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Visual art and global inequality
Aaron Moore
A thesis in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master in Fine Arts
School of Art and Design
UNSW Art and Design
August 2015
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 2
Contents
Abstract .......................................................................................................................... 5
Chapter 1 | Introduction ................................................................................................. 6 Personal context ...................................................................................................................... 7 Definitions ............................................................................................................................... 8 Art and inequality .................................................................................................................... 9 Thesis structure ...................................................................................................................... 11
Chapter 2 | Methodology ............................................................................................. 13 Redistribution of wealth ........................................................................................................ 13 Awareness and advocacy ....................................................................................................... 18
PART ONE | ONE THING YOU LACK ............................................................................... 26
Chapter 3 | One thing you lack ..................................................................................... 27
Chapter 4 | Influencing artists ...................................................................................... 31 Michael Landy ........................................................................................................................ 31 Neil Boorman ......................................................................................................................... 33 Jasper Joffe ............................................................................................................................ 35 Landy, Boorman and Joffe in the context of global inequality ................................................. 36
Chapter 5 | Art and morality ......................................................................................... 38
Chapter 6 | Moral responses to global inequality ......................................................... 43 Peter Singer ........................................................................................................................... 43 Jesus Christ ............................................................................................................................ 49
Chapter 7 | Addressing global inequality ...................................................................... 54 Performance .......................................................................................................................... 54 Redistribution of wealth ........................................................................................................ 57 Awareness and advocacy ....................................................................................................... 60
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 3
PART 2 | THE ART OF GLOBAL INEQUALITY ................................................................... 66
Chapter 8 | Ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances ........................................ 67 Ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances .................................................................... 67 Influencing artists .................................................................................................................. 69 Global inequality .................................................................................................................... 72
Chapter 9 | The chronicles of everything owned (and sold) & Stuff self ........................ 76 The chronicles of everything owned (and sold) ....................................................................... 76 Stuff self ................................................................................................................................ 77 Influencing artists .................................................................................................................. 78 Global inequality .................................................................................................................... 80
Chapter 10 | The thinker’s chair ................................................................................... 82 The thinker’s chair ................................................................................................................. 82 Influencing artists .................................................................................................................. 84 Global inequality .................................................................................................................... 86
Chapter 11 | Don’t deny us development ..................................................................... 88 Don’t deny us development ................................................................................................... 88 Influencing artists .................................................................................................................. 90 Global inequality .................................................................................................................... 92
Chapter 12 | Those who can’t fly .................................................................................. 96 Asylum and the refugee ......................................................................................................... 97 Those who can’t fly ................................................................................................................ 98 Influencing artists ................................................................................................................ 101 Global inequality .................................................................................................................. 105
Chapter 13 | Conclusion ............................................................................................. 107
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 4
Figures ........................................................................................................................ 109
Bibliography ............................................................................................................... 111
Appendix 1 | The drowning child and the expanding circle ......................................... 123
Appendix 2 | Media and public response to ‘One thing you lack’ ................................ 128 Social media | Facebook ...................................................................................................... 128 The Leader ........................................................................................................................... 145 The Art Life .......................................................................................................................... 149 The Sydney Morning Herald ................................................................................................. 150 Bible society ......................................................................................................................... 156 Sorted .................................................................................................................................. 159 Wesley Impact ..................................................................................................................... 170 Bible society ......................................................................................................................... 172
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 5
Abstract
This thesis investigates the role of contemporary art in a world of extreme global
inequality. It proposes that visual art can address issues of global inequality firstly through
a practice of redistributing wealth and secondly through the means of awareness and
advocacy. The research comprises various examples of art practice addressing global
inequality including: a performance in which I sell everything I own and give it to the poor
as an expression of philosophical and theological moral teachings on the subject; a video
installation capturing the voices of both Australian’s and Zambian’s giving different
perspectives on wealth and poverty; works that investigate consumerism and the link
between our identity and our possessions; and a video piece that examines inequalities in
the right to freedom of movement and asylum. The thesis concludes that art practice
holds great potential for addressing the exacerbating issues of global inequality, a context
the art world should intentionally seek to inhabit to a greater degree both for the sake of
the vulnerable and for the sake of creating powerful and meaningful art.
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 6
Chapter 1 | Introduction
Extreme global inequalities occurring today threaten to exclude hundreds of millions of
people from realizing the benefits of their talents and hard work.1 Oxfam reported that
the 85 richest people in the world now share a combined wealth equal to that of the 3.5
billion poorest2 and that the wealth of the one percent richest people in the world
amounts to $110 trillion, 65 times the total wealth of the bottom half of the world’s
population.3 This trend towards greater inequality only appears to continue. In fact, Oxfam
predicts that by 2016, the richest one percent will own more than the rest of the world.4
Meanwhile, around 1 billion people continue to live in extreme poverty, earning less than
$1.25 a day.5 An estimated 19,000 children die each day -‐ 13 each minute -‐ from largely
preventable diseases like malnutrition and diarrhoea.6 And nearly 750 million people can’t
access adequate drinking water.7 The lives of billions of people therefore stand to be
saved or dramatically changed if this inequality can be addressed.
Can art have an impact upon these sombre daily challenges? This thesis investigates
means by which art can be used to address issues of global inequality. This introduction
provides a personal context to my art practice in addressing the issue of inequality.
1 R Fuentes-‐Nieva & N Glasso, ‘Working for the few: political capture and economic inequality’, Oxfam, 20 January 2014, p. 1 retrieved on 2 April 2015 from https://www.oxfam.org/sites/www.oxfam.org/files/bp-‐working-‐for-‐few-‐political-‐capture-‐economic-‐inequality-‐200114-‐summ-‐en.pdf 2 G Weardon, ‘Oxfam: 85 richest people as wealthy as poorest half of the world’, The Guardian, 20 January 2014, retrieved on 2 April 2015 from http://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/jan/20/oxfam-‐85-‐richest-‐people-‐half-‐of-‐the-‐world 3 R Fuentes-‐Nieva & N Glasso, op. cit. p. 2
4 ‘Richest 1% to own more than the rest of the world, Oxfam says’, BBC Business, 19 January 2015, retrieved on 2 April 2015 from http://www.bbc.com/news/business-‐30875633 5 ‘Ending extreme poverty’, The World Bank, retrieved on 2 April 2015 from http://www.worldbank.org/en/publication/global-‐monitoring-‐report/report-‐card/twin-‐goals/ending-‐extreme-‐poverty 6 ‘Millennium development goals -‐ reduce child mortality’, UNICEF, retrieved on 2 April 2015 from http://www.unicef.org/mdg/index_childmortality.htm 7 ‘Press release: World water day: nearly 750 million people still without adequate drinking water’, UNICEF, New York, 20 March 2015, retrieved on 2 April 2015 from http://www.unicef.org/media/media_81329.html
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 7
Secondly, it gives definitions to the major terms of this thesis. It then proposes two key
means by which art practice might be able to address global inequality. Lastly, it gives an
overview of the structure of this thesis in order to demonstrate these two propositions.
Personal context
After graduating from high school I began tertiary studies in fine arts with the intention of
becoming an artist. Each day I would catch the train from my home in the suburbs, alight
in Sydney’s red-‐light district of Kings Cross, and begin the ten-‐minute walk to the National
Art School. It was this enlightening daily walk, along with a personal spiritual encounter,
that ultimately led to my leaving art school two years into my three-‐year degree.
At the time, my reasoning appeared simple and straightforward, “How can I spend the
rest of my life painting pictures when there are people in our world living in poverty,
severely disadvantaged and oppressed?” Two years later I became a full time street
outreach worker with the Salvation Army assisting homeless young people on the streets
of Kings Cross where most of the clients were drug addicted and/or engaged in
prostitution. Over the following 15 years I studied and worked in areas that addressed
poverty and global inequality in a practical manner, graduating with a Masters in Refugee
Studies from the University of Oxford and managing poverty alleviation programs
throughout the world.
Embarking on this Masters in Fine Art is therefore not merely a theoretical investigation,
but a personal one. And this shall become all the more apparent in the works produced
herein. Was I wrong in my previous synopsis that art was of far less value to the poor and
oppressed than issues like community development or legal representation? For that
matter, are the two world’s even mutually exclusive? Or could some of the answers to
addressing issues of global inequality actually be found in the sphere of visual art?
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 8
Definitions
In order to investigate a possible role of visual art in addressing issues of global inequality
it is important to first give a working definition of both the terms ‘visual art’ and ‘global
inequality’. This thesis adopts a rather broad definition of ‘visual art’ as an expression or
application of human creative skill and imagination often practiced in visual forms such as
drawing, painting, printmaking, sculpture, photography, new media/video, performance,
textiles or architecture.8 This thesis therefore aims to investigate if any, but not
necessarily all, of the expressions of visual art might be of assistance in addressing issues
of global inequality. It focuses largely on contemporary artists and artworks because these
exist within the current context of global inequality that this research addresses.
By ‘global inequality’ this thesis refers to the severe inequality that is most obvious in
terms of wealth distribution but is also exacerbated by inequalities in access to health care
or education, unequal restrictions on freedom of movement, and the astringent inequality
in access to opportunity around the world.
Not all inequality may be assumed to be negative, for example this thesis accepts that
some inequality is essential to drive economic growth, rewarding those who work hard,
take risks, possess talent and are innovative.9 However, extreme inequality can often have
negative impacts on economic growth and poverty reduction; multiply social problems; be
morally questionable; and can even erode the principles of democratic governance, as US
Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis famously said, “We may have democracy, or we
8 Oxford Dictionary, 2015, Oxford University Press, retrieved on 7 June 2015 from http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/art 9 R Fuentes-‐Nieva & N Glasso, ‘Working for the few: political capture and economic inequality’, Oxfam, 20 January 2014, p. 2 retrieved on 2 April 2015 from https://www.oxfam.org/sites/www.oxfam.org/files/bp-‐working-‐for-‐few-‐political-‐capture-‐economic-‐inequality-‐200114-‐summ-‐en.pdf
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 9
may have wealth concentrated in the hands of the few, but we cannot have both.”10
This thesis therefore focuses on the nexus of visual art and global inequality, and how the
former can help address the negative effects of the latter.
Art and inequality
This thesis proposes two key means by which visual art can address issues of global
inequality. Firstly, visual art can be used as a vehicle for the redistribution of wealth. In
some cases the artwork itself may operate as an apparatus of wealth redistribution,
moving funds from the richer to the poorer, perhaps through performance or through the
manner of the work’s construction.11 In other instances, the wealth redistribution may be
a step removed from the artwork and be achieved through the sale of art and the
donation of the proceeds to causes that address inequality.12
Secondly, visual art may be used as an instrument of increased awareness and advocacy.
In this instance art provides an insight into the lives of the poor or oppressed, it arouses
compassion and understanding for the underprivileged and can serve as a reminder of the
existence of those who bear the brunt of inequality.13 Art may act as a form of advocacy
for the voiceless and a means of social change as increased knowledge and understanding
lead to better individual and societal decisions and actions aimed at addressing
inequality.14 Each of these two methods are elaborated upon in the following chapter and
investigated through art practice in subsequent chapters.
10 R Fuentes-‐Nieva & N Glasso, ‘Working for the few: political capture and economic inequality’, Oxfam, 20 January 2014, p. 3 retrieved
on 2 April 2015 from https://www.oxfam.org/sites/www.oxfam.org/files/bp-‐working-‐for-‐few-‐political-‐capture-‐economic-‐inequality-‐200114-‐summ-‐en.pdf 11 ‘Ai Weiwei: sunflower seeds’, TATE Gallery, 14 October 2010, retrieved on 24 March 2015 from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PueYywpkJW8 12 ‘Seeking Humanity’, Asylum Seekers Centre, retrieved on 24 March 2015 from http://asylumseekerscentre.org.au/seeking-‐humanity/
13 A de Botton & J Armstrong, Art as Therapy, Phaidon Press, UK, 2013, p.5
14 M Parr, ‘Mike Parr uses body in topical exhibition’, ABC News, 28 Feb 2012, retrieved on 14 September 2014 from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljtZsmEHxT0
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 10
It is important to note that an exhaustive investigation into the means by which all the
forms of visual art might address the many issues of global inequality is beyond the scope
of this paper. An example of such a means is the use of art as an income generation
mechanism for the poor.15 I am currently employed by an Australian non-‐government
organisation (NGO), Global Concern, to manage overseas aid and development programs,
including projects where we train men and women in sewing, floristry, stencil design and
fabric printing in order that they may use these creative skills to earn an income.16 Whilst
this would have been an interesting avenue to pursue regarding art and global inequality,
and one within my field of experience, it fell outside the scope of this thesis because it did
not lend itself well to expression through personal art practice. Pursuit of this line of
research would have resulted in a thesis with increased emphasis on the documentation
of the work of graduates from such development programs. Because this thesis is one of
practice-‐based research, it was important to me that the concepts were expressed
through my own art practice, rather than simply documented in the practice of others.
Art can also be used as a means of therapy or counselling.17 In this instance art can take on
a cathartic quality, empowering the individual to move through challenges or injustices
suffered as a result of global inequality, or simply as a result of general difficulties in life.
Art can also provide very practical assistance to the vulnerable. Artist Greg Kloehn builds
‘tiny houses’ out of street refuse and gives them to California’s homeless.18 The homes are
placed on castor wheels so they can be moved around and provide some of the USA’s
poorest citizens with a greater semblance of home.
Both of these examples, art therapy and art as a form of practical assistance, are also
15 ‘Our supporters’, Djilpin Arts, retrieved on 12 June 2015 from http://djilpinarts.org.au/support-‐us
16 ‘Bangladesh Community Development Project’, Global Concern, retrieved on 12 June 2015 from
http://globalconcern.org.au/portfolio/bangladesh/?id=2513 17 The Refugee Art Project, retrieved on 12 June 2015 from http://therefugeeartproject.com/home/
18 ‘Tiny houses: California’s homelessness gets new $40 solution’, RT News, 21 February 2015, retrieved on 12 June 2015 from
http://rt.com/usa/234371-‐tiny-‐houses-‐california-‐poor/
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 11
interesting means by which art can address issues of global inequality. However, they too
fall outside the scope of this thesis largely due to the practical limitations in the amount of
research material that can be covered. This limitation becomes all the more apparent with
this Masters research comprising two exhibitions, instead of one, already greatly
increasing the material available for analysis.
It is hoped that limiting the focus of this thesis to the two aforementioned areas of wealth
redistribution and awareness, will more effectively demonstrate the capabilities of both in
addressing issues of global inequality.
It may also be helpful to acknowledge the perspective from which this research is written
and that when this thesis refers to ‘we’ or ‘us’ it generally refers to someone who, by
global standards, is comparatively wealthy. Understanding who is comparatively wealthy
will be discussed in later chapters, and through art practice itself, but for now, whilst it
may seem somewhat odd, it could be helpful to know that the terms ‘we’ and ‘us’ are
used in this research to include the majority of Westerners, and consequently the majority
of Australians.
Thesis structure
This section provides an overview of the structure of this thesis by briefly outlining the
contents of each chapter and the two main parts of the thesis. Following the thesis
introduction of Chapter 1; Chapter 2 provides a methodology, which outlines in greater
detail the two methods of wealth redistribution and increased awareness along with
examples of their application by various artists.
The bulk of the rest of the thesis is then broken into two parts, ‘Part One: One thing you
lack’ and ‘Part Two: The art of global inequality’, each part corresponding to an art
exhibition held as part of my Masters research.
I began my Masters research at the start of 2012 and in December 2012 held my first
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 12
exhibition, ‘One thing you lack’. This exhibition was a performance piece investigating
philosophical and theological claims regarding how the rich should respond to the poor. In
its most basic form it involved me selling everything I owned and giving it to charities that
help the poor. ‘Part One: One thing you lack’ investigates this work in five chapters:
Chapter 3 describes the artwork; Chapter 4 sketches an outline of the key artists who
influenced the work; Chapter 5 explores the relationship between morality and art;
Chapter 6 gives an overview of the moral concepts that inspired the work; and finally,
Chapter 7 assesses how the work addresses issues of global inequality through the means
of wealth redistribution and increased awareness.
‘Part Two: The art of global inequality’ investigates the rest of the artworks that comprise
this research, most of which are included in my second and final Masters exhibition held in
August 2015. This part is broken into five chapters, each chapter aligning with different
artworks: Chapter 8 ‘Ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances’; Chapter 9 ‘The
chronicles of everything owned (and sold)’ and ‘Stuff self’; Chapter 10 ‘A place to think’;
Chapter 11 ‘Don’t deny us development’; and Chapter 12 ‘Those who can’t fly’. Each
chapter gives an overview of the artwork, outlines artists who influenced the work, and
lastly, investigates how the work addresses issues of global inequality.
The final chapter of the thesis, Chapter 13, draws overall conclusions around what this
practice-‐based art research has achieved in the context of global inequality.
Images of relevant artists and artworks are scattered throughout the thesis to help
illustrate different aspects of the research. A number of appendices are also attached in
instances where it was thought the reader might benefit from further insights regarding
the research. These include a full copy of the Peter Singer’s article, ‘The drowning child
and the expanding circle’, a key challenge this thesis responds to (Appendix 1); media and
public response to ‘One thing you lack’ (Appendix 2).
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 13
Chapter 2 | Methodology
This chapter outlines the two methods of wealth redistribution and increased awareness
that this art research uses to address issues of global inequality.
