Dod Procter
It would have been a bit naive were we to have thought we could simply create an art platform and a magazine without feeling implicated in social affairs. The mission of ARTPIL at its origin was always about the artist, the profile, the person. Since our recent launch this summer, we have already been astounded on several occasions by global occurrences, some of natural forces, but many of which have been of our own human volition.
The latest calamity in the spotlight, or rather, the oldest calamity in the history of the world now flagged and gaining media attention, compels us to revisit and revaluate our behavior with respect to over half the population of our civilization. The movement of women speaking out against the variety of sexual predatory behavior spanning from inappropriate advances to sexual agression has this time harnessed the power of social media through #MeToo and has achieved new reach across several industries.
Arts & Humanities go together…. Creativity cannot exist without self-awareness, reflection, and a regard for others.
Too often the perpetrators of these acts are forgiven or given a pass, even several, or worse, we continue to champion them, placing them in even greater positions of leadership and power they can further abuse.
Often as creatives when we speak of a utopian society, we invoke the design and architecture of a space, the agriculture and its environs. Rarely do we reference the ergonomics of behavior of people. Because as mortals we cannot say with any certainty whether or not there exists a special place in the inner circles of inferno for these perpetrators, perhaps we should simply provide them their own place, their Hollywood Access, their locker room where they can speak freely, give them their own terrain and a network where they are free among themselves, with a three-tier cake, an American Apparel store, and a closed-circuit twitter account where they can send each other unsolicited propositions. It would be the ultimate remote island reality show, an ecosystem unto itself. Maybe then they will finally realize that a certain change has occurred in their climate. And by utopia, we mean, of course, utopia for the rest of us. The silence has been broken.
We believe Arts & Humanities go together. We believe in diversity and equal rights. We believe that creativity cannot exist without self-awareness, reflection, and a regard for others. We believe it to be our civic responsibility, if only in the name of simple decency.
Conscious and deliberate, our pledge of artistic integrity must bow to the integrity of humanity. Our editorial and curatorial policy and practices have been, and always will be, simply this: there is no room for ignorance, inequality, racism, or misogyny. There is no place for that here, or elsewhere.
Let us now praise women.
