Art as a Political Tool : A conversation w/ Favianna Rodgriguez & Cesar Maxit

Long time artists Favianna Rodriguez who hails from Oakland, California and Cesar Maxit, originally from Houston and now living in Washington DC, came togther for a special exibit in the nation's capital where they talked about the intersection between Art and Politics.

Interviewed by author/columnist Dave Zirin, the two spoke at length about how Art throughout the generations helped the average person make sense of complex issues and in many instances helped make Revolution attractive.

In our interview Favianna, who's parents immigrated from Peru, explained that she was initially influenced by former Minister of Culture Emory Douglass. His ability to use art to speak truth to power laid the foundation for her work. Favianna also credits grafitti and her partnership with SF Grafitti King Estria as a major influence. She and Estria did lots of murals throughout Mexico and later co-founded a printing/website business called Tumis.

Cesar Maxit credits his early exposure to grafitti in Houston as an influence. He cited a number of graf artists. He also talked about how rap artists and their lyrics have also been inspiring.

Cesar, who's parents are from Argentina, spoke about how his later understanding of history and poster art used in Argentina to spark social change became a key influence. His current Brown is Not a Crime poster which has been widely used is in a similar vein of the Argentina poster art.

Below is our interview with Favianna and Cesar.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nCtAtL3Toc

In pt2 of our Art as a Political Tool discussion, Dave Zirin asks Favianna Rodriguez and Cesar Maxit about the stinging critiques and controversy surrounding street artist Shepard Fairey who is best known for the Obama 'Hope' posters. They discuss whether or not he is appropriating art from people of color and removing its historic political context or if he's opening doors to a forgotten past.. Favianna notes that she helped in tracing many of the original works of art Shepard had appropriated and noted that many of them were from women of color.

Cesar acknowledged that Shepard helped open doors to political art for today's artists and that he is now trying to align himself with political causes that match the radical ideals of the art he is influenced by.

There was also discussion around Shepard Fairey and his battle with AP Newswire. Favianna said she supports him on this end, however, both she and Cesar were disappointed that he was accussed of introducing false evidence into the proceedings.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPX4OErzBB