Redistribution of wealth
Selling art and donating the proceeds to the poor, or charities that work with the poor, is a
common and effective means by which art serves to redistribute wealth. World Vision was
proud to have Christine Cafarella-‐Pearce create 15 charcoal drawings that were auctioned
off to support their development programs in Africa.19 Comic relief, a UK charity, recently
raised over 1 billion pounds through comedy performances,20 highlighting the paradox
that one of the most light-‐hearted and sometimes trivial of art forms, comedy, could be
linked to one of the most dark and serious circumstances in our world, poverty. And
Wendy Sharpe recently donated all proceeds from her exhibition, ‘Seeking Humanity’ (see
fig. 1), to the Asylum Seeker Centre. The exhibition consisted of a series of portraits of
Australian asylum seekers and refugees.21
19 ‘Christine puts art and soul into 40 hour famine’, World Vision, 8 August 2014, retrieved on 24 March 2015 from
http://www.worldvision.com.au/Issues/Transforming_Lives___Child_Sponsorship/christine-‐puts-‐art-‐and-‐soul-‐into-‐the-‐40HF.aspx 20 R Buchanan, ‘Comic Relief breaks 1bill raised on its 30th birthday’, The Independent, 15 March 2015, retrieved on 24 March 2015
from http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-‐entertainment/red-‐nose-‐day-‐2015-‐comic-‐relief-‐breaks-‐1bn-‐raised-‐on-‐charitys-‐30th-‐anniversary-‐10108120.html 21 ‘Seeking Humanity’, Asylum Seekers Centre, retrieved on 24 March 2015 from -‐ http://asylumseekerscentre.org.au/seeking-‐
humanity/
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 14
Figure 1 -‐ Wendy Sharp and her portraits ‘Seeking humanity’ (2015) 22
Admittedly, the amounts being donated through the above art fundraisers pale into
insignificance against those donated by some of the world’s wealthiest. Bill Gates, the
world’s richest individual, has a personal estimated wealth of $70 billion.23 His foundation
has made a formidable impact and given more than $26 billion in grants to address issues
of poverty and inequality in more than 100 countries since its inception in 2000.24
But at the same time, it should be acknowledged that billions of dollars change hands
between the elite of the world in the sale and purchase of art each year. Global art sales in
2014 broke all known historical records with a total of 51 billion euros in value
worldwide.25 And these funds are moving between an ever smaller and more elite portion
of the ultra-‐wealthy. Whilst the total value of art sales increased there were only 39
million total transactions in 2014, significantly less than the 50 million in 2007.26 And 48
percent of the global art market came from only 1,530 lots, which sold for more than 1
22 ‘Seeking Humanity’, Asylum Seekers Centre, retrieved on 24 March 2015 from -‐ http://asylumseekerscentre.org.au/seeking-‐
humanity/ 23 ‘Gate’s way of giving’, UNSWorld, June 2013, issue 18, UNSW Australia, p. 13
24 Ibid., p. 13
25 ‘Global art sales in 2014 break all known records’, The European Fine Art Foundation, 11 March 2015, retrieved on 24 March 2015
from http://www.tefaf.com/DesktopDefault.aspx?tabid=15&tabindex=14&pressrelease=16959&presslanguage 26 ‘TEFAF report 2015: US tops the global art market, China and UK tie at second place’, Art Radar Journal, 13 March 2015, retrieved on
24 March 2014 from http://artradarjournal.com/2015/03/13/tefaf-‐report-‐2015-‐us-‐tops-‐the-‐global-‐art-‐market-‐china-‐and-‐uk-‐tie-‐at-‐second-‐place/
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 15
million euros each at auction (including 96 lots for over 10 million euros). Together these
lots represented only 0.5 percent of the total number of transactions.27
As a comparison, economist Jeffery Sachs estimated that extreme poverty could be
completely eradicated in 20 years at a total cost of 160 billion euros per year28. Thus the
annual value of the world art market alone takes us close to one third of the way to the
annual amount required for the eradication of extreme poverty on a global scale. Whilst it
would be highly unrealistic to think that anywhere near that amount might be donated
from art sales to addressing issues of global inequality, these figures tell of the immense
wealth and potential that rests within the art market.
I am under no illusions that the estimated financial value of my own art practice is of any
great significance in terms of the art market. None the less, all proceeds from any art sales
that form part of this research are being donated to charities that work with the poor and
vulnerable in the hope and belief that these proceeds can make a significant difference in
the lives of others.
But beyond the art market, what if the artwork itself was a form of redistributing wealth?
Ai Weiwei’s ‘Sunflower Seeds’ (see fig. 2) required the hand crafting of 100 million
porcelain seeds and served as a form of income generation for hundreds of poor workers.
The artwork was created in the small town of Jingdezhen, China, where 1,600 people were
employed in producing the seeds (see fig. 3). As a result, the large commission provided
by the TATE Gallery in the United Kingdom ended up directly supporting the poor and
vulnerable in China. When one of the Chinese workers was asked if she was happy
working on the project she beamingly responded, “Of course! Bring business. There is
27 ‘TEFAF report 2015: US tops the global art market, China and UK tie at second place’, Art Radar Journal, 13 March 2015, retrieved on
24 March 2014 from http://artradarjournal.com/2015/03/13/tefaf-‐report-‐2015-‐us-‐tops-‐the-‐global-‐art-‐market-‐china-‐and-‐uk-‐tie-‐at-‐second-‐place/ 28 J Sachs, The end of poverty: Economic possibilities of our time, The Penguin Press, USA, 2005, p.85
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 16
nothing much to do here anymore. Basically a lot of people have gone bankrupt.”29 In
contrast to the poor economic climate of the small town, workers contributing to
‘Sunflower seeds’ enjoyed good conditions and were even able to take their work home
with them.
Figure 2 -‐ Ai Weiwei with his 'Sunflower seeds' (2010)30
Ai Weiwei states, “They are all nice people. You [I] feel like you [I] might have to make
some more or other kinds of projects that can meet their needs,”31 reflecting a clear
perception that this work is meeting the practical needs of the local people. He also
expounds on the meaning of sunflowers as representative of the people within China in a
29 ‘Ai Weiwei: sunflower seeds’, TATE Gallery, 14 October 2010, retrieved on 24 March 2015 from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PueYywpkJW8 30 Ibid.
31 Ibid.
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 17
political and spiritual sense stating, “The seed is a household object but at the same time
it is a revolutionary symbol.”32 “This nation is notorious for its ability to make or fake
anything cheaply. 'Made-‐in-‐China' goods now fill homes around the world. But our giant
country has a small problem. We can't manufacture the happiness of our people.”33 From
the response of the workers employed in creating ‘Sunflower seeds’, it appears Ai
Weiwei’s artwork is effectively addressing this ‘small’ problem, providing increased access
to finance and opportunity to those in a largely disadvantaged portion of the world.
Figure 3 -‐ Chinese workers creating seeds for Ai Weiwei's 'Sunflower seeds'34
My own art practice achieves a similar goal of redistributing wealth in a slightly more
overt manner. ‘One thing you lack’ was a performance in which I sold everything I owned
32 Ai Weiwei, Brainy Quote, retrieved on 24 March 2015 from http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/a/ai_weiwei.html
33 Ibid.
34 ‘Ai Weiwei on faceless mass production’, Situation is studio, 22 February 2013, retrieved on 17 July 2015 from
http://situationiststudio.blogspot.com.au/2013/02/ai-‐weiwei-‐on-‐faceless-‐mass-‐production.html
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 18
and gave it to the poor in line with the moral teachings of philosopher Peter Singer,35 and
the Jesus Christ.36 This work will be elaborated on the next chapter but it drives at the
heart of wealth redistribution by enacting very practical and possible responsibilities of
the rich to the poor.
Awareness and advocacy
Art can be an effective means of learning about the world and understanding other
perspectives in what some term a form of ‘therapy’ that shapes us into better people.37
Alain Botton and John Armstrong pose the possibility of using art as a tool to extend our
capacities beyond those that nature has originally endowed us with. They propose that art
is a “therapeutic medium that can help guide, exhort and console its viewers, enabling
them to become better versions of themselves.”38 They provide seven functions by which
art might achieve this outcome, being: remembering, hope, sorrow, rebalancing, self-‐
understanding, growth and appreciation.
This project utilizes a number of these functions in its research. ‘Ordinary people in
extraordinary circumstances’ aims to give an insight into the lives of the poor. The
photographic work depicts poor Zambian farmers with their favourite possession,
challenging the notion of the poor as an empty handed victim, but also giving an insight
into the personalities of the individuals depicted and that which they deemed important
to them. These works help the viewer ‘remember’ the poor. Likewise, Vincent Van Gogh’s
‘The potato eaters’ (see fig. 4) was a portrayal of poverty that brought the lives of poor
country people into art.
35 P Singer, ‘Famine, affluence and morality’, Philosophy and Public Affairs, vol. 1, no. 1, Spring 1972, p.229-‐243, retrieved on 15 July
2015 from http://www.utilitarian.net/singer/by/1972-‐-‐-‐-‐.htm 36 Mark 10:17-‐27
37 A de Botton & J Armstrong, Art as Therapy, Phaidon Press, UK, 2013, p. 6
38 Ibid., p. 7
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 19
Figure 4 -‐ Vincent Van Gogh's 'The potato eaters' (1885)39
Art is able to educate and remind people of the reality of life for others. It can engage with
the ‘sorrow’ of poverty, acknowledging the sadness of injustice, and its images can bring a
‘rebalancing’ to our lives, which may have been overtaken by consumerism and an
attitude that takes for granted the economic privilege we enjoy on a global scale.
Similarly some of my works hope to provide an opportunity for improved ‘self-‐
understanding’ through reflection on our greater purpose and the meaning of our
existence and role in the world. To challenge us with ideals of life that we may have
thought beyond us, or foreign to us, and in doing so bring both ‘hope’ and ‘growth’. And
finally to give us a greater ‘appreciation’ of the life we have, the wealth we own and the
39 J Jones, ‘Poverty lines: where are the poor in art today?’ The Guardian, 30 December 2014, retrieved on 13 June 2015 from
http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/jonathanjonesblog/2014/dec/30/art-‐and-‐poverty-‐where-‐are-‐poor-‐in-‐art-‐today
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 20
opportunities afforded us on such a grand scale.
When these experiences mould the way we understand and think, they also have the
capacity to change the way we act. Award winning photographer, Tammy Cromer-‐
Campbell believes images have the power to inspire people to action. When asked if she
thought her photographs of a community struggling with pollution could help affect social
change, she replied; “I think that if people see the work, read the text, and are sensitive to
what happened in this tiny community, hopefully it pisses them off enough to get them to
their feet as activists.”40 Political scientist, Murray Edelman, argues that “contrary to the
usual assumption-‐which sees art as ancillary to the social scene, divorced of it, or at best,
reflective of it – art should be recognised as a major and integral part of the transaction
that engenders political behaviour.”41
This is the point at which art’s ability to function as a channel for education and awareness
develops into a means of advocacy. Whilst education and therapy might be first focussed
on change in the individual, advocacy aims to bring change on a societal level.42 This may
occur through collective action but often stems from individuals who receive education
and become aware of their ability to instil change in the world around them.43 Street artist
Callie Curry, aka ‘Swoon’, shares about her entry into street art, “I was a young woman
and I really had no sense of my ability to make any kind of change in the world. And then
suddenly in this very practical way, I went outside, I put up a ‘wheat paste’ [a paper poster
stuck to walls using a glue mixed from flour and water], I walked by the next day, and
there it was. And I had changed that street corner… And it’s a very, very tiny change, but
40 J.W. Delicath, ‘Art and Advocacy: Citizen participation through cultural activism’, in Communication and Public Participation, edited
by J.W. Delicath and S.P. Depoe, SUNY Press, 2004, retrieved on 25 March 2015 from http://books.google.com.au/books?hl=en&lr=&id=QxiQO9ZfCqgC&oi=fnd&pg=PA255&dq=art+as+advocacy&ots=fgI8XXrp_-‐&sig=AaiE8Ae23iDL4wjM3I7UsaFV0pE#v=onepage&q=art%20as%20advocacy&f=false 41 M Edelman, From art to politics: how artistic creations shape political conceptions, The university of Chicago press, USA, 1996, pp.2.
42 M Chao, Advocacy in CPTING project, November 2015, p. 2, retrieved on 13 June 2015 from
http://cpting.webfactional.com/media/uploads/Advocacy-‐note.pdf 43 Ibid., p. 3
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 21
none the less for me to be able to see and read back that I could have an impact on things
was really, really transformative.”44
Curry then went on to undertake art projects for social change including collaborating
with ‘The Equality Effect’, working with young Kenyan girls who had been raped. Curry
worked first hand with the girls in Kenya, helping them create drawings, masks and then a
performance.45 She also undertook a large block print artwork based on her experiences
(see fig. 5). One print was given to the children’s home that housed the girls and another
was auctioned off to raise funds to support the work in Kenya.46
44 C Curry, ‘Callie Curry aka Swoon’, TEDX Talks Brooklyn, 24 December 2010, retrieved on 25 March 2015 from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5298KZuW_JE 45 C Curry, ‘The art of equality’, The Equality Effect, retrieved on 13 June 2015 from http://theequalityeffect.org/the-‐art-‐of-‐equality
46 Ibid.
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 22
Figure 5 -‐ Callie Curry's work for 'The equality effect' project (2012)47
This art research therefore aims to inspire people to act differently. It may do that through
challenging assumptions around the way we live or engaging in a performance that
encourages audience members to respond in a manner that positively addresses issues of
global inequality.
Mike Parr’s performance work, ‘Malevich – A political arm’ and ‘Close the concentration
camps’ (see fig. 6) challenged the detention of asylum seekers as a violation of their
human rights by stitching his face and lips into a caricature of shame and nailing his arm to
a wall. Parr reflects on ‘Close the concentration camps’ saying, “so my face is sewn into a
47 ‘Our Supporters’, Equality Effect, retrieved on 15 July 2015 from http://theequalityeffect.org/our-‐supporters
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 23
knot and then my makeup artist is actually using the distortions in my face to build a
distorted cubist picture so it’s like a sort of, bizarre sort of parody.”48 Parr’s works grapple
with the restriction of human rights and in particular the issue of asylum and detention
centres, a topic about which he says, ‘the response of this country really fell short and
revealed our complacency and our privilege.’49
Figure 6 -‐ Mike Parr | Left: ‘Malevich -‐ a political arm’ (2002)50 | Right: ‘Close the concentration camps’ (2002)51
Parr believes that performance art isn’t about entertainment, but rather “it emerges in
48 M Parr, ‘Mike Parr uses body in topical exhibition’, ABC News, 28 Feb 2012, retrieved on 14 September 2014 from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljtZsmEHxT0 49 Ibid.
50 ‘Mike Parr at midnight: a performance protocol’, retrieved on 17 July 2015 from
http://members.iinet.net.au/~postpub/8ball/issue%2028/Parr=_Malevich_A_Political_Arm_.html 51 F Parr, ‘Mike Parr – Close the concentration camps, 2002’, Sherman Galleries, retrieved on 17 July 2015 from
http://shermangalleries.sherman-‐scaf.org.au/artists/inartists/image_pop.asp%3Fimage=341.html
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 24
extremis.” In 1978 Parr performed a piece in Vienna at an international festival of
performance art to open the event. He reportedly “waited until the audience was seated
before informing them that he and his family were destitute. He then went around
systematically sealing all the doors with heavy lockdown gear, before announcing that it
would cost everyone 30 shillings each to get out. The anger and rioting that followed was
extraordinary. Parr had money flung in his face, ducked punches and finally decked
someone. People broke down the doors.”52
Parr says his performance was all about turning the tables on an audience who’d turned
up to watch him bleed, literally. “I wasn’t going to provide them the convenience of such a
spectacle… But as soon as I reversed things, they said, ‘How dare you?’ in effect I was
saying, ‘This is performance art. It’s always uncertain, and now its uncertain for you.
You’re going to become the performers, I’ll be the curator.’ I wanted to put them in the
position where they were outraged about [becoming] the performers. And that became
the piece.”53
In this way, Parr’s work moves the audience to a place where they are forced to act. His
work uses shocking and grotesque acts to confront his audience with the truth of their
own situation, whether that be their complacency and privilege towards human rights
violations, or towards the performance artist and life in general.
In a similar way, this project engages art as a form of advocacy on issues of global
inequality. ‘Don’t deny us development’ is a video installation in which rural Zambian
farmers ask not to be denied community development and Australian’s discuss challenges
they experience in addressing issues of global inequality. The video footage was taken
within the context of my performance work, ‘One thing you lack’, in which the individuals
52 N Barrowclough, ‘Under his skin’, The Sydney Morning Herald, 28 July 2012
53 Ibid.
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 25
were involved either as audience members who bought some of my belongings to support
the poor, or in the case of the Zambian farmers, received support from funds raised
through the artwork. Both works challenge the audience to take action, either through the
calls of the Zambian farmers for greater equality in social development, or through the
opportunity to financially support the poor through buying my possessions, or perhaps
even giving away their own.
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 26
PART ONE | ONE THING YOU LACK
Chapter 3: One thing you lack
Chapter 4: Influencing artists
Chapter 5: Art and morality
Chapter 6: Moral responses to global inequality
Chapter 7: Addressing global inequality
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 27
Chapter 3 | One thing you lack
On the 5 December 2012 I sold everything I owned and gave it to the poor. ‘One thing you
lack’ was a performance based on two texts regarding the poor, one theological and the
other philosophical. The first was Jesus’s command to the rich young man, found in the
book of Luke 18:18-‐23, to “sell everything you own and give it to the poor.”54 The second
was a challenge by utilitarian, Peter Singer, who believes “if we can prevent something
bad, without sacrificing anything of comparable significance, we ought to do it.”55
As might be expected, selling everything you own in one week is not necessarily an easy
task, but it is by no means impossible. All my major items – motorbike, laptop, iPhone,
surfboard, wetsuit, paintings – I placed on a seven day auction, with no reserve, and
opening bids of one cent. They all sold. The rest of my possessions were set up in a gallery
space that closely resembled my home with a study, bedroom, art studio, bathroom,
kitchen and garage, (see fig. 7 & 9) and sold by a small team of volunteers.
54 Luke 18:18-‐23
55 P Singer, ‘Famine, affluence and morality’, Philosophy and Public Affairs, vol. 1, no. 1, Spring 1972, p.229-‐243, retrieved on 15 July
2015 from http://www.utilitarian.net/singer/by/1972-‐-‐-‐-‐.htm
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 28
Figure 7 – ‘One thing you lack’ prior to opening | Top left: Bedroom | Top right: online bidding | Bottom left: pantry
goods | Bottom right: art studio
I assumed that some items would not sell – old clothes, linen, worn books – so I organised
to deliver and donate what was left to the local Salvation Army store (see fig. 8). But I
actually thought that even the Salvation Army would not take much of what remained.
What about used underwear for instance? Since the aim of the artwork was to help the
poor, not simply pass items to someone to throw in the trash, I questioned the manager
as I dropped the boxes off, “Do you really want my personally inscribed under 12’s soccer
trophies and marathon medals?” “Oh yes,” he said, “we’ll mark them at one dollar each
and people will buy them for an Olympics dress up party.” When I returned to deliver the
second load of goods, my medals were already in the bargain box and my boxer shorts
were hanging on the rack.
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 29
Figure 8 -‐ Inside the Salvation Army store the day after delivering 'One thing you lack' goods | Top left: my boxer
shorts on the rack marked at $1.50 | Top right: my awards and trophies sit in a bargain bin | Bottom left: my artworks
| Bottom right: my books, still marked with stickers from the exhibition, displayed on a coffee table
I emptied the contents of my bank accounts, and gave what was in them, along with the
proceeds of the sale, to a charity, Global Concern, that operates sustainable poverty
alleviation projects in some of the poorest parts of the world.
The performance aimed to challenge our right to retain wealth when faced by the needs
of those in extreme poverty. Whilst I may not be rich by Australian standards, for example
I did not own a house or a car, when I entered my income on www.globalrichlist.com, it
told me that I was in the top one percent of the world by income. In fact anyone with an
income over AU$50,000 per year meets the criteria for the top one percent richest people
in the world by income, a fact that can be both flattering and unsettling in the context of
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 30
global inequality.56 The same source also informed me that it would take an average
labourer in Ghana 243 years to earn my annual salary.57
‘One thing you lack’ saw me move to financial and material ground zero in the hope of
moving others out of poverty. Whilst the work follows a rather simple and direct maxim, it
is broad in its scope with regard to its implications on aspects of poverty, consumerism,
identity, relational responsibility and other areas of life. Any narrative I give of the work
usually arouses numerous questions in the audience, such as where did I sleep, what did I
eat, and how did people respond? However, before analysing these aspects of the work I
think it would first be helpful to understand the artists that influenced the piece and the
philosophy that inspired it. We shall return to explore answers to the above questions and
others in Chapter 7 as we examine the work’s impact on global inequality.
