guerrilla rhetoric...
"the 1st requirement of a socialist art practice is that it should ingage those codes and contents which are in the public domain. These present themselves, and thus ideology, as natural and whole; a socialist art practice aims to deconstruct these codes, to unpick the apparently seamless ideological surface they present."
"The propaganda message is ineffective to the extent that it endorses the very codes which frame the ideology it would oppose; it is these which appropriate it as 'mere propaganda'.....the 1st line of defense against the violence of the rhetoric of the establishment is to learn something about rhetoric. And that means to learn something about communication. But a line of defense is not enough: the victims must take the offensive. What is required - at this admittedly minimal level in our history - is a guerrilla rhetoric. And for a guerrilla rhetoric, you must know what your enemy knows, why and how he knows it, and how to contest him on any ground..."
"Publicity turns consumption into a substitute for democracy. The choice of what one eats (or wears or drives) takes the place of significant political choice. Vanguardism in art has become just another way of offering the consumer a choice. Body art or art-language, the ingredients disappear behind the packaging and a mindless loyalty to the label is rapidly established and just as rapidly lost. There is therefore nothing more contradictory at this present juncture than a left avant-garde, and nothing more depressing than attempts to invent one."
- Victor Burgin
"The propaganda message is ineffective to the extent that it endorses the very codes which frame the ideology it would oppose; it is these which appropriate it as 'mere propaganda'.....the 1st line of defense against the violence of the rhetoric of the establishment is to learn something about rhetoric. And that means to learn something about communication. But a line of defense is not enough: the victims must take the offensive. What is required - at this admittedly minimal level in our history - is a guerrilla rhetoric. And for a guerrilla rhetoric, you must know what your enemy knows, why and how he knows it, and how to contest him on any ground..."
"Publicity turns consumption into a substitute for democracy. The choice of what one eats (or wears or drives) takes the place of significant political choice. Vanguardism in art has become just another way of offering the consumer a choice. Body art or art-language, the ingredients disappear behind the packaging and a mindless loyalty to the label is rapidly established and just as rapidly lost. There is therefore nothing more contradictory at this present juncture than a left avant-garde, and nothing more depressing than attempts to invent one."
- Victor Burgin