In each issue of the Artists 4 Democracy newsletter, we share actions that you as an artist can take to help strengthen our democracy. We also profile an artist whose work reflects democratic values.
ACTION ITEM
Learn the lessons of Roe v. Wade
The Supreme Court’s recent decision to overturn Roe v. Wade can be traced back to the 2016 election that put Trump in the White House and gave the majority in Congress to the Republican party. To be more specific, it can be traced back to 79,316 eligible voters in three states who chose to stay home rather than vote, or cast a “protest vote” for fringe candidates who had no chance of winning.
That year the Supreme Court was evenly split with four liberals and four conservatives. With some shockingly unconstitutional maneuvering, Senator Mitch McConnell blocked hearings for President Obama’s nominee to replace Justice Antonin Scalia when he passed away in 2016. As a result, whoever won the presidential election would nominate Scalia’s successor.
Over the course of his four years in office, Trump got to name not one but three justices, all of whom signed onto this unprecedented attack on women, girls, and pregnant people. The way the decision was written has enormous consequences. Several justices have publicly said their next targets are to overturn our rights to equal marriage and access to contraception.
This didn’t have to happen. Imagine if Hillary Clinton had been President instead. While she might not have nominated the most progressive justices we dream of, she wouldn’t have nominated right-wing ideologues who care more about guns than human beings.
There are no do-overs in politics, but we can learn the hard lessons. In the 2022 midterm elections this November, that means
showing up to vote
making sure your friends do, too
voting for the candidates who will cause the least harm to your community
Boycotting an election will not change its outcome. In fact, it gives more power to the status quo that we want to change. Voting for fringe candidates in order to “send a message” is just as ineffective. Candidates don’t hear that message. All they know is whether they won or lost.
Politicians listen to two things: money and votes. We may not like it, but it’s the reality we live in. We can put pressure on that reality in two ways. First, we can vote for the best candidates who have a chance of winning. Second, we can engage in democracy in all the other ways available to us: join protests, call and meet with our elected officials, help other people vote, make donations, and run for public office. If we don’t, the other side most certainly will.
ANOTHER ARTIST FOR DEMOCRACY
Lisa Anne Auerbach
“Democracy means that everyone participates, but it only works when everyone participates.”
Lisa Anne Auerbach recently digitized six rolls of photos she took as a student journalist at the 1989 March for Women’s Lives in Washington, DC. Only 17 years earlier the Roe v. Wade decision had made abortion legal for all Americans, and already it was under attack. More than 600,000 people were there with her, a record-breaking number at a scale not seen since the Vietnam War protests.
As an artist today, Auerbach’s work is “very much about what’s on my mind,” and she thinks a lot about current events. She is best known for her knitted work, publications, and photographs, which have been exhibited at museums, galleries, bicycle shops, and malls. She recently began posting some of her photos from the 1989 march on her Instagram.
When Auerbach first started knitting sweaters, there was no social media. The smartphone hadn’t been invented yet. People often expressed their political and social opinions on bumper stickers, but she was riding a bicycle. Her sweaters, she says, were a kind of bumper sticker for her bike, using her body as a billboard.
After the January 6 insurrection, Auerbach ventured onto Telegram, the social media site Trump and his followers flocked to after he was kicked off Facebook and Twitter. This led to a new project, This is What Democracy Looks Like, a publication made up of posts where people described what they’re doing at the local level to push their extremely conservative, often white nationalist, agenda.
What she’s learned on Telegram is that “the right is very unified and very proactive.” She listens in and collects their words into publications because she believes it’s important to know what they are saying and doing. She chooses not to stay inside the comfort of her echo chamber in the Los Angeles art world. She also reads the newspaper every morning, alongside her cat.
“Maybe I’d be happier if I read novels and made abstract art,” she says. But she feels a responsibility to engage with the reality of the world around her through her art.
“The very fact I can make this art is political.”
Auerbach understands why many people find voting confusing. “You get these ballots with all these people listed that you’ve never heard of, running for offices where you don’t know what they do.” So she volunteers, writing postcards and making phone calls to voters, answering their questions and encouraging them to vote.
She also understands why voters struggle when the candidates running for public office turn out to be complicated and imperfect human beings. She sees this as a particularly difficult challenge in today’s social media landscape.
“Every media you consume is so tailored to you and your views that you never have to make a compromise in your head.” But voting in an election is not the same as sharing opinions and ideas on social media. You’ll have to make compromise choices, she says. No one is perfectly who you want. But those you disagree with will cast their ballots, and not voting at all means you’ve given your choice to someone else.
“At least your vote can cancel out the vote of one asshole. Think of voting that way.”
Get to know Lisa Anne Auerbach and her work at lisaanneauerbach.com and at Gavlak Gallery. Learn more about the recent retrospective, Bennington College Sweater Parade, presenting 25 years of the artist’s work, in this review from the Boston Art Review.
Thanks for reading the Artists 4 Democracy Newsletter. Artists 4 Democracy promotes democratic and civic engagement by mobilizing artists to get involved in political action. Through voter registration drives, fundraisers, and events we seek to foster and protect our participatory democracy.