Figure 9 -‐ 'One thing you lack' prior to opening | Left: my bedside table – all my drawers and cupboards remained full,
in the same manner in which I lived with them. People freely rummaged through belongings to identity items they
wished to purchase. | Right: my degrees available for bidding. These were arranged in bundles where winning
bidders received the degree certificate (in my name), all notes and books related to the degree and, in some
instances, a cap, gown and graduation photographs.
56 The Global Rich List, retrieved on 2 April 2015 from http://www.globalrichlist.com/
57 Ibid.
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 31
Chapter 4 | Influencing artists
Recent decades have seen numerous contemporary artists undertaking works that
investigate our relationships with our possessions and what we own.58 Such works often
reflect a disdain for the growing consumerism common in our age. This chapter explores
the work of three artists, Michael Landy, Neil Boorman and Jasper Joffe, whose
performances heavily influenced me in the development of ‘One thing you lack’. The
challenge with exploring performances is that they are more difficult to observe or
comprehend after the event than some other art forms, for instance painting. Therefore,
as much as possible this section will attempt to let the artists explain their work in their
own words, in the hope of communicating and preserving the original intent of their
performance. The end of this chapter will locate my work, ‘One thing you lack’, within the
context of the three performances discussed.
Michael Landy
In 2001, Michael Landy conducted ‘Breakdown’. Landy says, “The idea of Breakdown came
to me in 1998 when I was sitting at my kitchen wondering what I was going to do next…
and I thought, ‘How can I mess it up for myself?’ That was the moment I decided to
destroy all my worldly goods.”59
“As a child I’d always been into taking things apart so I could see how they were put
together. I call it an examination of consumerism. So I took apart every one of my 7,227
belongings over a two-‐week period in the old C&A building on Oxford Street, which is now
58 L Corner, ‘Has destroying all thei worldly goods made this artists happy?’ The Independent, 10 January 2010, retrieved on 15 April
2015 from http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-‐entertainment/art/features/has-‐destroying-‐all-‐their-‐worldly-‐goods-‐made-‐these-‐artists-‐happy-‐1859854.html 59 Ibid.
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 32
a Primark. I had 100 metres of conveyor belt to carry all my stuff (see fig. 10) and 12
operatives who I had employed for their dismantling skills. Everything I owned was broken
down to its material parts and then granulated. It was all very forensic. The whole lot was
weighed – it came to 5.75 tones – then taken off to a landfill in Essex.”60
Figure 10 -‐ 'Breakdown', Michael Landy (2001)61
In Landy’s words, ‘Breakdown’ appears to be both an act of self-‐sabotage and an
‘examination of consumerism’62. He doesn’t reference any form of moral ideal or principle
from which he operated. The self-‐sabotage appears both casual and spontaneous in its
60 L Corner, ‘Has destroying all their worldly goods made this artists happy?’ The Independent, 10 January 2010, retrieved on 15 April
2015 from http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-‐entertainment/art/features/has-‐destroying-‐all-‐their-‐worldly-‐goods-‐made-‐these-‐artists-‐happy-‐1859854.html 61 Ibid.
62 Ibid.
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 33
inception, whilst the examination of consumerism became the more thoughtful and
investigative nature of ‘Breakdown’ in the act of performance.
Neil Boorman
In 2006, Niel Boorman burnt all his branded, designer items in a giant bonfire and then
wrote a book about the experience entitled ‘Bonfire of the Brands.’63 Boorman says, “I was
such a brand whore and such a shopaholic that my identity and sense of self were entirely
based around the things I owned. I was a walking billboard and believed that the logos I
wore signified status. I would judge other people entirely by the labels they wore, too. My
headspace was totally taken up by thoughts of brands. I used to spend my entire time
sitting around thinking which new mobile phone or PDA would define me best.”64
"I realised it was time to do something about it when my partner and I went to a remote
beach in India to get away from everything. She woke to find me wading through the sea
trying to get a signal on my BlackBerry because I was half way through a bidding war on
eBay for a Gucci sweatshirt.”65
"So on the 17 September 2006 I burnt the entire contents of my branded life (see fig. 11).
It was a good £20,000 worth of stuff – lots of clothing by Raf Simons, Vivienne Westwood,
Gucci and Louis Vuitton; I was into all the big, ostentatious labels. There was also a
Technics turntable, a Sharp LCD TV, a Dyson cleaner, Habitat furniture, numerous
63 L Corner, ‘Has destroying all their worldly goods made this artists happy?’ The Independent, 10 January 2010, retrieved on 15 April
2015 from http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-‐entertainment/art/features/has-‐destroying-‐all-‐their-‐worldly-‐goods-‐made-‐these-‐artists-‐happy-‐1859854.html 64 Ibid.
65 Ibid.
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 34
BlackBerrys and Nokia phones and loads more. I made a pact to try to live completely
brand-‐free for a year.”66
Figure 11 -‐ 'Bonfire of the brands', Neil Boorman (2006)67
Boorman’s ‘Bonfire of the brands’ was therefore an attempt to release his identity and
sense of self from his branded possessions. It was about finding who he was apart from
them. Once again, there was no moral statement or ideal from which the action was born.
The act was more a direct dialogue between Boorman and his possessions. However, the
dialogue takes place within the context of his relationships, and a world where his
66 L Corner, ‘Has destroying all their worldly goods made this artists happy?’ The Independent, 10 January 2010, retrieved on 15 April
2015 from http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-‐entertainment/art/features/has-‐destroying-‐all-‐their-‐worldly-‐goods-‐made-‐these-‐artists-‐happy-‐1859854.html 67 Ibid.
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 35
possessions might bestow status, and comes to a head in the presence of his girlfriend.
Thus we find that whilst Landy investigates consumerism and destroys all his possessions
in order to cull back the crush of owning so much, Boorman focuses on aspects of identity
and therefore destroys only those items deemed most influential in defining his selfhood
and value in a hope of freeing these aspects of himself from the items themselves.
Jasper Joffe
In 2009, Jaspe Joffe performed ‘The Sale of a Lifetime’ selling everything he owned (see
fig. 12) after a relational and career crisis coincided, bringing his life to a place of new
beginnings. Joffe states, “I split up with my long-‐term girlfriend... I remember waking up in
my studio the morning after, thinking my life had hit rock bottom. We have a four-‐year-‐
old together and all I desperately wanted to do was get back with her. I'd also just split
from the gallery that had represented me for years. I was 33 and had reached a point
where I was having to start again both emotionally and career-‐wise.”68
"Not many people would think the solution to their problems would be to sell everything
they owned, but it made sense to me. I felt as if I had a big hole in my life and I needed to
do something extreme. It was around the time that Woolworths was going under and the
credit crunch was on everyone's mind. I just wanted to put everything in one place, put it
up for sale, and say my life was going out of business.”69
68 L Corner, ‘Has destroying all their worldly goods made this artists happy?’ The Independent, 10 January 2010, retrieved on 15 April
2015 from http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-‐entertainment/art/features/has-‐destroying-‐all-‐their-‐worldly-‐goods-‐made-‐these-‐artists-‐happy-‐1859854.html 69 Ibid.
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 36
Figure 12 -‐ Left: Jaspe Joffe | Right: 'The sale of a lifetime' (2009)70
For Joffe, the sale of everything he owned was a personal experience brought on by a
particular set of circumstances. Joffe was killing off a section of his life, closing it down and
shutting it away. ‘The Sale of a Lifetime’ is distinct from the previous two works in that it
shifts its key modus operandi from destruction to selling. Rather than destroying the old
life, Joffe is selling the old life, presumably to pay for the new one.
Landy, Boorman and Joffe in the context of global inequality
As an international aid and development worker, I naturally grappled with these works
from within my day-‐to-‐day perspective of working closely with the poor. I found them
intriguing in their analysis of consumerism but felt that they pointed towards a greater
moral challenge.
The works of Landy, Boorman and Joffe tended to raise issues of identity and
consumerism almost from within a vacuum. Our focus is intent on the artist and their
70 L Corner, ‘Has destroying all their worldly goods made this artists happy?’ The Independent, 10 January 2010, retrieved on 15 April
2015 from http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-‐entertainment/art/features/has-‐destroying-‐all-‐their-‐worldly-‐goods-‐made-‐these-‐artists-‐happy-‐1859854.html
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 37
things and the making and breaking of this connection between them. But what of the
greater context in which these works exist and the making and breaking is played out?
By zooming out from the direct connection between person and object we can analyse
these works on a different level, one that takes into account the global society in which
they are performed, and in particular the context of global inequality. For example, what
does it mean for Landy and Boorman to destroy all their possessions and wealth in a world
where so many people go without and 1.4 billion people live in extreme poverty?71
Such questions require a moral framework to seek out their answers. The next chapter
aims to establish such a framework for this purpose. This research then takes the
performance methods used by Landy, Borrman and Joffe in their investigation of
consumerism and applies them within the established moral framework with the aim of
investigating global inequality, and resulting in the work of ‘One thing you lack.’
71 M Tuck, ‘New Data Show 1.4 Billion Live On Less Than US$1.25 A Day, But Progress Against Poverty Remains Strong’, The World Bank,
16 September 2008, retrieved on 15 April 2015 from http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-‐release/2008/09/16/new-‐data-‐show-‐14-‐billion-‐live-‐less-‐us125-‐day-‐progress-‐against-‐poverty-‐remains-‐strong
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 38
Chapter 5 | Art and morality
From the times of Aristotle and Plato, art and morality have been debated as to their
compatibility and interdependence. Aristotle believed that art was a helpful tool in
understanding morality and that an audience viewing aspects of pity and fear (in his view
the essence of tragedy) could better empathise with and understand tragic events,
without having to experience them first hand.72 Plato, on the other hand, felt that acting
was an illusion of reality that masked the truth of existence by the pretence of acting.73
Opposing views as to the interrelationship between art and morality have continued to
this day, but unfortunately a full discussion on this area falls outside the scope of this
thesis. Instead, this chapter will attempt to give a brief overview as to how this research
has interpreted the role of art and its relationship to morality in our lives.
This thesis adopts the approach of Suzi Gablik,74 Alain de Botton and John Armstrong,75
who describe art as a therapeutic medium that can help guide, exhort and console its
viewers, enabling them to become better versions of themselves. This notion rejects the
concept of ‘art for art’s sake’, a definition that they believe leaves the high status of art
mysterious and vulnerable. Instead, art is considered as at least holding the capacity for
purpose. De Botton and Armstrong believe that “since the beginning of the twentieth
century, our relationship with art has been weakened by a profound institutional
reluctance to address the question of what art is for,” and that “this question has, quite
72 Aristotle, Aristotle in 23 Volumes, Vol. 23, translated by W. H. Fyfe, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1932 73 Plato, Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vols. 5 & 6 translated by Paul Shorey, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William
Heinemann Ltd. 1969 74 S Gablik, ‘A New Front’, Resurgence Magazine, 2004, retrieved on 27 June 2015 from http://
greenmuseum.org/content/generic_content/ct_id-‐170.html 75 A de Botton & J Armstrong, Art as Therapy, Phaidon Press, UK, 2013 p.5
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 39
unfairly, come to feel impatient, illegitimate and a little impudent.”76
This same notion is reinforced by Suzi Gablik, who believes any divide between art and
morality, aesthetics and ethics, is part of a narrow Western consumer-‐culture perspective,
“In Western culture,” she says, “artists aren’t encouraged to be integral to the social,
environmental, or spiritual life of the community. The do not train to engage with real-‐life
problems. Instead they learn to be competitive with their products in the marketplace.”77
Galbik sees this perspective as a failure to fully understand the function and potential of
art.78
Whilst de Botton and Armstrong acknowledge that there may be numerous functions of
art, they focus on what they term therapeutic functions. These functions include how art
might “help with a broken heart, set the sorrows of the individual into perspective, help us
find consolation in nature, educate our sensitivity to the needs of others, keep the right
ideals of a successful life at the front of our minds and help us to understand ourselves.”79
Many people can attest to works of art playing exactly these and other therapeutic roles.
But overall, de Botton and Armstrong maintain that art should be studied with the
question, “What lessons are you trying to teach us that will help us with our lives?”80
And it is at this point that art and moral philosophy intersect. Moral philosophy or the
study of ethics involves systematizing, defending and recommending concepts of right and
wrong behaviour.81 This research relies on two key aspects of moral philosophy, namely
normative ethics and applied ethics. Normative ethics strives to articulate the “good
76 A de Botton & J Armstrong, Art as Therapy, Phaidon Press, UK, 2013 p.4 77 S Gablik, ‘A New Front’, Resurgence Magazine, 2004, retrieved on 27 June 2015 from http://
greenmuseum.org/content/generic_content/ct_id-‐170.html 78 Ibid.
79 A de Botton & J Armstrong, Art as Therapy, Phaidon Press, UK, 2013 p. 86
80 Ibid., p.87
81 J Fieser, ‘Ethics’, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy – A peer reviewed academic resource, USA, retrieved on 15 July 2015 from
http://www.iep.utm.edu/ethics/
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 40
habits we should acquire, the duties we should follow, or the consequences of our
behaviour on others.”82 Applied ethics involves examining specific controversial issues,
such as abortion, animal rights, environmental concerns, poverty and wealth. So it
becomes obvious that if a key purpose of art is to teach us lessons that will help us with
our lives, and moral philosophy aims to articulate good habits we should acquire, and how
we can apply them in specific circumstances in our life, then the two are both compatible
and mutually beneficial.
Having built the case for the compatibility of art and moral philosophy, it should also be
noted that this research is open to the fact that some art may not have any such function
at all. The work of the Chapman Brothers, for instance, is sometimes described as
amoral.83 Jake Chapman says, “if you enter the terrain of making art, the presupposition is
that a work of art, however nasty it is, that ultimately it must serve some morally
profound ambition, it still must be attached to the notion of progress, enlightenment,
goodness, all those things. What happens when you want to make a work that is only
nasty?”84
And this is exactly what the Chapman Brothers set out to do in works such as ‘Fucking
Hell’ (see fig. 13) depicting a gruesome mass of small plastic tormented figures, skulls and
ripped open torsos locked in a hellish waring landscape. Or the ‘Fuckface’ series of life-‐
sized sculptures of young naked children joined together in deformed ways, some with a
penis for a nose or an anus for a mouth. The Chapman’s work often arouses disgust and
could appear devoid of good. But some, like Mark Kermode, claim such works, in
particular horror films, made with no intent other than exploitation and nihilism, are still
82 J Fieser, ‘Ethics’, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy – A peer reviewed academic resource, USA, retrieved on 15 July 2015 from
http://www.iep.utm.edu/ethics/ 83 M Kermode, ‘Chapman Brothers Interview’, Art Patrol TV, 17 November 2008, retrieved on 1 October 2014 from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QeNatsDV4I 84 Ibid.
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 41
morally justifiable, perhaps partly because we can now see goodness more clearly against
the backdrop of such works, thereby making their sheer presence a good thing85. But Jake
Chapman says of this idea “that the inevitability of our work, however nasty it might
appear to be that still it can be cuddled at the end of it, no. Nope, there are razor blades in
it. Really. No we won’t have it. No!”
Figure 13 -‐ 'Fucking hell', Jake and Dinos Chapman (2008)86
For the sake of an argument that is beyond the scope of this paper, this research accepts
Jake Chapman’s assessment that some works of art can be only amoral or, as he says,
“nasty”. As such, this research argues not that art must intersect with moral ideals, but
merely that it can; that art can have the therapeutic functions applied to it by Gablik, de
Botton and Armstrong; that art does not have to be vacuous and undefinable, but that
whilst some art might be negative or self-‐serving, other art can and does play a pragmatic
85 M Kermode, ‘Chapman Brothers Interview’, Art Patrol TV, 17 November 2008, retrieved on 1 October 2014 from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QeNatsDV4I 86 G Sabato, ‘Jake and Dinos Chapman, Fucking hell, 2008’, Artribune, 26 April 2014, retrieved on 15 July 2015 from
http://www.artribune.com/2014/04/violent-‐beauty-‐la-‐sublime-‐violenza-‐della-‐contemporaneita-‐ii/07-‐61
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 42
and positive function in our lives.
Moral philosopher, Peter Singer, describes this purpose of art during an interview in which
he was asked if people saw him as somewhat cold and bloodless. Singer replied,
“Philosophers use reason and argument… If I were a poet, I would be writing poetry that
would pull at your emotions in order to make you empathise with the situation of the
battery hen or of the family who can't afford to put food on the table. So, that's the
professional hazard, if you like, of being a philosopher -‐ that you get seen as someone who
is all reason and no emotion.”87 Singer acknowledges that art can play a very helpful role
in engaging people in a unique way that his academic philosophy could not achieve on its
own. As such, we will now move onto a practical example in which art might play just such
a role within the context of global inequality.
87 A Denton, ‘Professor Peter Singer’, Enough Rope, 4 October 2004, retrieved on 15 July from
http://www.abc.net.au/tv/enoughrope/transcripts/s1213309.htm
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 43
Chapter 6 | Moral responses to global inequality
In order to better investigate how art and ethics can relate in the context of global
inequality, two specific moral precepts were selected as case studies. These two precepts
were chosen for a number of reasons including: their relevance to the issue of global
inequality; their high and somewhat idealistic personal challenge (providing opportunity
for many of the therapeutic functions of art such as hope, re-‐balancing, growth and self
understanding); their differing foundations, one being theological and the other
philosophical; their broad agreement despite this difference, enabling the same moral
principle to appeal to a wider audience than just those ascribing to a single faith or
philosophy; and the genuine personal conviction they both raised within myself as an
artist.
This chapter is divided into two sections, each pertaining to a different moral concept. The
first moral precept comes from the philosophical teachings of Peter Singer, and the
second from the religious teachings of Jesus Christ. Each section explains the concept itself
and provides a brief understanding of its context and its practical implications for us
today.
Peter Singer
Peter Singer (see fig. 14) is currently the Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics at
Princeton University, and a Laureate Professor at the Centre of Applied Philosophy and
Public Ethics at the University of Melbourne. He is one of Australia’s foremost
philosophers and in 2006 he was voted one of Australia’s ten most influential public
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 44
intellectuals.88 He is an atheist, debating numerous times with Christian apologists on the
existence of God,89 and is passionate about addressing issues of poverty, having written
regularly on the topic and set up his own charity to make a practical difference.90
Figure 14 -‐ Peter Singer 91
88 R Nile, ‘First cohort for thought’, The Australian, 4 October 2006, retrieved on 15 July from
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/first-‐cohort-‐for-‐thought/story-‐e6frg6n6-‐1111112254409 89 Singer vs Lennox: Is there a God? Big Ideas, ABC, 6 September 2011, retrieved 18 July 2015 from
http://www.abc.net.au/tv/bigideas/stories/2011/09/06/3310342.htm 90 P Singer, The life you can save, retrieved on 13 July 2015 from http://www.thelifeyoucansave.org
91 ‘Peter Singer’, Twitter, retrieved on 15 July 2015 from https://twitter.com/petersinger
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 45
Singer provides the normative challenge that, “If it is in our power to prevent something
bad from happening, without thereby sacrificing anything of comparable moral
importance, we ought, morally, to do it.” 92 The term ‘comparable moral importance’
signifies that individuals have to give to the point of marginal utility, that is to the point at
which giving more would cause oneself and one’s dependants as much suffering as one
would prevent.93 In simple terms, it means we should give to assist people when it will
help them more than it will harm us. This is a very egalitarian perspective on the world,
and one in which many of us might choose to live, especially if we were those who needed
help more than most, or in other words, if we were the poorest or most vulnerable in our
world. In such an instance, the principle would sit in our favour and bring about greater
equality, improving the lives of the needy.
