Contemporary Art Commons^™

The Role Of The Artist As A Social Critic: As Interpreted Through The Art Of Swoon, Allora & Calzadilla, And Ai Wei Wei, Jessica A. Hasara

Master of Liberal Studies Theses

Abstract: This thesis argues that the artists Swoon, Allora & Calzadilla, and Ai Weiwei rep-resent three approaches to contemporary art drawing on the traditions of street art, performance art, and conceptual art to change our expectations of art, public space, and civil disobedience, challenging the limits of what we know as social criticism and building community. These new and lively ways of making art can be viewed in association with systems of thought like Danto’s work which pro-poses a redefined way of looking at art; and Dewey’s work which emphasizes the importance of an aesthetic experience as a way of …