How Communities Make Art: Crash Course Art History

when she was around 10 years old

Japanese artist yayoi kusama began

experiencing intense hallucinations she

described her Vivid Visions as dense

fields of dots to deal with them she

started drawing repetitive patterns as a

kind of therapy she said that the

artistic repetition helped her

obliterate the noises in her head today

kusama is one of the world's most

successful living artists she still

creates works of repeating patterns but

now she invites the whole world in one

of her most popular installations is

called obliteration room visitors are

given polka dot stickers that they're

invited to press to the walls floor and

ceiling of a white room over the course

of several weeks thousands of people

work together to cover the room in dots

collectively obliterating the stark

white kusama's work shows us how artists

can turn private struggles into moments

of connection and Community which points

to something something bigger about art

although it's often stereotyped as a

brooding solo activity art and Community

have been linked all along hi I'm Sarah

urist green and this is Crash Course art

[Music]

history art has been a big group project

ever since the first humans left ghostly

impressions of their hands on Cave walls

Interactive installations like kusam are

really just a contemporary take on an

age-old theme and cultures around the

world create art together in ways that

strengthen their sense of belonging

consider the great Mosque of Jen in Mali

the largest mud-built structure on Earth

constructed and maintained by Master

Masons the mosque is a work of sacred

architecture it's both an artwork in

itself and a functional place of worship

for Muslims the first mosque on this

site was likely built in the 13th

century and though there have been a few

versions since then the current one has

been standing for more than a 100 years

that's longer than Alaska has been a

state every year the entire city of Jen

comes together to replaster the mosque's

exterior walls to protect and rebuild it

from the harsh conditions of the rainy

season the community event is known as

the crepis de la Grand Mosque French for

the plastering of the great mosque on

the day of the event residents of J

divide sections of the mosque by

neighborhood and compete to see which

team can cover their section in mud the

fastest but the new layers of mud added

by each resident aren't just protecting

the mosque for another season they're

contributing to a Generations long Act

of community creation there's art not

only in the architecture of the mosque

in its geometry and design but also in

the actual craft of mixing and

Plastering mud to maintain it while the

basic style has remained the same its

precise layout size and design has

adapted over time this is pretty

different from traditional euroamerican

views of art which tend to present art

as something fixed permanent and

unchanging someone painting over a Freda

Colo would not go well but the constant

Recreation of the mosque shows us how an

artwork can evolve it doesn't have to be

static in order to be impactful or in

order to be art and that's something

we're starting to see in new Innovative

installations festivals and ceremonies

performances and events can provide

opportunities for people to celebrate

who they are as a community and often

these events help preserve not only a

work of art but a way of life take the

gal day a community Festival held by

some groups of Yoruba people in West

Africa the festival features

one-of-a-kind masks and headdresses that

celebr at the Creator goddess janla and

the contributions women have made to

Yoruba Society they're worn during a

series of dances and chants that

recreate Tales of Yoruba history and

mythology regardless of how male

dominated its surrounding power

structures may be galade regalia remains

a tribute to the women of the Yoruba

community in this way participants in

the galade keep alive values that are

important to them the galade is also an

example of how how art helps us see

experience and understand who we are not

just as individuals but as members of

wider communities art very often

presents unifying symbols of our

Collective identities like how this mask

reflects the calm power of Yoruba female

Elders it's worth thinking about what

artworks reflect your identities whether

your Yorba a Disney adult cosplayer or

Swifty another unifying symbol of

Collective identity is the chief Johnson

pole in the town of kakan Alaska a totem

pole originally carved in 1902 and

replicated in 1989 by native artist

Israel shotridge totem pools are large

vertical sculptures typically carved

from cedar trees by indigenous people

along the Pacific northwest coast while

visually stunning totem poles themselves

are only part of the tradition to truly

understand them you also need to know

the community's oral history its stories

and traditions pass down through

generations the base of the chief

Johnson pole shows characters from a

blinket myth the trickster Raven and his

wife fog woman the large empty space is

meant to emphasize the significance of

the Golden Eagle at the top representing

a particular Clan of the trinket tribe

and the story it references reminds

viewers to be respectful of their

spouses family members and land the

design is symmetrical evoking a sense of

Harmony and balance values held dear by

the native peoples of the Pacific

Northwest and it's only together the

poll along with the stories that go with

it that we can truly come to appreciate

the art in its fullest sense now

identity is not a static thing whether

it's yours or communities it changes

over time and so do the symbols we

create to represent it let's go to the

drawing

board this is the gay pride flag these

days you can find it hanging in sports

bars and restaurants on stickers and

t-shirts it's pretty popular but the

flag itself is relatively new as far as

Flags go it was created by artist

Gilbert Baker in

1978 it was commissioned by a San

Francisco politician named Harvey Milk

who was the first openly gay elected

official in the United States milk asked

Baker to design a simp to replace the

pink triangle that the Nazis had used to

identify lgbtq people during World War

II though the pink triangle had been

reclaimed by queer folks milk and Baker

wanted something new so Baker created

the rainbow flag as a symbol of Pride

inclusion and acceptance he gave each of

the colors its own meaning but then

years later in 2018 the non-binary

American Artist Daniel quazar designed a

new pride flag

it combines Baker's original design with

five additional colors black and brown

to represent people of color as well as

pink light blue and white to represent

transgender and gender non-conforming

people the new colors form a triangle

that points forward representing social

progress for the modern lgbtq Community

quazar redesigned Pride Flag represents

the importance of intersectionality or

the ways that race class and gender are

connected to Identity and the flag

continues to evolve the different

versions of the pride flag have become

symbols of resistance and resilience

just as much as their symbols of

identity and Baker's original flag you

can now find it in the collection of the

Museum of Modern

Art shared symbols can help artists

build communities introducing new ideas

creating Mutual understanding and

building agreements around actions to

make change the inter and social media

in particular have made this kind of

collaborative meaning makak more

sharable than ever artists and activists

have used social media to spread

messages to corners of the world they

could have never reached without it

let's look at the 2014 Hong Kong

protests as an example known as the

Umbrella Revolution this was a series of

demonstrations against police brutality

that occurred during a peaceful protest

against China's national government when

artist Casey Wong saw protesters using

umbrellas to defend themselves against

the police he was inspired to issue a

call for art that made use of umbrellas

turning a simple everyday object into an

icon of resistance Wong's call was

Amplified by social media and soon

umbrella themed artwork was popping up

not just in Hong Kong but all over the

world in the streets and on phone

screens umbrella art communicated and

expressed support for the protesters the

art of the Umbrella Revolution inspired

solidarity among people who longed for

social and political change and

introduced others to the ideas at the

heart of the protests we'll learn way

more about the connections between art

and activism in a future

episode for now I'll leave you with

these images of people dressed like

Mexican artist Freda Koo koo's work

still creates Community today in 2017

over a thousand people dressed as the

famous artist

gathered together decades after her

death to celebrate what would have been

her 110th birthday like kusama's

obliteration room koo's art made her

inner struggles public difficulties that

her audience could connect to and find

solidarity in art is a remarkable tool

for building communities preserving

traditions and promoting change for

Generations when we look past the myth

of the suffering solo artist we can see

how he Humanity has used art to address

and combat loneliness since we first set

our hands on those ancient cave

walls in our next episode we'll explore

representations of the body in art I'll

see you there thanks for watching this

episode of Crash Course art history

which was filmed at the Indianapolis

museum of art at newfields and was made

with the help of all of these lovely

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