However, given the widespread suffering caused by lack of food, shelter and medical care
in much of the world, and the financial and technological means that habitants of
developed countries have to address these issues, Singer’s principle places heavy
demands on our affluent global citizens. For even as such citizen’s apparent affluence
might be reduced through acts of charity, the demand continues until they find
themselves in a similar position recounted in Tolstoy’s ‘The demand’s of love’, where
having given away all their possessions, having no bed or pillow, save a meagre amount of
food, they encounter another also without possessions, but who is sickly and does not
even have an ounce of food and are required to share their own food with him.94
However, Singer points out that at this stage, the very principle being lived out is now in
their favour, for there will surely be many more affluent people who can now assist that
person in their poverty at very little cost to themselves.
92 P Singer, ‘Famine, affluence and morality’, Philosophy and Public Affairs, vol. 1, no. 1, Spring 1972, p.229-‐243, retrieved on 15 July
2015 from http://www.utilitarian.net/singer/by/1972-‐-‐-‐-‐.htm 93 Ibid.
94 L Tolstoy, The Demands of Love, 1893, translated by Aylmer Maude, Wikisource, retrieved on 18 April 2012 from
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Complete_Works_of_Lyof_N._Tolsto%C3%AF/The_Demands_of_Love
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 46
Singer provides an applied ethics example of this normative challenge well known as ‘The
Drowning Child and the Expanding Circle’ (see full article in Appendix 1):
“To challenge my students to think about the ethics of what we owe
to people in need, I ask them to imagine that their route to the
university takes them past a shallow pond. One morning, I say to
them, you notice a child has fallen in and appears to be drowning. To
wade in and pull the child out would be easy but it will mean that you
get your clothes wet and muddy, and by the time you go home and
change you will have missed your first class.
I then ask the students: do you have any obligation to rescue the
child? Unanimously, the students say they do. The importance of
saving a child so far outweighs the cost of getting one’s clothes
muddy and missing a class, that they refuse to consider it any kind of
excuse for not saving the child. Does it make a difference, I ask, that
there are other people walking past the pond who would equally be
able to rescue the child but are not doing so? No, the students reply,
the fact that others are not doing what they ought to do is no reason
why I should not do what I ought to do.
Once we are all clear about our obligations to rescue the drowning
child in front of us, I ask: would it make any difference if the child
were far away, in another country perhaps, but similarly in danger of
death, and equally within your means to save, at no great cost – and
absolutely no danger – to yourself? Virtually all agree that distance
and nationality make no moral difference to the situation. I then
point out that we are all in that situation of the person passing the
shallow pond: we can all save lives of people, both children and
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 47
adults, who would otherwise die, and we can do so at a very small
cost to us: the cost of a new CD, a shirt or a night out at a restaurant
or concert, can mean the difference between life and death to more
than one person somewhere in the world – and overseas aid agencies
like Oxfam overcome the problem of acting at a distance.”95
Singer goes on to explain the various challenges raised by students including the
assurance aid is received, that it is not squandered on administration or lost in corruption,
and even the introduction of new problems such as over population. Singer points out
that there are answers to all these questions but “even if a substantial proportion of our
donations were wasted, the cost to us of making the donation is so small, compared to
the benefits that it provides when it, or some of it, does get through to those who need
our help, that we would still be saving lives at a small cost to ourselves – even if aid
organisations were much less efficient than they actually are.”96
Furthermore, for Singer, the inactivity of other duty-‐bearers does not alter the demands
of the principle on the individual. In Singer’s analogy, he aptly points out that our
responsibility to rescue a drowning child is not diminished by the fact that others are also
walking by the pond equally able to rescue the child but are not doing so. So if others
choose not to address issues of suffering, this does not alleviate the responsibility of the
individual to follow the principle, even though it may leave them with a greater burden.
And thus the challenge builds, for although the suffering of the world is immense, if the
entire world followed this principle together the burden would be considerably lighter
than if we are left to live it out on our own. For when faced on our own, the world’s
95 P Singer, ‘The drowning child and the expanding circle’, New Internationalist, 1997, retrieved on 20 March 2012 from
http://www.utilitarian.net/singer/by/199704-‐-‐.htm 96 Ibid.
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 48
suffering can appear unending and overwhelming to the point where we give up
everything we have until we arrive in a position just slightly better off than the poorest. As
Singer says:
“If we were to take it seriously, our lives would be changed
dramatically. For while the cost of saving one child’s life by a
donation to an aid organisation may not be great, after you have
donated that sum, there remain more children in need of saving, each
one of whom can be saved at a relatively small additional cost.
Suppose you have just sent $200 to an agency that can, for that
amount, save the life of a child in a developing country who
otherwise would have died. You’ve done something really good, and
all it has cost you is the price of some new clothes you didn’t really
need anyway. Congratulations! But don’t celebrate you good deed by
opening a bottle of champagne, or even going to a movie. The costs
of that bottle or movie, added to what you could save by cutting
down on a few other extravagances, would save the life of another
child. After you forgo those items, and give another $200, though, is
everything else you are spending as important, or nearly as
important, as the life of a child?”97
UNICEF estimates that every year 9.7 million children die of preventable causes. It states,
“the world knows what it takes to improve child health and survival but millions still die
because they lack access to these basic services.”98 Effectively Singer asks us to measure
the value of each of our possessions against the worth of one of these 9.7 million children.
97 P Singer, The life you can save: Acting now to end world poverty, USA, Random House, 2010
98 ‘Children should not be dying from preventable causes’, UNICEF, retrieved on 3 October 2014 from
http://www.unicef.org/why/why_preventable_causes.html
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 49
And then if we find in the child’s favour we should give up the possession to save the life
of the child, and that we should continue this course until either all 9.7 million children are
saved, or we have no more possessions worth lesser value than the life of a child to give.
When followed in its entirety, Singer’s analogy requires those in relatively wealthy nations
to sell everything they own in order to make a difference in the lives of those living in
extreme poverty. In other words, to withhold any of our possessions from those in
extreme poverty is to break our moral obligation to them. For Singer, giving to the poor is
not an act of charity; rather it becomes an act of justice.
Whilst we could discuss this further, the main aim of this research is to engage art practice
in this process of investigation and so we shall continue to pursue the outworking of
Singer’s challenge in our analysis of ‘One thing you lack’ in Chapter 7.
Jesus Christ
The second moral precept comes from the Christian teachings of Jesus Christ. Numerous
faith-‐based organisations have arisen to attempt to address issues of global inequality,
poverty and injustice. Many non-‐faith-‐based aid organisations such as one of Singer’s
favourites, Oxfam,99 along with organisations representing a variety of faiths, like Islamic
Relief,100 make a positive contribution to addressing inequality around the world.
However, it is Christian-‐based organisations that make up the vast majority of Australia’s
aid organisations,101 including Australia’s largest international non-‐government
organisation, World Vision.102 This context, along with the other reasons given in the
introduction to this chapter, provided further rationale that when addressing global
inequality from within an Australian context it might be particularly helpful to draw upon
99 ‘The life you can save’, Oxfam, retrieved on 13 June 2015 from http://www.thelifeyoucansave.org/where-‐to-‐donate/oxfam
100 Islamic Relief, retrieved on 13 June 2015 from https://islamic-‐relief.com.au
101 ‘Australia’s aid and development program submission 56’, Church agencies network submission, 6 February 2014, retrieved on 13
June 2015 from http://www.aph.gov.au/DocumentStore.ashx?id=3bdee543-‐e4ec-‐4988-‐a128-‐d4fdb6984f69&subId=32466 102
‘Financials’, ACFID Annual Report 2013, p.23, retrieved on 13 June 2015 from http://www.acfid.asn.au/about-‐acfid/corporate-‐documents/annual-‐report-‐2013
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 50
the same Christian teachings that underpin the majority of Australian organisations
working to overcome poverty and injustice.
This section will briefly outline some of Jesus Christ’s teachings on wealth and poverty
followed by how these teachings might interact with those of Singer. Jesus Christ poses a
number of normative challenges around the way we treat others including perhaps most
notably what is famously known as the ‘Golden Rule’,103 expressed in Jesus words in
Matthew 7:12, “So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for
this sums up the Law and the Prophets.”104
However, when it comes to applied ethics, Jesus also provides us with a very practical and
perhaps more challenging exhortation in the case of a wealthy young man recorded in the
book of Mark and often referred to as the account of ‘The Rich Young Ruler.’ The narrative
also includes the phrase ‘one thing you lack’ from which the title of the performance was
drawn.
17 As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his
knees before him. “Good teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to
inherit eternal life?” 18 “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered.
“No one is good—except God alone.
19 You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder, you shall not
commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false
testimony, you shall not defraud, honour your father and mother.’”
20 “Teacher,” he declared, “all these I have kept since I was a boy.”
103 W.A. Spooner, "The Golden Rule," in James Hastings, ed. Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, Vol. 6 (New York: Charles Scribner's
Sons, 1914) pp. 310–12, quoted in Rushworth M. Kidder, How Good People Make Tough Choices: Resolving the Dilemmas of Ethical Living, Harper, New York, 2003 104
Matthew 7:12
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 51
21 Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack,” he said.
“Go, sell everything you have and give it to the poor, and you will
have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
22 At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great
wealth. 23 Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it
is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!”
24 The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said again,
“Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! 25 It is easier
for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who
is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”
26 The disciples were even more amazed, and said to each other,
“Who then can be saved?”
27 Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but
not with God; all things are possible with God.”
28 Then Peter spoke up, “We have left everything to follow you!”
29 “Truly I tell you,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or
brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and
the gospel 30 will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this
present age: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—
along with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life. 105
105 Mark 10:17-‐30
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 52
Jesus Christ issues a stern and troubling challenge to the wealthy. Even to many Christians,
the command to “sell everything and give it to the poor” sounds too radical or
immoderate a statement.
However, as Charles Camosy points out, “though Jesus himself rarely speaks of Hell, when
he does so it is almost always connected to a failure of one’s duties to the poor. In
recounting a rich man’s refusal to help a poor beggar, for instance, Jesus notes that the
rich man ends up in torment in Hell (Luke 16:19-‐31). He famously said that the love of
money is the root of evil and that a rich person will struggle to enter the kingdom of God
(Matthew 19:24). And in one of the most important stories of the Christian tradition, Jesus
famously divides the Heaven-‐bound from the Hell-‐bound based on whether or not they
fulfilled duties to ‘the least ones’ in their communities (Matthew 25:31-‐46).”106
There appears to be considerable overlap and agreement between Singer and Jesus on
the topic of inequality and our responsibilities to the poor. This despite Singer’s atheist
position that puts him and Christianity at obvious odds at a foundational level. Another
line of agreement between the two in responding to poverty can be found in Singer’s
suggestion that we give ten percent of our resources to those in absolute poverty, based
on the tithing percentage required by the social welfare mechanism of the age: the
Church,107 which had taken on such a role because they took Jesus’s message so
seriously.108
I was fortunate enough to personally engage with Peter Singer on a number of occasions
after completing my performance ‘One thing you lack.’ Some of his responses to the work
are included in the next chapter. However, during my dialogue with him he referred me to
106 C Camosy, Peter Singer and Christian Ethics, Cambridge University Press, UK, 2012, p.139-‐140.
107 P Singer, The life you can save: Acting now to end world poverty, USA, Random House, 2010 as quoted in C Camosy, Peter Singer and
Christian Ethics, Cambridge University Press, UK, 2012 108
C Camosy, op. cit., p. 140
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 53
Charles Camosy’s book, ‘Peter Singer and Christian Ethics – Beyond Polarization’, which
explores the similarities and differences between the ethical views of Singer and the
Christian church, finding common cause on matters such as global poverty and the dignity
of non-‐human animals.109
Camosy says of the approaches of Singer and Christ, “both approaches react strongly
against the violence and injustice that our consumerist and hyper-‐autonomous culture
inflicts on the vulnerable poor. The enormity of what is in common might also suggest yet
another duty: taking advantage of the resources and loyalties proper to each approach
and unleashing their combined power toward the mutual goal of ending absolute poverty
and restoring broad social participation for the poor.”110
Unleashing the combined power of both approaches was exactly what ‘One thing you lack’
attempted to do. The next chapter assesses outcomes of the work in attempting to
achieve this aim.
109 C Camosy, Peter Singer and Christian Ethics, Cambridge University Press, UK, 2012
110 Ibid., p.176
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 54
Chapter 7 | Addressing global inequality
This chapter reflects on the impact of ‘One thing you lack’ on global inequality, examining
the more personal impact of the work on myself through the experience of performance,
investigating the effectiveness of the work as a mechanism of redistributing wealth, and
finally, considering how the work raises awareness and education on issues of global
inequality.
Performance
When undertaking a performance like ‘One thing you lack’ it can be difficult to separate
the performance aspect of the work from everyday life. John McDonald writes, “The line
between life and performance is being crossed and recrossed all the time, either
consciously or subliminally.”111 Similarly, Marina Abramovic states, "To be a performance
artist, you have to hate theatre. Theatre is fake… the knife is not real, the blood is not real,
and the emotions are not real. Performance is just the opposite: the knife is real, the
blood is real, and the emotions are real."112
I think it would be immeasurably more difficult to conduct a performance like ‘One thing
you lack’ if you did not genuinely identify with the moral principles expressed within the
work. I had spent many years subconsciously striving for a life of greater utility and then
more consciously mulling over the writings of people like Peter Singer for ways this could
be achieved. I also held a faith in God, a desire to follow the teaching of Jesus and a
personal yearning to make sense of the extreme dichotomy I experienced in my life as an
international aid worker, regularly moving between the extremities of poverty and wealth.
111 J McDonald, ‘Seeing Double’, The Sydney Morning Herald, 2 February 2 2013
112 S O’Hagan, ‘Interview: Marina Abramovic’, The Guardian, 3 October 2010, retrieved on 14 June 2015 from
http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2010/oct/03/interview-‐marina-‐abramovic-‐performance-‐artist
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 55
I had therefore toyed with the concept of selling everything and giving it away before it
ever occurred to me to undertake the act as a performance.
I abhorred the thought Plato expressed, that my performance was a pretence that masked
reality.113 For this reason, I remember experiencing the desire that performance should be
nothing more than a stopwatch that you clicked to signify the beginning and end of a
section of life, which was then categorised as an art form after the fact, in the hope of
increasing the sincerity and applicability of the work to everyday living.
However, for all my efforts, I found it impossible to reduce performance to a simple
stopwatch on experience. For better or worse, performance rose up to become a
substantial construct, like scaffolding around my life, through which my experiences could
be perceived and interpreted. This ‘performance construct’ provided a number of benefits
but also various challenges.
The benefits included an easier, although still somewhat difficult, means of explaining my
actions to others. In preparation for the performance I undertook a number of recorded
interview sessions with friends and family as I informed them of my plans to give
everything away. This provided them with opportunities to ask questions and collectively
discuss the possible consequences of the work well before the event. Some of these
interviews would later be used to create another work, ‘Don’t deny us development’ (see
chapter 11).
In this instance, the construct of performance provided increased engagement,
understanding and preparedness for those around me. More than would likely have been
achieved if the act were not planned as a performance artwork. I remember my father
113 Plato, Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vols. 5 & 6 translated by Paul Shorey, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William
Heinemann Ltd. 1969
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 56
saying that he felt this had been helpful for him, although my mother found it difficult to
comprehend asking, “What has this got to do with art?”114
Challenges posed by the performance included an increased bureaucracy that threatened
to prevent the act entirely. The university’s Ethics Committee refused to approve the work
and several months of long email trails followed as I was shifted from faculty member to
faculty member to explain my intentions. Most refused to approve or deny the application
and were somewhat obtuse regarding their reasons, preferring to refer it onward and
upward. The main contention appeared to be around the dangers of living on the street.
My proposal stated that selling everything may result in me being homeless, and there
was an apparent fear that I might sue the university if anything untoward came of me in
such circumstances, regardless of the fact that I had undertaken the act of my own accord.
At one point I was referred for personal discussions with the University of New South
Wale’s own legal adviser. She warmly approved the work; particularly in light of the risk
management framework I had provided the Ethics Committee with my application.115
However, this didn’t suffice for overall approval. When the Head of School referred me
onto the Dean, and I knew I would be required to explain my entire saga again, just weeks
before my scheduled performance, I relented. I edited my proposal removing any
reference to living on the street as part of the performance and it was approved. I
personally remained open to the possibility of living on the street, if that was where the
performance led, but as such it would no longer be included in my art research with the
university.
Discussions with the Head of School after the performance revealed that her reticence to
approve the work stemmed from the possibility that if the university were sued for some
114 A & E Moore, personal communication, 7 July 2012
115 C Kirby, personal communication, 15 August 2012
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 57
reason, she was personally open to litigation and could perhaps lose her house.116 I was
understanding of the challenges the work posed for the university but felt the experience
highlighted a stark irony whereby the ethical implications for the safety of one student
had threatened to prevent an act that sought to address a perhaps much larger ethical
challenge of global inequality that affected millions of people.
I will outline more of my personal experiences during the performance in the context of
how they relate to the redistribution of wealth and developing awareness in the next two
sections. However, it is impossible to condense the many personal challenges and
enlightening moments I experienced into this single thesis. Some further examples can be
found in the news articles in appendix 2 and, in particular, the piece I wrote six months
after the exhibition entitled ‘Reflections of a man who sold everything and gave it to the
poor’.117
Redistribution of wealth
‘One thing you lack’ raised a total of $17,590.86, which was donated to the work of Global
Concern. In the six months following the exhibition, funds raised were used to support
numerous social development programs throughout Africa and Asia. It was enough to
cover the full operational costs of a rural Togolese medical clinic, which delivered tens of
babies, immunised hundreds of children and treated hundreds of patients from life
threatening conditions like malaria and cholera.
It was enough to provide further funding to food security programs in Malawi and Zambia,
training poor farmers in conservation farming methods, nutrition, gender and HIV/Aids, all
of which is enabling them to become self-‐sufficient and feed their families all year round.
And enough to further support sewing classes for impoverished women in India and
116 S Ross, personal communication, 2 June 2013
117 A Moore, ‘Reflections of a man who sold everything and gave it to the poor’, Bible Society, 1 July 2013, retrieved on 8 July 2015 from
http://www.biblesociety.org.au/news/reflections-‐of-‐a-‐man-‐who-‐sold-‐everything-‐and-‐gave-‐it-‐to-‐the-‐poor
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 58
Bangladesh, providing them an opportunity to secure work, increase their incomes and
pay for necessities like food, toiletries, medical costs and school fees for their children. As
Global Concern’s Overseas Projects Manager, I was able to visit some of these
communities after the exhibition and see, hear and confirm their stories of change first
hand. Some of these individuals were even included in later artworks like ‘Don’t deny us
development’ and ‘Ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances.’
