Ask Anahit: Art in Hard Times
In this month's advice column, one reader asks how to maintain hope in the face of collapse
How do I stay motivated and hopeful when every day it seems like one institution or another is closing or collapsing?
Yeah I mean, it’s extremely fucking hard! We exist in a world that is actively hostile to the things that we love and that make our lives better, and it is extremely difficult to be optimistic in the face of that kind of systemic neglect. I guess I would begin by reevaluating the emphasis we put on hope as part of our personal process. Don’t get me wrong – hope is an essential part of reimagining the world we live in, investing in the idea of change, and believing in the possibility of that change happening. But I think if we rest too much on the idea of hope, we can counterintuitively become trapped in the despair of our present situation, and how different it is from what we want. What would happen if we existed concretely in the present, and changed what we can?
I don’t mean this in a liberal change-the-system-from-within way, like those people who join the police force so they can set up a DEI committee. I mean it more in a Braveheart, 'they may take our lives, but they'll never take our freedom' way. They can take everything from us but they can’t take away our desire to make things, and our desire to be connected to each other. And once that desire exists, it can endlessly reinvent new ways of existing in the world.
What lies at the heart of the collapse of these institutions? Money and social atomisation. So what is the antidote? Art for art’s sake, and community. Gather your friends together and hold art evenings in each other's flats. Get in touch with your local independent pubs and cafes and ask about curating mini exhibitions. Hang out at your community radio stations. Make a zine and host a zine swap. Literally do anything. It’s not enough, of course it’s not. In a just world we would have our spaces and our resources and our remuneration to do all this work. And I think that world is worth fighting for! But I think it is also worth saying that even if it never comes, the things we love can’t entirely be taken away from us. We have to cling on to that. That's maybe where the hope lies.
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