Militant Art

This thesis is an analysis of ‘militant art’ – a type of art activism that is prepared to break the law, use violence against people (including the artists themselves), property, or incite others to do the same, in order to realise a cause.

This thesis considers militant art as a continuation of the expanded field of relational aesthetics fused with a renewed interest in 20th century avant-garde art practices and the organisational structure, politics and tactics of the Global Justice Movement – which I conceptualise as a direct response to a lingering post-political spectacular malaise. Although there has been a surge of recent writing about Socially Engaged Participatory Art practices and, to a lesser extent, art activism, the more militant forms are still under-researched.

The thesis is divided into two parts: the first is an art historical, theoretical and political analysis; the second uses qualitative research methods to verify and interrogate claims made in the first. A series of ten interviews with contemporary artists (and collectives) and an ethnographical study provide new data on militant art, which are analysed fully in a dedicated chapter. The findings give us insight into the militant artists’ psychology, motivations and tactics providing a description, analysis and definition of hitherto overlooked contemporary practices.