As well as the funds donated through the purchase of my goods, others decided to donate
to the cause directly. Under The Sydney Morning Herald article reporting on my exhibition,
one reader going by the name of ‘Inspired’ commented, “I considered logging on to buy
one of his items but why should I be the one who is condoning consumerism? I donated
instead. Good cause, and great way to bring this to people's attention. I will also be
reading the Singer article. Well done.”118
This was an irony that several people identified within the performance. That in order to
successfully sell everything and give it away, I needed others to buy everything. Some
managed this dichotomy in the same way as ‘Inspired’ by refusing to buy my items and
instead donating directly to the cause. However a more common means of addressing this
challenge was for people to buy items and then give them back to me. In the weeks,
months and even years after my exhibition I received gifts, sometimes for Christmas or my
birthday, comprised of my own old items gifted back to me. Indeed at the end of my
exhibition I already owned a handful of clothes, toiletries and even a couple of Bibles
bought and then re-‐gifted to me.
This was one of the unforeseen responses to my performance that I had little control over.
It also resulted in a breaking down of some of my own regulations within the
118 S Berry, ‘Could you sell every possession you own?’ The Sydney Morning Herald, 4 December 2012, retrieved on 7 July 2015 from
http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/life/could-‐you-‐sell-‐every-‐possession-‐you-‐own-‐20121204-‐2asns.html
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 59
performance, such as those surrounding tensions that I might be supporting the plight of
the poor at the expense of my family and friends, a scenario I tried in vain to avoid. I
stated that I would accept neither food nor shelter from them. If need be, I would sleep
on the street. But these self-‐imposed rules soon became untenable. When people began
buying things with the intention of giving them back at a later stage I gave up. What did it
matter if I kept all my rules but had no room for love? The exhibition was possible because
the people around me helped me to move, buy and sell everything I own in the hope of
making a difference in the lives of the poor. The end result was strengthened relationships
with friends and family as we bonded together in greater solidarity to help those less
fortunate than ourselves.
The items remaining after the exhibition, including pieces of furniture, clothes and books,
were all donated to the Salvation Army. I estimated their value at a few thousand dollars.
Money raised from the sale of these items through the Salvation Army went towards
Salvation Army charity programs such as the Oasis Youth Service, which provides
accommodation to homeless youth in inner city Sydney.119
After delivering all my goods to the Salvation Army, I returned the following day with a
borrowed camera to document my goods. It is a strange feeling to walk around a thrift
store looking at your own possessions up for sale. As I mentioned previously, the Salvation
Army store manager basically accepted everything except for a few boxes of documents,
which were later used in the artwork ‘The thinker’s chair’. The vast majority of my
possessions are gone forever. Whilst I could have, I never returned to the Salvation Army
store to buy back the items I left. In my mind I had already cut ties with them.
119 ‘Salvation Army Thrift Stores’, Salvation Army, retrieved on 7 July 2015 from http://www.thriftstore.ca/manitoba/salvation-‐army-‐
thrift-‐store-‐faqs
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 60
I remember receiving a phone call from a stranger a couple of weeks after the exhibition.
He had come across a large batch of my paintings along with hundreds of life drawings laid
out in the Salvation Army thrift store. He obtained my contact details from the back of one
of the paintings and called me, reaching me on a used phone my mother had given me to
‘keep in contact’. He couldn’t understand what had occurred. Over the telephone he told
me he imagined that I must have experienced some kind of dramatic event or deep
depression that had caused me to rid myself of my art and perhaps throw away my
practice. He apparently liked a number of the works and had purchased them. He was
intrigued as I explained the concept of ‘One thing you lack’ to him, and I was warmed by
his personal interest and concern for me.
‘One thing you lack’ is a clear example of how art can be used to redistribute wealth. The
exhibition saw wealth redistributed through the sale of items at exhibition, the donation
of items to the Salvation Army, and even individual’s direct donations to charity. This
redistributed wealth resulted in hundreds, if not thousands, of lives changed for the better
through the good work of charities and their programs for the poor and underprivileged.
In this way, the artwork was able to effectively address some of the most prominent
issues of global inequality in the lives of some of the world’s poorest.
Awareness and advocacy
‘One thing you lack’ raised public awareness around issues of global inequality with an
opening night attendance of a few hundred people. The performance generated articles
leading up to the exhibition in The Sydney Morning Herald, Bible Society, Art Life, and The
Leader, along with a longer follow up piece with the Bible Society six months after the
exhibition and a television interview on Wesley Impact. Copies of each of these articles
along with a link to the television program can be found in appendix 2.
Further discussion and awareness was generated through online media, where people
shared articles and posted comments (some of these comments are also available in
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 61
appendix 2). The online comments section of The Sydney Morning Herald, for example,
canvassed a range of views and responses. When I revealed my internal struggle to sell an
old watch my father received at his graduation and then gave me as a child, one person
called the act of selling it an “insult to your own heritage” and a “vile thing to do”.120 Yet
another labelled the performance a “mind blowing” demonstration that encouraged her
to purchase this year’s Christmas presents from a charity gift store.121 This was clear
evidence that the work was not only creating awareness and open dialogue but also
inspiring real change in the actions of others.
Over two years later, online discussion was still continuing around the performance when
a participant posted this image (see fig. 15) and comment on Facebook:
“So, the story here. I just finished this bottle of aftershave, which I bought about 2 years
ago, half used, from a life sale. Like a sale where this guy sold absolutely everything he
owned and gave all the proceeds to charity. I'm trying to remember his name. Ben
Williams can u help me out?”122
120 S Berry, ‘Could you sell every possession you own?’ The Sydney Morning Herald, 4 December 2012, retrieved on 14 June 2015 from
http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/life/could-‐you-‐sell-‐every-‐possession-‐you-‐own-‐20121204-‐2asns.html 121
Ibid. 122
S Roberts, Facebook, retrieved on 14 June 2015 from https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10152571850051881&set=a.10150947323661881.410005.585921880&type=1
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 62
Figure 15 -‐ Aftershave purchased from 'One thing you lack'123
A discussion ensued below the post, which I contributed to after a mutual friend
connected us (see appendix 2). These incidents appeared to demonstrate that the work
was having a wide impact, well beyond my immediate connections, and also sustained
longevity in its ability to encourage people to contemplate and wrestle with the issues at
hand.
It would be wrong to assume that all feedback was positive. One reader, going by the
name ‘3FS’, commented under The Sydney Morning Herald article that the fact that I
wasn’t planning to continue a lifestyle without possessions meant the performance was
123 S Roberts, Facebook, retrieved on 14 June 2015 from
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10152571850051881&set=a.10150947323661881.410005.585921880&type=1
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 63
simply a publicity stunt.124 This kind of cynicism is not uncommon with regard to artist’s
who choose to support any kind of cause, and is perhaps one of the greater personal
challenges for the artist themselves. Ben Quilty underwent severe online criticism and
attack when he began using his art skills and standing to mentor and advocate for,
Myuran Sukumaran, an inmate awaiting capital punishment in Indonesia.125 Some went so
far as to suggest that he had intentionally befriended Sukumaran in order to generate
publicity for his career. Jacky J Jones, for example, commented, “I really hate to be
cynical... but knowing a thing or two about artists. He's doing it to further his career. He's
hitching a ride on the back of a huge international story... and by doing so... cementing
himself in the public eye as a compassionate caring human being... oh... but he's also an
artist! I see right through it.”126
Others have posed more constructive questions, such as whether or not charities are an
effective way of alleviating poverty. It is a positive sign when these kinds of questions are
raised for open dialogue in the public sphere. But whilst this discussion sits within my area
of personal expertise, it is outside the realms of this thesis and cannot be adequately
covered here. Suffice to say that there are good and bad means of undertaking
development and some organisations are better than others. I believe the fact that
effective charities do exist and can easily be identified means this should not pose any
significant challenge to our moral obligation to help the poor. As I have shared, my role
with Global Concern enabled me to witness first-‐hand the effectiveness of the funds
raised and hear the stories of those whose lives were changed, even documenting them in
further art works for public exhibition.
124 S Berry, ‘Could you sell every possession you own?’ The Sydney Morning Herald, 4 December 2012, retrieved on 14 June 2015 from
http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/life/could-‐you-‐sell-‐every-‐possession-‐you-‐own-‐20121204-‐2asns.html 125
J Jones, in N Pasolcer, Video 2:45 Indonesia executions: Australian artist Ben Quilty and Myuran Sukumaran, 19 January 2015, retrieved 20 July 2015 from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrbloAaW9cQ 126
Ibid.
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 64
The news of my exhibition spread to the point where Peter Singer himself heard about it. I
had a conversation with a stranger who mentioned that her friend had entered a
fundraiser for a local charity. She had raised enough funds to win a prize of dinner with
Peter Singer and Justice Michael Kirby organised by the charity. She relayed that my
exhibition had come up as a point of dinner conversation with Singer and Kirby during the
night. Peter Singer later confirmed that was the case.127 It was encouraging to think that
my work might have been adding to the conversations of people of the likes of Singer and
Kirby.
Furthermore, a documentary maker who was recording my experiences during the
exhibition took it upon herself to contact Peter Singer and organise a meeting between us.
Thanks to her efforts we were able to connect in a lengthy interview and dialogue over
Skype. Singer was particularly impressed by the work stating, ‘I think that it’s terrific… I
think what Aaron has done is a challenge, it shocks us into reflecting on our situation and
that’s what an artist ought to be doing, I mean if contemporary art is worth anything then
I think it ought to be wakening us up to the situation of the world we are living in and
that’s what I see Aaron as doing.”128
We have remained in contact ever since. Singer went on to reference my performance in a
series of lectures he gave at Yale later in the year.129 He also included my exhibition in his
most recent book, ‘The most good you can do: how affective altruism is changing ideas
about living ethically’.130
Overall, ‘One thing you lack’s’ success in opening a dialogue around issues relating to
global inequality is evidenced by the broad range of people that engaged with the work
127 P Singer, personal communication, 20 December 2012
128 Ibid.
129 Ibid.
130 P Singer, The most good you can do: how affective altruism is changing ideas about living ethically, Yale University Press, 2015
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 65
and the examples of continued engagement that occur even now, over two years on.
Many of those examples of increased awareness also resulted in clear changes in
behaviour, such as the woman who bought her Christmas gifts from a charity store, and
the gentleman who donated directly to charity to help the poor. It therefore appears clear
that works of art like this can address issues of global inequality by challenging and
changing both the way we think and the way we act.
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 66
PART 2 | THE ART OF GLOBAL INEQUALITY
Chapter 8: Ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances
Chapter 9: The chronicles of everything owned (and sold) and Stuff self
Chapter 10: A place to think
Chapter 11: Don’t deny us development
Chapter 12: Those who can’t fly
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 67
Chapter 8 | Ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances
This chapter explores the work ‘Ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances’ by giving
an overview of the artwork, outlining artists who influenced the work, and investigating
the ways in which the work addresses issues of global inequality.
Ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances
‘Ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances’ is a series of portraits depicting people
with their favourite possession (see fig. 16 & 17). All the subjects live in rural areas of
Africa earning average incomes of less than $1.25 a day and thereby qualify as living in
extreme poverty according to World Bank definitions.131
Portraits of parents valuing their children, or holding mobile phones and bicycles,
communicate that the subjects of poverty are not unlike us. That whilst we live on
opposite sides of the world and have vastly different access to resources and
opportunities, we share a common humanity and even some common experiences.
131 ‘Poverty overview’, World Bank, USA, 6 April 2015, retrieved on 15 June 2015 from
http://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/poverty/overview
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 68
Figure 16 -‐ 'Ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances', Aaron Moore (2015) | Left: Esther Chewa, Malawi, "My
favourite possession is my radio because it lets me know what is happening around the world" | Right: Alice Kmunga,
Malawi, "My favourite possession is my bucket because I can use it to keep clean and healthy”
However, the landscape of the images is strange and unique. The flesh of the individuals
is of normal pigment, but their surroundings are surreal. The images encourage the viewer
to question the circumstances in which these individuals find themselves, rather than to
question the individuals. In many ways the subjects are just ordinary people, but their
circumstances are extraordinary in the sense that they are expected to live on less than a
few dollars per day. The images remind us that whilst the individuals are like us, it is not
their fault that they have so little access to wealth and opportunity but rather a result of
their environment.
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 69
Figure 17 -‐ 'Ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances', Aaron Moore (2015) | Left: Grace Banda, Zambia, “My
favourite possession is my hoe because it brings food into my home” | Centre: Lillian Zulu, Zambia, "My favourite
possession is my container of water because water is life” | Right: Memory Banda, Zambia, “My favourite possession
is my mobile phone because it enables me to communicate with relatives and friends”
‘Ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances’ aims to provide a different perspective
on the lives of the poor, to challenge some of our previously held assumptions around
poverty, and to encourage us think about the lives of those who bear the brunt of global
inequality.
Influencing artists
Several artists have sought to build stronger connections between the viewer and their
subjects by depicting subjects with their possessions. Gabriele Galimberti’s project ‘Toy
stories’ depicts children from around the world with their toys (see fig. 18).132 Initially, he
was not planning to uncover much we did not already know, “At their age they are pretty
much all the same,” is his conclusion after 18 months working on the project, “They just
want to play.” But he did note differences in how they played, “The richest children were
132 G Galimberti, Toy Stories, retrieved on 14 September 2014 from http://www.gabrielegalimberti.com/projects-‐2/toys-‐2
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 70
more possessive. At the beginning, they wouldn’t want me to touch their toys, and I would
need more time before they would let me play with them,” says the Italian, who would
often join in with a child’s games before arranging the toys and taking the photograph. “In
poor countries it was much easier. Even if they only had two or three toys, they didn’t
really care. In Africa, the kids would mostly play with their friends outside.”133
Figure 18 -‐ 'Toy stories', Gabriele Galimberti (2004) 134
Galimberti’s project gives a clear comparison of the lives of children in relation to their
most treasured possessions, their toys. What makes it most interesting is the fact that he
does so on a global scale, photographing children throughout Europe, Africa, Asia and the
Americas. His work gives us an insight into global inequality from a unique perspective.
Firstly, it demonstrates a clear ‘toy inequality’ exists when it comes to the number of toys
possessed by children around the world. But more interestingly, the inequality does not
appear to be reflected in the attitudes of the children. Galimberti’s comments over the
process of making the portraits suggest that those with the least toys were the least
possessive.
On 8 August 2013, Melanie Beresford opened her exhibition ‘Safekeeping’, which explores
133 B Marchell, ‘Toy stories’, The Times Magazine, 26 May 2012
134 G Galimberti, Toy Stories, retrieved on 14 September 2014 from http://www.gabrielegalimberti.com/projects-‐2/toys-‐2
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 71
attachment theory, capturing a sense of where members of western society locate their
security and how they deal with its inevitable loss. Beresford’s work investigates
connections with possessions in a similar way to Landy, Boorman, and Joffe (discussed in
Chapter 4). For example, in ‘60 seconds’ a series of drawings are developed in response to
a survey in which people were asked which three items they would save if their home was
burning to the ground. The entire exhibition revolves around Beresford’s own experience
as a child when her family lost part of their home and possessions in a house fire.135
In answer to the survey subjects posed with their favourite shoes, their pet bird, a camera,
bag or coffee mug (see fig. 19). Although a first-‐hand conversation with Beresford reveals
that the most popular item to save is a laptop,136 the sketches open a conversation about
the relationship between people and possessions, what is most important to them, and
provides an insight into what is important to society at large.
135 M Beresford, Safekeeping, Kudos Gallery, 8 August 2012, retrieved on 15 July 2015 from
http://www.melanieberesford.com/category/60-‐seconds/ 136
M Beresford, personal communication, 1 December 2012
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 72
Figure 19 -‐ '60 seconds', Melanie Beresford (2012) 137
Global inequality
‘Ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances’ aims to challenge the two simplistic
narratives commonly used to represent the poor. The first presents the poor as sad,
empty-‐handed victims. A Google search for ‘poor people’ will reveal this picture as the
dominant visual representation of people in poverty (see fig. 20). The second narrative is
one of happy, smiling people as the beneficiaries of aid and development, sometimes
captured with a well or chicken received from an aid organisation.138 Author, Chimamanda
Ngozi Adichie, shares on the dangers of such simplistic narratives, especially when it
137 M Beresford, ‘60 seconds’, Melanie Beresford, retrieved on 15 July 2015 from http://www.melanieberesford.com/category/60-‐
seconds 138
‘Helping people help themselves’, Oxfam, retrieved on 8 July 2015 from https://www.oxfam.org.au/explore/helping-‐people-‐help-‐themselves/
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 73
comes to stories of poverty,139 where it can lead to misunderstanding, a lack of respect for
agency, and what some call ‘donor fatigue,’140 a desensitization to the issue resulting from
repetitive communication or visual representation of the problem.
Figure 20 -‐ The first page of a Google image search for 'poor people'141
‘Ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances’ addresses these challenges through two
key methods. Firstly, rather than representing the poor empty handed or with a gift
received from a charity, it captures them with their favourite possession. This provided
the subjects with a sense of agency around how they were represented. They were able to
139 C Adichie, ‘The danger of a single story’, TED talks, July 2009, retrieved on 8 July 2015 from
http://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story?language=en 140
Donor fatigue, Dictionary.com, retrieved on 8 July 2015 from http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/donor+fatigue 141
‘poor people’, Google images, retrieved on 10 March 2015 from https://www.google.com.au/search?q=poor+people&biw=1963&bih=1280&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAWoVChMIoYa21p_fxgIVKNymCh0Phgul
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 74
influence the narrative used to portray them by identifying the item they most liked and
posing in the manner of their choosing. Like the work of Gabriele Galimberti, it also gave a
unique insight into the personalities and lives of the subjects themselves. This enables
viewers to identify people as individuals instead of a homogenous mass, but can also
result in some images grating against previously held conceptions of what the poor should
look like.
‘Poor people’ holding mobile phones, or standing in front of houses that are not made
from mud, for instance, can challenge our notions of what constitutes poor. Further
emphasising this aspect is the fact that villagers will generally dress up in their best
clothes, or even borrow clothes from others, for the occasion of my visit. Resulting in the
images representing the subjects at ‘their best,’ a representation that doesn’t often suit
the previously noted simplistic narratives, but does provide a truth and dignity that should
be told.
Secondly, the images aim to encourage the viewer to see afresh the difficult environment
these people inhabit. An environment the Western world may have become desensitized
to. The solarised colours of the images encourage us to question the context in which
these people find themselves. As mentioned in the description, the flesh of the individuals
is normal, but their surroundings are surreal. The images encourage the viewer to accept
the individual but question a somewhat unbelievable world where people are expected to
live on less than a few dollars a day.
