgement of the inherently political nature of existence in a hierarchical world and a direct quote from every person interviewed for this article. “Everything is relational, and everything has a power relation,” Amy Elizabeth Alterman, a PhD candidate in Culture and Performance at UCLA, explained in an interview with the HPR. “So, everything is political.”
Art is no exception. Although there are artists who insist that their work is not political, this claim ignores the stakes of representation; for any artist to deny that their actions have political implications is to deny the fact that media and entertainment shape the way that people view the world and everyone inhabiting it. 
(author introduction) #P4HEwebinarMay2024