Liberation on 14th Street

By Diana Boros

Herbert Marcuse commented in his subversive and radical text of the late 1960s- one that gained immediate popularity with the countercultural movements of the time- An Essay on Liberation, that, “The wild revolt of art has remained a short-lived shock…” (42). What he meant was that subversive and rebellious art- essential to both life and true freedom, he believed- is so easily commodified and subsumed by the market and as such, softened into acceptability for the status quo.

He feared that capitalist cultural forces could, and would, ever rapidly consume radical acts. He called for us to move against this, through our very being. He spoke of continuing to create rebellious art but also using language and even dress in rebellious ways- in order to not only disrupt the apparent order of our public spaces but to demonstrate revolutionary possibilities. He thought that if we could bring revolutionary acts into daily life, and into our public spaces- a lived example- that we could start to shift perceptions to what is possible, to show different ways of living and of thinking that serve as counterpoints to mainstream beliefs.

He writes that “today’s rebels against the established culture also rebel against the beautiful in this culture, against its all too sublimated, segregated, orderly, harmonizing forms.” (46) Marcuse also argued, as do I, for the all-encompassing importance of the bodily, the sensual, the emotional, the chaotic; that we need to continually work to shed light on, and bring attention to, this realm of human existence that is all too often denied or shunned in favor of the reasonable, the rational, the cerebral, the ordered.

I believe that we must not only work to enliven this primality in our public worlds but also convince others of its essential nature. Gaining more trust in our sensual and emotional selves aids us in gaining deeper self-awareness, which in turn aids us in accessing true liberation. Liberation in this sense means an ability to detach from the myriad of social norms and market forces that work together to separate us from our natural selves. Truly, to bring such sensual and spiritual experiences into the public realm is a gift to our communal existence. Art in Odd Places 2023: DRESS brought such a full-throttle sensory world of artistic expression to 14th Street this year and could be viewed freely by any passerby. It created an invitation to see the different, the unusual, the reconceptualized, the rearranged- all on an afternoon stroll.

This brings to mind a favorite line by Albert Camus from The Myth of Sisyphus: “The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.” Art in Odd Places is exactly this- an expression of free action, of radical possibilities. It is an intervention in a public space, in everyday life, in the routine, in the expected course of action. It is also a weekend of beauty, of revelry, of surprise, and of laughter.

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Diana Boros is Department Chair and Associate Professor of Political Theory at St. Mary’s College of Maryland, a public liberal arts institution and the national public honors college. Previously, she worked for the United States Senate, as well as for several senatorial and gubernatorial campaigns, and was also teaching professor of political science at Rutgers University, New Brunswick.

She co-founded and advises the SMCM Public Art Collective, and is creator and host of the online video Youtube series “Hosting Art”, which is supported by a joint venture between the Guestbook project and the Psychological Humanities & Ethics Center at Boston College. She has published two books: Creative Rebellion for the Twenty-First Century: The Importance of Public and Interactive Art to Political Life in America, and Re-Imagining Public Space: The Frankfurt School in the 21st Century, and is currently at work on a third, tentatively titled Social Engagement in Art: Lessons of Collaboration for Political Life. She makes art whenever she can.

Website: guestbookproject.org
Instagram: @hosting.art