‘Ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances’ examines the more nuanced
complexities of poverty. It’s hoped that these images have a re-‐balancing effect on the
viewer. A most valued possession in the form of a large bucket is proudly displayed as a
sign of wealth and success but instead leads the viewer to ponder the relative poverty of
the same individual and the basic nature of the few other possessions they must own. This
artwork is not prescriptive of the means by which we should help alleviate poverty, it
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 75
simply aims to respectfully awaken us to the disparity between the rich and poor, to help
us identify with the poor, to encourage us to question the circumstances of the poor
rather than the people themselves, and to hopefully look afresh on a subject that we may
have become desensitised to.
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 76
Chapter 9 | The chronicles of everything owned (and sold)
& Stuff self
This chapter explores the works ‘The Chronicles of everything owned (and sold)’ and ‘Stuff
self’ by giving an overview of each work, outlining the artists who influenced the works,
and examining how the works address issues of global inequality.
The chronicles of everything owned (and sold)
‘The chronicles of everything owned (and sold)’ (see fig. 21) is a photographic record of
every item in my possession on the 4 December 2012. The photographs have been
arranged as slides in a short video that flashes each of the objects before the viewer in the
fraction of a second. In the space of several minutes we witness one man’s every
possession flash before our eyes.
Figure 21 – ‘The chronicles of everything owned (and sold),’ (video stills), Aaron Moore (2015)
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 77
Stuff self
Figure 22 -‐ 'Stuff self', Aaron Moore (2015)
‘Stuff self’ (see fig. 22 & 23) is comprised of photographs of every item I owned, 1,506 in
total, on 4 December 2012. The photographs are arranged in such a way as to create a
mosaic like portrait of myself. In their entirety they provide a visual insight into my
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 78
material life, but also perhaps an insight into who I am, the books I read, the food I like,
the clothes I wear, the bike I ride, the sports I play etc.
Figure 23 -‐ 'Stuff self' (detail), Aaron Moore (2015)
Influencing artists
Huang Qingjun travelled throughout rural and remote China for a decade photographing
families with their possessions (see fig. 24). It appears quite a feat to convince strangers,
some who have never been photographed in their life, to move all their possessions
outside their home in order to pose for a portrait.
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 79
Huang says, "Most people thought what I was proposing was not normal. When I
explained I wanted to set up a photo, that it would involve taking everything out of their
house and setting it up outside, that took quite a lot of explaining. But almost all of them,
when they realised what I was trying to do, they understood the point."142
Figure 24 -‐ Huang Qingjun's photos of people and their possessions (2012)143
Huang believes that, "From the possessions each family uses in their daily lives, you get a
good sense of the real levels of life for China's people."144 I hope that in a similar sense
‘The chronicles of everything owned (and sold)’ is able to provide an insight into the real
level of life I enjoy. That the work provides a practical breakdown of what wealth looks
like in my circumstance.
Furthermore, that by viewing the work in the context of other works like ‘Ordinary people
in extraordinary circumstances’ the extreme inequality of our world will move into stark
relief. When viewed in context of each other, one woman holds up her most valued hoe or
water container, whilst hundreds of my possessions stream past in quick succession, many
142 A Foster, ‘Chinese family’s worldly good in Huang Qingjun’s pictures’, BBC News, 23 September 2012, accessed on 19 September
2014 from http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-‐19648095 143
Ibid. 144
Ibid.
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 80
of which these women could never hope to own in their lifetime.
Yet Huang’s photographs also provide an insight into the social change taking place in the
lives of some of the poorest citizens of one of the world’s fastest growing economies.
Satellite dishes and DVD players laid bare outside mud houses challenge the simple
dichotomy of rich and poor that so easily plays out in our minds. The fact that some of the
favoured possessions in ‘Ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances’ also resemble
items in ‘Stuff self’, demonstrate that there may be more in common between the
possessions of the rich and poor than we might think, or perhaps the differences that do
exist are not those we first expected.
Global inequality
‘The chronicles of everything owned (and sold)’ aims to use art to address issues of global
inequality through building a greater awareness of what that inequality looks like. It aims
to improve our self-‐awareness around how much we actually own and how wealthy we
are. By doing so, it hopes to make people aware of the great power to affect change
afforded us by our many possessions.
‘Stuff self’ investigates the connection between what we own and who we are. People
generally find it difficult to give up their possessions, not merely because of their material
worth, but due to what these items represent and the role they play in building our
identity. If we can recognise how our search for identity is causing us to consume
inaudible amounts of wealth, then perhaps we can shift the source of our identity and use
that same wealth and possessions to address issues of global inequality for the practical
good of others and ourselves.
Both works encourages us to reflect on the great wealth we have and how it can be used
to define ourselves or to help others. The works encourage viewers to think what their
own self-‐portrait of possessions might look like. Would it be bigger than the image before
them? More elaborate? Would they be proud of the image created? Would they be proud
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 81
of such an identity in the context of this exhibition? If the selling of the objects in ‘Stuff
self’ and ‘The chronicles of everything owned (and sold)’ could fund the operation of a
medical clinic for six months, delivering babies, vaccinating hundreds of children, treating
hundreds for malaria and other diseases in one of the poorest regions in the world, what
power lies within their own self portrait of possessions?
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 82
Chapter 10 | The thinker’s chair
This chapter examines the work ‘The thinker’s chair’ by providing an overview of the
artwork, outlining artists who influenced it, and investigating how the work addresses
issues of global inequality.
The thinker’s chair
In the wake of ‘One thing you lack’, and selling everything I owned, there were some
objects that remained. These items were left both unsold during the exhibition and
considered of no value by the Salvation Army store, where all other unsold exhibition
items were donated. ‘The thinker’s chair’ is an artwork made from those remaining items
(see fig. 25).
Figure 25 -‐ 'The thinker's chair', Aaron Moore (2013)
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 83
‘The thinker’s chair’ includes personal photographs, identification documents, study
notes, tax file information, university transcripts, a signed high school shirt and personal
letters. Unlike Landy, Boorman, and Joffe, (discussed in Chapter 4) the aim of ‘One thing
you lack’ was not to rid myself of possessions, but rather to use my possessions, through
their sale or donation, to address issues of poverty and global inequality. The items that
remained and comprise ‘The thinker’s chair’ were therefore deemed of no value with
respect to this end of sale or donation for the benefit of the poor.
In the first instance, items were identified as having no value with respect to sale when
the general public refused to purchase them for any sum of money (literally even one
cent). For example, all my personal documents and photographs were placed on sale for
one dollar each, or less if bargained for (see fig. 26). Some were purchased but the vast
majority were heavily perused but remained unsold.
Figure 26 -‐ Documents for sale at one dollar each as part of 'One thing you lack'
In the second instance, items were identified as having no value with respect to donation
when the Salvation Army store manager refused to accept them. To be honest, the
Salvation Army accepted many more items than I expected, as I shared in Chapter 3.
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 84
I also personally went through the remaining items to see if there might be anything of
possible value to the poor with whom I might have direct and immediate contact. I placed
a few remaining toiletries into a box and drove them down to Woolloomooloo where I
was aware a homeless community lived. I struck up a conversation with a number of the
homeless laying under the cover of a bridge. I asked them if they were interested in the
box of items. They looked through the box and said they were and accepted it in its
entirety.
What remained was therefore of little value to anyone, except of course myself. A large
number of cards, letters and photographs contained within the boxes held sentimental
value. And other items were more beneficial on a practical level, for example recent x-‐
rays of my neck would be helpful for later health checks and the original and only copy of
my registered Australian Business Number documentation was also within the files along
with a vast gamut of other financial and personal details. This also raised issues of identity
theft, but I had already resolved that I was willing to sell these items to raise funds if they
were saleable. Many of the items that remained appeared so intrinsically embedded and
linked with my identity that they were of little use to anyone else.
There were therefore a considerably small number of items that remained after ‘One
thing you lack’. I had largely cut ties with all the items in the process of the sale, so I
placed them in a few boxes and left them. A number of months later, when I had a desire
to create more art but owned very few art materials, I decided to pull out the few boxes
and use them.
Influencing artists
‘The thinker’s chair’ is inspired by Auguste Rodin’s ‘The thinker’ (see fig. 27). ‘The thinker’
was originally part of the compositional piece Rodin created as an entranceway for the
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 85
proposed Musee des Arts Decoratifs in Paris. This piece, known as ‘The Gates of Hell,’ is
based on the 16th century epic poem, ‘The Divine Comedy’ by Dante Alighieri.145 In fact
‘The thinker’ was formerly called ‘The poet’, perhaps representing Dante himself.146 During
its use as a public monument in Paris in 1906 it came to represent France’s socialist
movement during a time of political and social upheaval, and is commonly seen as a
symbol of philosophy and learning today.147
Figure 27 -‐ 'The thinker', Auguste Rodin (1906) 148
145 ‘The Thinker’, Artble, retrieved on 9 July 2015 from http://www.artble.com/artists/auguste_rodin/sculpture/the_thinker
146 Ibid.
147 Ibid.
148 ’Now that's something to ponder: Auguste Rodin's The Thinker sells for a record $15.3 million at auction’, The Daily Mail, 9 May 2013, retrieved on 16 July 2015 from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2321349/Auguste-Rodins-The-Thinker-sells-record-15-3-million-auction.html
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 86
I felt a personal connection with the image of ‘The thinker’ after conducting ‘One thing
you lack.’ The process had been one of intense reasoning throughout the performance,
which only continued in its aftermath. Like ‘The thinker’ surveying hell from its gates, I felt
I had surveyed some of the darkest and most challenging aspects of humanity, pondering
their significance through both philosophy and art. ‘The thinker’s chair’ provided me with
a place to continue this journey and to invite others to sit and share in it.
Global inequality
‘The thinker’s chair’ aims to address issues of global inequality by serving as a reminder of
what the cost of following ideals that lead to greater inequality might look like. It reminds
us that we can live out the ideals of Peter Singer and Jesus Christ and our lives will not
disintegrate, but that in fact, such ideals can enhance the lives we live.
On a purely practical level, ‘The thinker’s chair’ provides an interesting insight into the
actual impact of following the ideals reflected in ‘One thing you lack’. It provides a
response to our inquisitive musings on questions like, “What would really happen if we
followed such ideals?” and “If you tried to sell everything, would you really be left with
nothing?” and “Might following such ideals mean we become just like the poor
ourselves?” These questions are usually discussed in an ethereal and philosophical
manner, often leading to rather unsatisfactory answers due to the inability to foresee the
impact of a decision that so heavily counters our present culture.
The response of ‘The thinker’s chair’ to these challenges appears to be, “No you won’t
lose everything,” and, “No you won’t become just like the poor themselves.” This
provides a firmer basis from which further discussion can continue around if we are willing
to accept the impacts resulting from following such ideals. ‘The thinker’s chair’ therefore
acts as a reminder that we can follow the high ideals of Jesus Christ and Peter Singer and
what they will cost us. It reminds us of what we leave and what remains and it informs our
discussion around the way we might like to live.
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 87
On a more abstract level, ‘The thinker’s chair’ was representative of all the thinking and
introspection I had experienced throughout ‘One thing you lack’ and the months
thereafter. The process of following Peter Singer and Jesus Christ’s ideals may have left
me with very little from a practical perspective, but the thinking, learning and growing I
had experienced personally were invaluable. The artwork therefore uses the largely
unimportant tangible items that remain to allude to the far more important intangible
ones. Peter Singer and Jesus Christ left me with a place to sit and grapple with our
response to poverty and inequality. ‘The thinker’s chair’ reminds us that these ideals were
lived out once and can be lived out again.
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 88
Chapter 11 | Don’t deny us development
This chapter examines the work ‘Don’t deny us development’ by giving an overview of the
artwork, outlining the artists who influenced it, and assessing ways in which the work
addresses issues of global inequality.
Don’t deny us development
‘Don’t deny us development’ (see fig. 28, 29, 30 & 33) examines different perspectives in
the discussion on global inequality. The multi-‐channel video work collates views from a
number of Australian’s each raising a challenge, story or personal experience in their
understanding of poverty and their struggle with issues around global inequality.
Figure 28 -‐ 'Don't deny us development' (video still), Aaron Moore (2015)
Each of the videos was filmed during collective sittings with friends or family where I
informed them of my plan to undertake my performance ‘One thing you lack’. After telling
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 89
them that I was going to sell everything I owned and give it to the poor, discussions
ensued around the relevance and reasonableness of the act, and more broadly the many
concerns surrounding wealth, poverty and global inequality. Most of these discussions
lasted for one to two hours, resulting in copious amounts of video footage, however only
one short point or perspective from six of the discussions was included in this work. Each
perspective is limited to less than one or two minutes and plays in a loop on its own
screen.
The work also includes the voice of poor Zambian farmers, who give their own perspective
on global inequality by requesting through song and dance that they not be denied social
development (see fig. 29). This video was recorded during my role undertaking aid and
development work in Africa and forms the centrepiece around which the other six screens
play.
Figure 29 -‐ 'Don't deny us development' (video still), Aaron Moore (2015)
All the videos are displayed on analogue television monitors. The televisions themselves
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 90
were all reclaimed from curb sides during local council rubbish collections in Sydney.
Because each screen rolls concurrently it is also fitted with headphones allowing the
viewer to listen to each perspective separately.
Figure 30 -‐ 'Don't deny us development' (video still), Aaron Moore (2015)
Influencing artists
‘Don’t deny us development’ was influenced and inspired by Kate Murphy’s ‘Prayers of a
mother’149 in which eight children are depicted listening to their mother as she describes
her life of prayer (see fig. 31). The multi-‐channel work is displayed on five monitors and
captures Murphy’s mother and siblings.
149 K Murphy, ‘Prayers of a mother’, Museum of Contemporary Art, 1999, retrieved on 15 July 2015 from
https://mca.com.au/collection/work/20076/
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 91
Figure 31 -‐ 'Prayers of a mother', Kate Murphy (1999) 150
The central monitor displays only her mother’s hands resting on a prayer book with
rosemary beads as she recounts her prayers for the wellbeing of her children. The
surrounding four monitors rotate between Murphy and each of her siblings as they listen
silently to their mother, revealing responses from empathy to humour, and surprise to
sadness.151
The video piece gives an insight into the different perspectives of each of the eight
children as well as a portrait of a mother with a strong devotion to her family and religion.
‘Don’t deny us development’ is not a religious work, instead it draws on the parallels of
multi-‐channel digital portraiture contained in ‘Prayers of a mother’. I wanted to create
something of a digital portrait of global inequality and its many facets, to capture the
personal struggles and responses of different individuals to the challenges of wealth and
poverty.
150 K Murphy, ‘Prayers of a mother’, Museum of Contemporary Art, 1999, retrieved on 15 July 2015 from
https://mca.com.au/collection/work/20076/ 151
Ibid.
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 92
‘Don’t deny us development’ focuses its central screen on the lives of the poor and
vulnerable, but shares this image as only one of multiple perspectives on global inequality,
inviting the perspectives of others to engage with the former, sometimes in agreement
and empathy, sometimes in a sense of envy of a simpler life, sometimes in frustration at
their own experiences of consumerism and the apparent injustices of the world in which
they find themselves. Each perspective provides an open and honest account of a
different individual’s experience with global inequality.
Global inequality
‘Don’t deny us development’ aims to address global inequality by increasing self-‐
awareness and understanding around responses to poverty and opening viewers to
growth and change in the way they personally engage with the complicated challenge of
global inequality.
The conduit through which these messages come is itself a reflection on the consumerism
of our society in the face of great poverty. All the televisions in the artwork were sourced
from the rubbish collections of Sydney homes, and whilst out-‐dated by the upgrading of
digital media, they all still work in their own right. I took photographs of each television
surrounded by refuse on the curbside where I found it (see fig. 32) and experimented with
interspersing these images with the footage of each subject to further emphasise this
aspect of a consumerist society within which the discussion is taking place. However, I
found the images to be somewhat distracting and confusing. None-‐the-‐less, the fact
remains that our own waste is communicating the artwork’s messages to us, reminding
the viewer that the discussion isn’t merely an abstract concept, but is having very real
consequences in the lives of people in the present.
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 93
Figure 32 -‐ Found televisions used to display 'Don't deny us development'
The video works capture honest insights from people dealing openly with the challenge of
living in a globalized world, where they are aware of the needs of those in extreme
poverty, but often find themselves torn by the tensions of society, their own personal and
family needs, and the complexity of it all. By doing so, the work aims to avoid a one-‐sided,
dictatorial, polemic on the subject.
Like ‘Ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances’ this work tries to provide a more
nuanced perspective on the complexities of global inequality and open up a fruitful
dialogue rather than railroading any and all opposition. For example, one video clip
includes a young man expressing his frustration around his desire to live more simply and
own a cheaper car but feeling pressured to meet the expectations of his workplace to
drive a certain type of vehicle in order to be accepted and even ‘listened’ to within his
working circle. Another woman tells her story of giving away much of what she owned to
the poor but then becoming caught up in materialism as her lack of possessions ironically
transformed her into the perfect consumer.
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 94
Figure 33 -‐ 'Don't deny us development' (video still), Aaron Moore (2015)
The work investigates how the aid and development sector provides us with a means to
address extreme poverty but also provides us with new and challenging choices in how we
live and love in a globalized society. International aid and development as we know it
today is less than sixty years old.152 Previously our awareness of inequalities that existed
on a global scale, and more so, our capacity to address them, was vastly limited.
Today we are acutely aware of the suffering of others beamed into our homes and lives
via televisions, computers and smart phones. We also have the capacity to alleviate this
152 ‘A brief history of aid,’ Aid watch, 15 November 2008, retrieved on 9 July 2015 from http://www.aidwatch.org.au/stories/a-‐brief-‐
history-‐of-‐aid
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 95
suffering through aid agencies and other international organisations that are willing to act
on our behalf if we will only support them to do so. But the sheer immensity of the
inequality raises questions around if we personally can or should help everyone? And if we
can’t, then who should we help?
‘Don’t deny us development’ hopes to provide a safe place from which the viewer can
engage with different perspectives without feeling personally under threat. The variety of
views presented in the work aim to allow people to find a perspective with which they can
identify and agree but also others that challenge them. By engaging with views they
perhaps haven’t been exposed to before, such as those of the Zambian farmers, it is
hoped that viewers will experience personal growth in the way they understand and
respond to issues of poverty and global inequality.
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 96
Chapter 12 | Those who can’t fly
The most glaring global inequality is usually that related to access to wealth and material
possessions, which this project focuses on most. However, global inequalities are far more
varied and multifarious than this. ‘Those who can’t fly’ is a work that attempts to apply
the principles of this research to address a different aspect of global inequality in the form
of access to asylum as a human right (see fig. 34, 35 & 36).
This chapter briefly outlines the concept of asylum, provides a description of the work
‘Those who can’t fly’ and its relationship with works by other artists on this topic, and
then explores how ‘Those who can’t fly’ addresses issues of global inequality.
