Vanity of the Bonfires
Romola
George Eliot's 'Romola,' set in Florence in the 1490s, but written in England in 1862, presents a society where public discourse, people's everyday lives - their social lives in particular - and street politics were strikingly similar to our own.
The public mood was volatile. The Medicis had been expelled by a religiously inspired anti-corruption movement that become increasingly theocratic. In effect Eliot describes the transition of a state from a liberal, discursive, open society - but one with corrupt leadership and patronage - to an increasingly totalitarian state with stylistically religious mobs roaming the streets attacking the previously tolerated 'homosexuals' and assorted, 'undesirables.' It leads, with ghastly inevitability, to the Bonfire of the Vanities- a ritualistic public burning - a cleansing - of objects of wealth and learning, by now considered decadent.
This 'cleansing' act, in pursuit of public virtue, was decreed by the de facto ruler, a Dominican monk, Girolamo Savonarola. It ends with that same Savonarola being horrifically burnt alive at the stake in the central public square by the same mob that once carried out punishment beatings on his behalf and organised his bonfires.
The Repeat Process
It is a process we have seen repeatedly, in one political form or another, throughout history. To my mind we are now living through a similar process. It doesn't look the same and it won't be quite the same. We now live in a globalised world with a world wide web and global mass communications and a far greater proportion of our populations are literate in at least one language and can therefore take advantage of the swirl of available information and misinformation. We have countless translation facilities enabling cross border, international and intercultural exchanges of thought, talk and ideas. Human behaviour, though, may not have changed that much. We do not seem so different from Eliot's characters living in Florence at the end of the 15th century. In the UK we now have countless social justice movements that have




acquired the characteristics of religion. Their growing fanaticism and quest for a virtuous world has resulted in an unmooring of political and social discourse from debate about how best to improve people's material wellbeing and instead attached it to the more exciting and sensation filled street battles, the moral war between Vice and Virtue.
The Problem
At its simplest, the pains taking business of empirical research, the better to understand peoples' material lives, has been replaced with high octane idealism which can by-pass all that tedious empiricism and problem solving, and be replaced by belief - an internal matter with no evidence required. The problem with belief though is that the only way to defend it and prove both its rightness and yours, its guardian and defender, is through competitive fervour: 'My ardour is greater than yours. Look - I can prove it!' This leads, inevitably, to the street and social media battles. Believers are required to parade their beliefs publicly - to demonstrate their devotion - for increasingly high stakes. They must out-believe each other to prove their greater dedication to the cause, with the ultimate statement of belief being martyrdom.
Vice & Virtue
The UK artworld is infested with competitive social justice dogma. It is the primary focus of contemporary art practice, curating, analysis, teaching and even collecting - particularly where museums and other public institutions are concerned. Very few artists leave their beliefs behind at the studio door and even fewer arts professionals. I am part of the problem myself. My work is strongly influenced by my feminist politics. I do recognise the right to free speech and belief though so I do not object to exhibiting with people I disagree with. The problem arises when artists and arts professionals become partisan with their beliefs or politics, often to the point of being sectarian.
2+2=5
I curated Vice and Virtue to try and puncture this trend. I cannot overturn it alone so I was delighted when I heard that Not for Sale Gallery in Hackney Wick - the beating heart of the contemporary London artworld's social justice competitive street graffiti - was doing something similar. Museums Journal (top two images,) also chose this time to publish a feature, 'Battle Over Free Speech,' discussing freedom and diversity of belief in the artworld. Writer Geraldine Kendall Adams asked if I felt that the threat to sex realist artists like me was now reduced or over because of the successful case law, my own case among others. She quotes my reply: 'I'd like to be confident the same basic understanding now extends to all beliefs that fall within the law.' I wasn't confident. I'm still not.
That said, the considerable interest in Vice and Virtue and 2+2=5, and the hundreds of artists that have contacted those of us involved in these two small shows, suggest that there is immense 'belief fatigue' or rather fanaticism and expulsion/cancellation fatigue, certainly among artists. We have some way to go with the arts professionals though. Non-conformists willing to go public in museums and galleries are few.
Funding and Sponsorship of the Arts
It's worth looking at the item about corporate sponsorship in the arts that appears just above the main article, 'Battle Over Free Speech,' (image 2.) Corporate sponsorship has been much in the news of late with Baillie Gifford forced to withdraw funding from literary festivals owing to pressure from social justice campaigners. So what should public arts institutions do if government does not or cannot fund them? The argument quoted is that funders influence museum curation 'leading to a chilling effect.' The organisation making that claim states it has 'uncovered disturbing examples.' I would like to know more. Meanwhile, I cannot help but notice the name of the organisation, 'Culture Unstained.' Would that be 'unstained' from 'original sin?' Should culture be 'pure' or 'unstained,' or 'cleansed?'
Expulsions continue
While interest in breaking the stranglehold of social dogmas on the artworld appears to be slowly rising, the self appointed expulsion committees are also at work. Last week the two artists who together form, 'Pomidor' had their planned exhibition at Metamorphika cancelled only hours before opening. The reason given was that Maria, an Israeli Jew, had publicly expressed grief for the Israeli women, men, girls and boys Hamas murdered, tortured, raped, kidnapped and injured on October 7th 2023. For this outrageous act of apostasy their exhibition was pulled. 'The Community' (sic) demanded it be so and so it was.
Breaking the Chain
Interestingly, this 'community' was in Hackney Wick, in the same area as Not for Sale Gallery. The indomitable George and Alexa who run that space, a platform for artists rather than an exclusively commercial gallery, will be showing their exhibition instead. The direct passage of one, complete exhibition, from the gallery that cancelled it, to a new gallery that welcomes it, is a first and sets an immensely important precedent. Varuna Kollanethu at Ruup & Form, which has hosted Vice and Virtue, sets a similarly important trend in picking up artists expelled from events, with cancelled exhibitions, or removed from their jobs. Both these galleries deserve our gratitude for being both principled and courageous in their approach to showing and platforming art, artists, and art events, leading the way in a possible cultural rebirth. These small signs of change in private sector galleries have not yet been matched by museums and funded spaces but an important new venture has appeared in the last 12 months which aims to bring about change, especially in the public sector. Freedom in the Arts, (FiTA,) was co-founded by former Arts Council worker, Denise Fahmy, and dancer Rosie Kay. Kay's account of being expelled from her own dance company is almost a classic of the genre, monstrous in both scale and intensity. Fahmy's case is at least as notorious being utterly shameless and perpetrated with a sense of near impunity. FiTA is a much needed, 5-year emergency project, set up to 'tackle the culture of fear and intimidation facing artists.' You can read the manifesto on their website.
Concluding thoughts
520 years after Savanarola, the Florentine 'Bonfires of the Vanities,' have reignited in London with exhibitions and events being metaphorically 'torched' and artists sent into artworld exile. Gender, climate, and anti-Israel fanatics may have replaced the religious fanatics but their aims and actions remain the same. Their impulse to take control results in the same heavy booted censors and their instinctive desire to flush out heretics and dissidents leads to the same 'firing' of them and their work. The 'cleansing' process is partly gratifying in itself but it should be called, the 'Vanity of the Bonfires,' since it is also a vanity project aiming to prove the 'godliness' of the 'Good.' Cultural creativity now needs to respond with greater force and conviction than of late to produce and showcase both the counter culture and the artistic 'rebirth.' Not for Sale Gallery and Ruup & Form have led by example. I look forward to seeing many more followers.