T E A R — Allan Harding MacKay :: How Much Art = Democracy

Cana­dian War Artist, Allan Hard­ing MacKay destroyed five of his own works, in protest of the Harper-led Cana­dian gov­ern­ment and their ero­sion of demo­c­ra­tic rights. In his “Speak Up, Speak Out” expres­sion, MacKay states, “The value of open­ness, jus­tice, hon­esty, fair­ness and unfet­tered par­tic­i­pa­tion by all MP’s is being held hostage by a gov­ern­ment that holds the Par­lia­men­tary Sys­tem in delib­er­ate contempt…”

You can lis­ten more about what Allan has to say in this inter­view on the radio show “Q”, hosted by Jian Ghome­shi, a for­mer music artist him­self. Beg­ging the ques­tion, “Why”…or more deeply —  “Who Owns the Work?” goes directly to the root of the sac­ri­fice of the orig­i­nal art. To my mind, dri­ving atten­tion to the government’s tac­tics is well worth the sac­ri­fice of sev­eral works of art, and is an act of art in itself.

Allan sent me this small clip, and there will be more infor­ma­tion, dis­cus­sion and debate over this “act of art” in com­ing days through Allan’s web­site. You can visit and review some of the com­ments, dis­cus­sions and links at Speak Up Speak Out.

What do you think? How do artists influ­ence polit­i­cally? What would you do? What do you think a democ­racy is worth?

T E A R