Figure 34 -‐ 'Those who can't fly' (video still), Aaron Moore (2015)
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 97
Asylum and the refugee
The right to asylum was first introduced after the Second World War with the adoption of
The 1951 Refugee Convention (The Convention) and later the 1967 Protocol.153 Together
these documents granted rights to the world’s persecuted to flee across the borders of
nation states in order to find safety. Countries that signed The Convention were required
to accept anyone who arrived at their border and claimed asylum, regardless of their
mode of travel or lack of documentation.154 Such states were now beholden to the
principle of ‘non-‐refoulement’,155 a French term that meant the state could no longer
return asylum seekers that reached its border. Once granted entry, the asylum seeker
would need to provide evidence of their persecution in line with the conditions of The
Convention and, if successful, would be granted refugee status. Only if unsuccessful in
their claim, could they then be returned to their country of origin.
Australia is a signatory to The 1951 Refugee Convention and 1967 Protocol,156 however
recent years have seen strong controversy around the issue of asylum.157 The issue is a
convoluted one, but part of the debate appears to focus on the clash of rights afforded by
The Convention to asylum seekers vis-‐à-‐vis the sovereignty of the nation state to decide
who will or won’t be granted access at its borders.158 This part of the debate marks a
conflict between the rights of asylum seekers and the rights of Australian’s.159
153 ‘The 1951 Refugee Convention’, UNHCR, 1951, retrieved on 6 June 2015 from http://www.unhcr.org/pages/49da0e466.html
154 Ibid.
155 ‘Article 31: The 1951 Refugee Convention and 1967 Protocol’, UNHCR, retrieved on 6 June 2015 from
http://www.unhcr.org/3b66c2aa10.html 156
‘States parties to the 1951 Convention relating to the status of refugees and the 1967 Protocol’, UNHCR, April 2015, retrieved on 6 June 2015 from http://www.unhcr.org/3b73b0d63.html 157
G Stein, ‘Australia accused of being nationalistic, xenophobic, ahead of regional people smuggling talks’, ABC News, 28 May 2015, retrieved on 6 June 2015 from http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-‐05-‐28/australia-‐accused-‐of-‐being-‐xenophobic-‐in-‐migrant-‐crisis-‐response/6503844 158
J Howard, Australian Federal Election Speeches, delivered in Sydney 28 October 2001, retrieved on 28 May 2015 from http://electionspeeches.moadoph.gov.au/speeches/2001-‐john-‐howard 159
Ibid.
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 98
Another part of the debate challenges the notion of asylum seekers entering without
appropriate documentation or entering by boat as opposed to plane.160 Whilst The
Convention provides equal rights and protection to all asylum seekers regardless of their
documentation or mode of transport, this part of the debate disapproves of asylum
seekers entering by boat and/or without documentation.161 ‘Those who can’t fly’
investigates asylum from within the context of these conflicts and inequalities in
treatment.
Those who can’t fly
‘Those who can’t fly’ is a short video work (4mins 45secs) that examines the Australian
Government’s response to asylum seekers who travel by boat. The work consists of
quotes from Australian Prime Ministers and politicians on both sides of politics, all of
whom are highly critical of what they call ‘illegal entrants’. Australia’s former Immigration
Minister, Scott Morrison, is credited with the largest number of quotes throughout the
work, including those that open and close the video. These quotes are all taken from a
single orientation video produced by the Department of Immigration specifically for
viewing by asylum seekers who are taken into one of Australia’s offshore processing
centres.162 In this video Mr Morrison repeatedly and emphatically states that none of the
asylum seekers will ever live in Australia, even if they are found to be genuinely seeking
protection from persecution, and he encourages them to think about returning from
where they have come.163
160 ‘Ten myths around asylum seekers arriving on boats in Australian waters’, news.com.au, 8 July 2013, retrieved on 6 June 2015 from
http://www.news.com.au/world/ten-‐myths-‐around-‐asylum-‐seekers-‐arriving-‐on-‐boats-‐in-‐australian-‐waters/story-‐fndir2ev-‐1226676024840 161
M Gordon, ‘Refugees are ‘boat people’ to most: UN survey finds’, The Sydney Morning Herald, 18 June 2012, retrieved on 6 June from http://www.smh.com.au/federal-‐politics/political-‐news/refugees-‐are-‐boat-‐people-‐to-‐most-‐un-‐survey-‐finds-‐20120617-‐20ide.html 162
S Morrison, ‘Go home or spend a very long time in the #terror camps’, David Marler, 26 June 2014, retrieved on 6 June 2015 from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4xSan_4M48 163
Ibid.
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 99
Figure 35 -‐ 'Those who can't fly' (video still), Aaron Moore (2015)
Quotes from other politicians in the work include Prime Minister John Howard’s famous
line from his 2001 electoral policy launch, “We will decide who comes to this country and
the circumstances in which they come;”164 Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s 2013
announcement to send all asylum seekers arriving by boat to Papua New Guinea,165 and
Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s response on the television program ‘Q and A’ to the
question “When it comes to asylum seekers, what would Jesus do?”166
The audio from each of these politicians is placed behind footage documenting the plight
of Shearwater birds on Australia’s coast. These birds travel over 15,000 kilometers every
164 J Howard, Australian Federal Election Speeches, delivered in Sydney 28 October 2001, retrieved on 28 May 2015 from
http://electionspeeches.moadoph.gov.au/speeches/2001-‐john-‐howard 165
K Rudd, ‘Rudd confirms asylum seekers arriving by boat to be resettled in PNG’, ABC News Australia, 19 July 2013, retrieved on 28 May 2015 from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyumolBGPOY 166
T Abbott, ‘Tony Abbott joins Q&A’, ABC Q and A, 7 April 2010, retrieved on 28 May 2015 from https://youtu.be/f0N4SQ4R5K4
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 100
year from Alaska to Tasmania, one of the longest migrations of any animal in the world.167
And every year, tens of thousands of the birds die on Australia’s shores unable to fly
onward to their destination. The death of the birds is reported as a natural event although
it often raises alarm in the hearts of locals who witness the phenomenon.168
Ironically, the footage of these Shearwater birds was taken in the electorate of former
Australian Immigration Minister, Scott Morrison, when, during my regular run along
Cronulla beach, I witnessed first-‐hand the dark spectacle of the thousands of birds dying
on the shoreline. My first response was to attempt to rescue as many as I could, but those
I removed from the shoreline and placed in a sheltered location soon struggled back to
the shore intent to continue their journey south despite their broken wings. Unable to fly,
some of them tried to swim, being beaten back by the crashing waves until they lay
exhausted on the shore again. Seeing so many helpless and dying reminded me of the
feelings I experience in the knowledge that billions of people languish and die in poverty
around the world. Unable to save the birds and unwilling to break their necks to put them
out of their misery I hurried back to my apartment, collected my camera and shot some
footage quickly as the sun set and the wind lashed. During filming I experienced feelings of
compassion and then guilt for recording the spectacle of hurt and death. I justified the act
on the basis of my previous failed attempts to alleviate the bird’s suffering and the
utilitarian hope that by capturing the event on video I might be able to use the suffering of
the birds in a way that could challenge and alleviate the large scale suffering of others
long term. ‘Those who can’t fly’ is my attempt to achieve that goal.
167 ‘Media release: Dead Shearwater birds a natural event’, NSW Office of Environment and Heritage, 21 November 2013, retrieved on
28 May 2015 from http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/media/OEHmedia13112101.htm 168
Ibid.
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 101
Figure 36 -‐ 'Those who can't fly' (video still), Aaron Moore (2015)
Influencing artists
There are numerous artists whose works address issues of asylum and human
rights.169170171 The introduction of this thesis looked at the works of Mike Parr including,
‘Malevich – A political arm’ and ‘Close the concentration camps’ (see fig. 6, p. 23),
performances in which Parr sewed his lips and face together and nailed his arm to a wall
to challenge the detention of asylum seekers.172 Like Parr, this work challenges the
violation of rights of asylum seekers and the brutality of Australian policies that fail to
protect the vulnerable. Both works use an analogy to communicate the pain and suffering
169 M Parr, ‘Mike Parr uses body in topical exhibition’, ABC News, 28 Feb 2012, retrieved on 14 September 2014 from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljtZsmEHxT0 170
‘Seeking Humanity’, Asylum Seekers Centre, retrieved on 24 March 2015 from -‐ http://asylumseekerscentre.org.au/seeking-‐humanity/ 171
G Gittoes, Biography, retrieved on 31 May 2015 from http://gittoes.com/bio 172
M Parr, op. cit.
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 102
experienced by the victims of these policies. Parr’s work uses the analogy of his body,
while ‘Those who can’t fly’ uses the analogy of migrating birds.
I have also briefly mentioned the work of Wendy Sharpe, who undertook a series of
portraits of asylum seekers, entitled ‘Seeking Humanity’, which aimed to raise awareness
on the issue of asylum and provided financial support to the Asylum Seeker Centre.173 Like
Sharpe, ‘Those who can’t fly’ also aims to raise awareness on asylum and does so by
informing the viewer regarding the Australian Government’s asylum policy.
One artist of considerable note working in the area of human rights and social justice is
George Gittoes. Gittoes was recently awarded the 2015 Sydney Peace Prize for which the
Jury’s citation reads:
"George Gittoes AM: For exposing injustice for over 45 years as a humanist artist, activist
and filmmaker, for his courage to witness and confront violence in the war zones of the
world, for enlisting the arts to subdue aggression and for enlivening the creative spirit to
promote tolerance, respect and peace with justice.”174
Gittoes’ life is evidence of what this project claims, that art can be used to address
inequalities and injustices. In 1995 Gittoes witnessed the massacre of thousands of
Rwandans in a displaced person’s camp. The ordeal inspired one of his most famous
works, ‘The Preacher’ (see fig. 37), a powerful image of a preacher trying to calm the
people around him in the chaos of the camp not long before they were all brutally
massacred.
173 ‘Seeking Humanity’, Asylum Seekers Centre, retrieved on 24 March 2015 from -‐ http://asylumseekerscentre.org.au/seeking-‐
humanity/ 174
D Murphy, ‘Artist Gittoes honoured with Sydney peace prize’, The Sydney Morning Herald, 11 April 2015, retrieved on 28 May 2015 from http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/artist-‐gittoes-‐honoured-‐with-‐sydney-‐peace-‐prize-‐20150411-‐1mi61o.html
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 103
Figure 37 -‐ 'The preacher', George Gittoes (1995)175
Gittoes has gone on to document many of today’s atrocities, travelling and working in
numerous conflict areas, and telling ordinary people’s stories in the hope of educating and
inspiring change. Much of his work has focussed on the lives of the refugee or displaced
including those living in the aftermath of the Bosnian War in 1996; those displaced
through the construction of the Three Gorges Dam in China in 1998; and those living in
refugee camps after the invasion of Afghanistan in 2002.176
175 W Miles, ‘George Gittoes The Preacher’, Pictify, retrieved on 15 July 2015 from http://pictify.com/211743/george-‐gittoes-‐the-‐
preacher 176
G Gittoes, Biography, retrieved on 31 May 2015 from http://gittoes.com/bio
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 104
Gittoes states, “I believe it is the job of the artist to combat the destructive forces of
human nature… I have kept my work consistently on the theme of social justice, humanity
and against war.”177 His work ‘Evolution’ (see fig. 38) depicts monkeys in a jungle, some
smiling with their swords victorious and others dead and dying below, and reflects Gittoes
belief that we will never leave the jungle until we stop making war.
Figure 38 -‐ George Gitoes in discussion with George Negus in front of his work 'Evolution' (2014) 178
177 Hazelhurst Regional Arts Gallery and Centre, ‘In conversation with George Gittoes’, Youtube, 2 June 2014, retrieved on 31 May 2015
from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-‐OKrDxdrbHo 178
J Dyson, ‘By George! Negus drops in for Gittoes opening night’, The Leader, 24 May 2014, retrieved on 16 July 2015 from http://www.theleader.com.au/story/2304439/by-‐george-‐negus-‐drops-‐in-‐for-‐gittoes-‐opening-‐night
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 105
Like Gittoes, ‘Those who can’t fly’ focuses on social justice for those displaced by conflict
and persecution. And like ‘Evolution’ it analogises the behaviour of animals with people to
help us view our human interactions in a fresh, and perhaps more objective light.
Global inequality
‘Those who can’t fly’ aims to address issues of global inequality by raising awareness and
understanding around challenges facing asylum seekers. Firstly, it highlights and
showcases the actual response of the Australian government by collating statements from
a variety of prime ministers and politicians to demonstrate a unified, bipartisan approach
to asylum. Secondly, it analogises the suffering of migrating humans with migrating birds
in the hope of assisting viewers to more clearly observe the suffering and vulnerability of
asylum seekers without the political, racial and nationalistic baggage that is normally
attached to them. Thirdly, it aims to use this increased objectivity to provide a space for
people to empathise with the state of those suffering, rather than critique their mode,
origin or purpose of travel. And finally, it hopes that this increased understanding and
empathy will shift the way we live and the policies we support.
‘Those who can’t fly’ emphasises the phenomenon of migration as a natural one that
cannot be constrained by policy alone. It encourages the viewer to identify with the
suffering of the birds that cannot reach their destination, are stranded and dying. It aims
to encourage compassion in the audience as opposed to the common response of
critiquing the origin or intention of asylum seekers. The harsh dogmatic words of the
politicians grate on the natural compassionate response that arises within the viewer at
the sight of suffering. This juxtaposition aims to make the audience acutely aware that
these policies are at odds with humanity and compassion on a broad and basic level.
Even if the audience do normally identify with the words and attitudes of the politicians,
this work makes it difficult to harmonise such ideals with the images of the suffering,
vulnerable birds and obliges the viewer to reassess their perspective. It is hoped that the
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 106
act of scrutinising and reassessing our own attitudes toward asylum will result in a more
humane, compassionate and effective response to a complicated and difficult challenge.
Whilst no artwork can ‘make’ someone think a certain thing, and nor should it, if the
empathy aroused in ‘Those who can’t fly’ is able to open up the viewer to the possibility of
an alternative view, then it has been effective in its purpose.
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 107
Chapter 13 | Conclusion
This thesis began with the proposition that art could positively impact the world by
addressing issues of global inequality through two key means of wealth redistribution and
increased awareness. The performance ‘One thing you lack’ achieved this end, successfully
raising thousands of dollars that were used to impact the lives of hundreds of people living
in poverty. It also challenged societal norms, opening dialogue on society’s responsibility
to address inequality and resulted in behavioral change exemplified in people reassessing
their personal consumption or donating to charity.
Throughout part two of this thesis, the works have aimed to develop awareness and
discussion around issues of global inequality. I have sought to avoid a propagandist
approach, but rather focused on encouraging a nuanced inspection of a complicated issue.
Once again, it is my hope that the works encourage viewers to reflect on their own role in
a world of global inequality, responding to that which is within their own circle of
influence. For those who may have been disinterested in the issues of global inequality or
become desensitised to the challenge, I hope the works reawaken their interest and spark
a new engagement with the topic, enlivening them to the prospect of making a difference
in the lives of those less fortunate.
To this end, I am encouraged by Singer’s comments that, ‘if contemporary art is worth
anything then I think it ought to be wakening us up to the situation of the world we are
living in and that’s what I see Aaron as doing.”179 There is obviously much in our world that
we need to be awakened to, but global inequality is definitely one of those challenges that
contemporary art can help us address.
179 P Singer, Personal communication, 20 December 2012
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 108
As well as a research project, this has also been a personal journey and the works
produced have been part of a cathartic exercise confronting my own struggles regarding
art and global inequality. After experiencing the horrors of war, George Gittoes used art
and writing to process the injustices of our world.180 Similarly art has helped me wrestle
with the injustices I witness first-‐hand, assisting me both to understand and respond to
the world I encounter. It has also strengthened my assessment that art has a unique and
effective role to play in addressing the challenges of inequality within our global society.
This is a role I hope the art world will intentionally seek to inhabit to a greater degree both
for the sake of the vulnerable and for the sake of creating powerful and meaningful works
of art.
180 P Adams, ‘George Gittoes wins Sydney Peace Prize’, Radio National, retrieved on 10 July 2015 from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5LxH2L9Ns0
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 109
Figures
Figure 1 -‐ Wendy Sharp and her portraits ‘Seeking humanity’ (2015) ............................................................. 14 Figure 2 -‐ Ai Weiwei with his 'Sunflower seeds' (2010) .................................................................................... 16 Figure 3 -‐ Chinese workers creating seeds for Ai Weiwei's 'Sunflower seeds' ................................................. 17 Figure 4 -‐ Vincent Van Gogh's 'The potato eaters' (1885) ................................................................................ 19 Figure 5 -‐ Callie Curry's work for 'The equality effect' project (2012) .............................................................. 22 Figure 6 -‐ Mike Parr | Left: ‘Malevich -‐ a political arm’ (2002) | Right: ‘Close the concentration camps’ (2002) .......................................................................................................................................................................... 23 Figure 7 – ‘One thing you lack’ prior to opening | Top left: Bedroom | Top right: online bidding | Bottom left: pantry goods | Bottom right: art studio ........................................................................................................... 28 Figure 8 -‐ Inside the Salvation Army store the day after delivering 'One thing you lack' goods | Top left: my boxer shorts on the rack marked at $1.50 | Top right: my awards and trophies sit in a bargain bin | Bottom left: my artworks | Bottom right: my books still marked with stickers from the exhibition displayed on a coffee table ...................................................................................................................................................... 29 Figure 9 -‐ 'One thing you lack' prior to opening | Left: my bedside table | Right: my degrees available for bidding .............................................................................................................................................................. 30 Figure 10 -‐ 'Breakdown', Michael Landy (2001) ............................................................................................... 32 Figure 11 -‐ 'Bonfire of the brands', Neil Boorman (2006) ................................................................................ 34 Figure 12 -‐ Left: Jaspe Joffe | Right: 'The sale of a lifetime' (2009) .................................................................. 36 Figure 13 -‐ 'Fucking hell', Jake and Dinos Chapman (2008) .............................................................................. 41 Figure 14 -‐ Peter Singer ................................................................................................................................... 44 Figure 15 -‐ Aftershave purchased from 'One thing you lack' ........................................................................... 62 Figure 16 -‐ 'Ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances', Aaron Moore (2015) | Left: Esther Chewa, Malawi, "My favourite possession is a radio because it lets me know what is happening around the world" | Right: Alice Kmunga, Malawi, "My favourite possession is a bucket because I can use it to keep clean and healthy” ............................................................................................................................................................ 68 Figure 17 -‐ 'Ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances', Aaron Moore (2015) | Left: Grace Banda, Zambia, “My favourite possession is my hoe because it brings food into my home” | Centre: Lillian Zulu, Zambia, "My favourite possession is my container of water because water is life” | Right: Memory Banda, Zambia, “My favourite possession is my mobile phone because it enables me to communicate with relatives and friends” ...................................................................................................................................................... 69
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 110
Figure 18 -‐ 'Toy stories', Gabriele Galimberti (2004) ........................................................................................ 70 Figure 19 -‐ '60 seconds', Melanie Beresford (2012) ......................................................................................... 72 Figure 20 -‐ The first page of a Google image search for 'poor people' ............................................................ 73 Figure 21 -‐ 'The chronicles of everything owned (and sold)' (video stills), Aaron Moore (2015) ..................... 76 Figure 22 -‐ 'Stuff self', Aaron Moore (2015) ..................................................................................................... 77 Figure 23 -‐ 'Stuff self' (detail), Aaron Moore (2015) ......................................................................................... 78 Figure 24 -‐ Huang Qingjun's photos of people and their possessions (2012) .................................................. 79 Figure 25 -‐ 'The thinker's chair', Aaron Moore (2013) ..................................................................................... 82 Figure 26 -‐ Documents for sale at one dollar each as part of 'One thing you lack' .......................................... 83 Figure 27 -‐ 'The thinker', Auguste Rodin (1906) ............................................................................................... 85 Figure 28 -‐ 'Don't deny us development' (video still), Aaron Moore (2015) .................................................... 88 Figure 29 -‐ 'Don't deny us development' (video still), Aaron Moore (2015) .................................................... 89 Figure 30 -‐ 'Don't deny us development' (video still), Aaron Moore (2015) .................................................... 90 Figure 31 -‐ 'Prayers of a mother', Kate Murphy (1999) .................................................................................... 91 Figure 32 -‐ Found televisions used to display 'Don't deny us development' ................................................... 93 Figure 33 -‐ 'Don't deny us development' (video still), Aaron Moore (2015) .................................................... 94 Figure 34 -‐ 'Those who can't fly' (video still), Aaron Moore (2015) ................................................................. 96 Figure 35 -‐ 'Those who can't fly' (video still), Aaron Moore (2015) ................................................................. 99 Figure 36 -‐ 'Those who can't fly' (video still), Aaron Moore (2015) ............................................................... 101 Figure 37 -‐ 'The preacher', George Gittoes (1995) ......................................................................................... 103 Figure 38 -‐ George Gitoes in discussion with George Negus in front of his work 'Evolution' (2014) ............. 104
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 111
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Appendix 1 | The drowning child and the expanding circle
Peter Singer, New Internationalist, April 1997
To challenge my students to think about the ethics of what we owe to people in need, I ask them to imagine that their route to the university takes them past a shallow pond. One morning, I say to them, you notice a child has fallen in and appears to be drowning. To wade in and pull the child out would be easy but it will mean that you get your clothes wet and muddy, and by the time you go home and change you will have missed your first class.
