Pete
Driessen

Pete Driessen/Visual Artist

© March 12, 1999

UMN Civic Responsibility Exhibition

Artist Catalog Statement

To know what is civically demanded of us as responsible societal members in a pancapitalist world on the brink of mass destruction, one must often ask questions with in the domain of "public trust." Asking such questions often anticipates unpopular criticism and negative reaction deemed "nonpatriotic". But in true civic essence within a representative democracy, why should not a responsible citizen ask: Why do your tax dollars go to the teaching of torture and terror tactics?, or Why is your government directly complicit with a number of nonlocal genocides? It is both the artist’s and citizen’s right, duty, and privilege to interrogate the hierarchical patriarchy that governs. Within my paintings I ask, How do we produce a visual narrative that creates sense out of the delirium of complex civic issues and that combines our political struggles with a sense of balance and wholeness?
 
In order to effect positive and balanced social change, we must first not allow ourselves to fall victim to commodified preprogramming and mediated beliefs. Questioning the powerful authoritarian apparati and their enfolded labyrinthic political and communication structures leads the civic minded to the unfolding of truth and injustice. By simply asking, How is power distributed and by whom?, a citizen will begin to be more self aware of the corporately owned media system and how both bunkerized and nomadic power systems affect their lives. To be a civic agent of cultural, historical and socioeconomic change, one must continually challenge authoritarian deception practices by altering one’s lifestyle and seeking sustainable collective and collaborative solutions.
 
Paintings are but one powerful political tool and alternative delivery system for socially constructed civic change. My representations are a strategic aesthetic ecosystem where a visually dialogued forum illuminates both the necessary negative and positive responses. The artwork visually contextualizes for the civic viewer an alternative means to the further understanding of complex issues, and leads one’s emotion to further concern, discovery and inquiry. Any alternative social change model includes the vectors of awareness, analysis, reflection and action, yet also provides an inclusive, multicultural method for interpreting tough civic issues: it therefore allows the citizenry to examine inter- and intra-connections to local and global environments. Whether the issue questions the political and social impact of our egocentric military and prison industrial complex, or the repression and human rights violations inflicted by the low intensity warfare from graduates of the U.S. School of the Americas, my paintings broaden our civic vision and transcend typical systemic and linear thinking: thus, they are an open call to actively engaged citizenry.