I then ask the students: do you have any obligation to rescue the child? Unanimously, the students say they do. The importance of saving a child so far outweighs the cost of getting one’s clothes muddy and missing a class, that they refuse to consider it any kind of excuse for not saving the child. Does it make a difference, I ask, that there are other people walking past the pond who would equally be able to rescue the child but are not doing so? No, the students reply, the fact that others are not doing what they ought to do is no reason why I should not do what I ought to do.
Once we are all clear about our obligations to rescue the drowning child in front of us, I ask: would it make any difference if the child were far away, in another country perhaps, but similarly in danger of death, and equally within your means to save, at no great cost – and absolutely no danger – to yourself? Virtually all agree that distance and nationality make no moral difference to the situation. I then point out that we are all in that situation of the person passing the shallow pond: we can all save lives of people, both children and adults, who would otherwise die, and we can do so at a very small cost to us: the cost of a new CD, a shirt or a night out at a restaurant or concert, can mean the difference between life and death to more than one person somewhere in the world – and overseas aid agencies like Oxfam overcome the problem of acting at a distance.
At this point the students raise various practical difficulties. Can we be sure that our donation will really get to the people who need it? Doesn’t most aid get swallowed up in administrative costs, or waste, or downright corruption? Isn’t the real problem the growing world population, and is there any point in saving lives until the problem has been solved? These questions can all be answered: but I also point out that even if a substantial proportion of our donations were wasted, the cost to us of making the
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donation is so small, compared to the benefits that it provides when it, or some of it, does get through to those who need our help, that we would still be saving lives at a small cost to ourselves – even if aid organizations were much less efficient than they actually are.
I am always struck by how few students challenge the underlying ethics of the idea that we ought to save the lives of strangers when we can do so at relatively little cost to ourselves. At the end of the nineteenth century WH Lecky wrote of human concern as an expanding circle which begins with the individual, then embraces the family and ‘soon the circle... includes first a class, then a nation, then a coalition of nations, then all humanity, and finally, its influence is felt in the dealings of man [sic] with the animal world’.1 On this basis the overwhelming majority of my students seem to be already in the penultimate stage – at least – of Lecky’s expanding circle. There is, of course, for many students and for various reasons a gap between acknowledging what we ought to do, and doing it; but I shall come back to that issue shortly.
Our century is the first in which it has been possible to speak of global responsibility and a global community. For most of human history we could affect the people in our village, or perhaps in a large city, but even a powerful king could not conquer far beyond the borders of his kingdom. When Hadrian ruled the Roman Empire, his realm covered most of the ‘known’ world, but today when I board a jet in London leaving what used to be one of the far-‐flung outposts of the Roman Empire, I pass over its opposite boundary before I am even halfway to Singapore, let alone to my home in Australia. Moreover no matter what the extent of the empire, the time required for communications and transport meant that there was simply no way in which people could make any difference to the victims of floods, wars, or massacres taking place on the other side of the globe. By the time anyone had heard of the events and responded, the victims were dead or had survived without assistance. ‘Charity begins at home’ made sense, because it was only ‘at home’ – or at least in your own town – that you could be confident that your charity would make any difference.
Instant communications and jet transport have changed all that. A television audience of two billion people can now watch hungry children beg for food in an area struck by famine, or they can see refugees streaming across the border in search of a safe place away from those they fear will kill them. Most of that huge audience also have the means to help people they are seeing on their screens. Each one of us can pull out a credit card and phone in a donation to an aid organization which can, in a few days, fly in people who can begin distributing food and medical supplies. Collectively, it is also within the capacity
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of the United Nations – with the support of major powers – to put troops on the ground to protect those who are in danger of becoming victims of genocide.
Our capacity to affect what is happening, anywhere in the world, is one way in which we are living in an era of global responsibility. But there is also another way that offers an even more dramatic contrast with the past. The atmosphere and the oceans seemed, until recently, to be elements of nature totally unaffected by the puny activities of human beings. Now we know that our use of chlorofluorocarbons has damaged the ozone shield; our emission of carbon dioxide is changing the climate of the entire planet in unpredictable ways and raising the level of the sea; and fishing fleets are scouring the oceans, depleting fish populations that once seemed limitless to a point from which they may never recover. In these ways the actions of consumers in Los Angeles can cause skin cancer among Australians, inundate the lands of peasants in Bangladesh, and force Thai villagers who could once earn a living by fishing to work in the factories of Bangkok.
In these circumstances the need for a global ethic is inescapable. Is it nevertheless a vain hope? Here are some reasons why it may not be.
We live in a time when many people experience their lives as empty and lacking in fulfilment. The decline of religion and the collapse of communism have left but the ideology of the free market whose only message is: consume, and work hard so you can earn money to consume more. Yet even those who do reasonably well in this race for material goods do not find that they are satisfied with their way of life. We now have good scientific evidence for what philosophers have said throughout the ages: once we have enough to satisfy our basic needs, gaining more wealth does not bring us more happiness.
Consider the life of Ivan Boesky, the multimillionaire Wall Street dealer who in 1986 pleaded guilty to insider trading. Why did Boesky get involved in criminal activities when he already had more money than he could ever spend? Six years after the insider-‐trading scandal broke, Boesky’s estranged wife Seema spoke about her husband’s motives in an interview with Barbara Walters for the American ABC Network’s 20/20 program. Walters asked whether Boesky was a man who craved luxury. Seema Boesky thought not, pointing out that he worked around the clock, seven days a week, and never took a day off to enjoy his money. She then recalled that when in 1982 Forbes magazine first listed Boesky among the wealthiest people in the US, he was upset. She assumed he disliked the publicity and made some remark to that effect. Boesky replied: ‘That’s not what’s upsetting me. We’re no-‐one. We’re nowhere. We’re at the bottom of the list and I
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 126
promise you I won’t shame you like that again. We will not remain at the bottom of that list.’
We must free ourselves from this absurd conception of success. Not only does it fail to bring happiness even to those who, like Boesky, do extraordinarily well in the competitive struggle; it also sets a social standard that is a recipe for global injustice and environmental disaster. We cannot continue to see our goal as acquiring more and more wealth, or as consuming more and more goodies, and leaving behind us an even larger heap of waste.
We tend to see ethics as opposed to self-‐interest; we assume that those who make fortunes from insider trading are successfully following self-‐interest – as long as they don’t get caught – and ignoring ethics. We think that it is in our interest to take a more senior better-‐paid position with another company, even though it means that we are helping to manufacture or promote a product that does no good at all, or is environmentally damaging. On the other hand, those who pass up opportunities to rise in their career because of ethical ‘scruples’ about the nature of the work, or who give away their wealth to good causes, are thought to be sacrificing their own interest in order to obey the dictates of ethics.
Many will say that it is naive to believe that people could shift from a life based on consumption, or on getting on top of the corporate ladder, to one that is more ethical in its fundamental direction. But such a shift would answer a palpable need. Today the assertion that life is meaningless no longer comes from existentialist philosophers who treat it as a shocking discovery: it comes from bored adolescents for whom it is a truism. Perhaps it is the central place of self-‐interest, and the way in which we conceive of our own interest, that is to blame here. The pursuit of self-‐interest, as standardly conceived, is a life without any meaning beyond our own pleasure or individual satisfaction. Such a life is often a self-‐defeating enterprise. The ancients knew of the ‘paradox of hedonism’, according to which the more explicitly we pursue our desire for pleasure, the more elusive we will find its satisfaction. There is no reason to believe that human nature has changed so dramatically as to render the ancient wisdom inapplicable.
Here ethics offer a solution. An ethical life is one in which we identify ourselves with other, larger, goals, thereby giving meaning to our lives. The view that there is harmony between ethics and enlightened self-‐interest is an ancient one, now often scorned. Cynicism is more fashionable than idealism. But such hopes are not groundless, and there
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 127
are substantial elements of truth in the ancient view that an ethically reflective life is also a good life for the person leading it. Never has it been so urgent that the reasons for accepting this view should be widely understood.
In a society in which the narrow pursuit of material self-‐interest is the norm, the shift to an ethical stance is more radical than many people realize. In comparison with the needs of people going short of food in Rwanda, the desire to sample the wines of Australia’s best vineyards pales into insignificance. An ethical approach to life does not forbid having fun or enjoying food and wine; but it changes our sense of priorities. The effort and expense put into fashion, the endless search for more and more refined gastronomic pleasures, the added expense that marks out the luxury-‐car market – all these become disproportionate to people who can shift perspective long enough to put themselves in the position of others affected by their actions. If the circle of ethics really does expand, and a higher ethical consciousness spreads, it will fundamentally change the society in which we live.
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 128
Appendix 2 | Media and public response to ‘One thing you lack’
Displayed in chronological order
Social media | Facebook
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 129
Aaron Moore November 0, 2012 · I.\ •
Friends I would like to invite you to buy whatever it is of mine that you like. My life goes on sale from Spm 4 Dec at KUDOS Gallery, Paddington. Come along, pick up a bargain and make a difference in the lives of the poor.
Aaron Moore I One thing you lack Aaron Moore Art
AARONMOORE COM .AU I BY AARON MOORE
like · Comment · Share
6 Sonia Da l uz, Daniel S. B'lczar, Joshua Dudman and 25 others like this.
~3 shares
Micah McGee Wow. Amazing Aaron. I'm very impressed. If I was a christian, I would be tempted to be inspired and do the same thing. Kudos! Can I ask ... what then? Start-all-over or, just follow 'the way of the disciples'?
November 11, 2012 at 4:00pm · Uke
Nikki Guerin Aaron Moore, what happens afterwards .. Mark 10:21 Jesus looked at him and loved him. "'One thing you lack," he said. "Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me." You are already following Jesus so what happens after you have sold everything:?
November 11, 2012 at 4:10pm· Uke
Micah McGee Agree with Nikki. .. what then Aaron? That's the big question you
need to answer for us!
November 11, 2012 a! 4:12pm· Uke
Rachel Coates Wow this is truty amazing- and inspirational, you legend!
November 0, 2012 at 4:18pm· Uke
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 132
Aaron Moore
November 26, 2012 · .l\ •
for those who don't know, I'm currently beginning the process of selling everyth ing I own and giving it to charity in an art exhibition derived from Jesus' command to tlhe rich young ruler (Mark 10:21) that aims to challenge our
perceptions around responsibilities to the poor as well as hopefully make a difference in tlhe lives of those less fortunate. The sell-off opens in Paddington
next week and you are all invited © https://www.facebook.com/events/349596215137012/
Like · Comment · Share
One Thing You Lack Art Exhibition Wednesday, December 5, 201 2 at 1 1:OOam Kudos Gallery 207 people went
[ Going ~ -~
lJ James Copeland, Johanna Harris Tyler, Camilla Simpson and 4 others like this.
~ 1 share
David Tomkins everything? Including all your clothes? Or v.~ll you keep some clothes?
November 26, 2012 at 3:13pm like
Aaron Moore a very common question David and I did almost include that detail
for people like you but felt the status update was becoming rather long. Everything being every material possession 1 own except the clothes I walk out of the house in that day, things it is illegal to sell (eg passport and birth certificate), and electronic data (eg my Facebook page [which Facebock conditions state will be closed do·Nn if sold] and my email [which might cause a number of ethical dilemmas)). Still that leaves plenty up lor sale including plenty of random personal items such as photographs, toiletries and an Oxford degree (if you would like to
buy a second one?) © November 26, 2012 at 4:01pm · like
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 144
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10152571850051881&set=a.10150947323661881.410005.585921880&type=1
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Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 147
' A couple of people have said I'm crazy for doing this but when you look
at the difference between Africa and here this is actually the sane thing to
do.'
Mr Moore will sell his bed, motorbike, photo albums, surfboard and
c lothes, along with everything he has collected over his 34 years.
He said anything that doesn't sell during the exhibition would be donated
to the Salvation Army.
UP FOR GRABS
Exhibition: One Thing You Lack
Venue: Kudos Art Gallery, 6 Napier Street, Paddington
Opens: Spm to 7pm, Tuesday, December 4
Details: http :ljaaronmoore com.au.
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 148
http://www.theleader.com.au/story/1130688/a-‐glimpse-‐of-‐poverty-‐inspires-‐total-‐sell-‐off/?cs=24
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 149
The Art Life
http://theartlife.com.au/2012/one-‐thing-‐you-‐lack/
the art life " .. . tt's JUSt ltke saymg 'the good ltfe'" ,
One Thing You Lack Posted by Carne M~ler • November 30, :2012 • Pnnter -fnenctt
From Carrie Miller ...
In a type of role-reversal of the contemporary art Bad Boy, Aaron Moore isn't shooting at canvases, drinking himself death, or even just ruining nice people's dinner parties- he's emptying his bank accounts, hauling everything he owns down to Kudos Gallery, offering it for sale, and donating the proceeds to the poor.
In One Thing You Lacl<, Moore grapples with the issue of what it means to live in a world of more than 6 billion people where he knows he's the 58. 089, 141 st richest person because he's able to Google it on globalnchhstcom. He also knows it's an indefensible s1tuat1on that we as aud1ence members will be all too aware of us as we wander through the gallery looking for a bargam among his possessions, which includes a precious heirloom.
But the 34 year-<J id Christian aid worker is not simply making a preachy statement about being better than all of the rest of us; whars interesting about this work is that the artist himself is aware that it raises many more ethical questions than it could ever answer.
Art didn't seem important in the scheme of things when Moore dropped out of art school to pursue a life of activism and service. He's still unsure of its sigmficance in a world where a billion people are currently starving. Of course, the logic of capitalism dictates that this Good Boy of Australian Art will probably find himself in the ironic position of having a hit show on his hands. Go along and buy one of Moore's possessions - you may actually save a life and 1n the process help to re-affirm the value of art.
Until December 8 Kudos Gallery, Paddington. Pic: Aaron Moore. One Thing You Lack, various dimensions. 2012. Courtesy the artist.
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 150
The Sydney Morning Herald
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lifc& style Could you sell every possession you own? December 4, 2012 Comments ! 21 Read tater
Sarah Berry
Ufe & Style reporter
View more artie les from Sarah Berry
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Aaron Moore, artist and aid worker, is selling every single item he owns to raise money to help African children.
Sydney artist and aid worker, Aaron Moore, is about to start the auction of his life. On Tuesday evening, the 34-year-old plans to sell everything he owns and give all the proceeds to the non-forprofit organisation for which he works, Global Concem.
Whether or not people will want his undies (clean, he assures me), is questionable, but other items, including a near-new motorbike, his surfboard, laptop and iPhone, are sure to generate interest. His artwork is up for a silent auction and he is even auctioning off his room for the
duration of the show. There won't be a bed (that, of course, is going too) but, the lucky recipient wi II have to share with his flatmates, "tvvo good-looking fell as, which might be a selling point" and they will have "direct water views."
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 151
It's also for a good cause. Around 8 million people a year die of preventable illness due to poverty, according to the UN and, in Aaron's line of work, which has taken him to hotspots such
as Malaw i and Zambia, he has \~itne.s.s.e.d.f.a.r. t()()rJ1LIC.h.o.f.th.is.~rs.t h.<!r1d.·
"You get used to seeing those kinds of things happen," he says, relating a story of a child in Africa, whose death from malaria could have been prevented with a $10 mosquito net. ''Then at the end of three weeks work I get to go and bungy jump off Victoria Falls for a hundred dollars."
This inequality made him question himself and his obligation to the wider community. "Basically, the exhibit ion ... is challenging some of the responsibility we have to the poor."
He takes his inspiration from Australian philosopher and activist, Peter Singer, who posed an ethical challenge in his seminal essay, Famine, Affluence, and Morality. Singer said that if you passed a drowning child, your obligation to save them would far outweigh the expense of replacing the (theoretical) new clothes you would wreck in the process. The extension of that thought was that there are many dying children whose lives could be saved for the cost of a pair of shoes.
"It's something I'm trying to explore personally," Moore says. There are some items he will find painful to part with, such as the watch his grandfather gave his father as a university graduation present. Aaron's father then passed it down the line to him, when he was a child. "But, to who do I owe greater responsibility?" he asks. "My father or to the poor people whose lives could be saved?"
Giving up your worldly goods is not a new concept. In 2001, London installation artist, Michael
Landy, f.Cin110.LIS.IY. S.I1r.e.cl<!r1d.9r()LIIld.CIII},QQ6.()f.h.is.b.e.le>n.gii)9S. as a protest against consumerism.
And, for centuries, ascetics from various religions have renounced their material possessions to pursue their spiritual goals. But , Moore insists he is just an ordinary bloke.
"I struggle with this," he says. ''The last few days have been much harder than I thought they would be ... I'm in no way a saint or a monk. I've tried to get out of putting some things up [for auction]. Dumb things - like a coin collection my father gave me as a young boy.
"I add to it ... I've been to about 40 countries and collect coins as my momento of each place." He'd decided to keep the whole collection at his dad's house and say it wasn't his - before the
guilt set in. So the coins, the watch (which his father intends to buy back), the undies and the artworks - along with everything else he owns - will go on sale.
He insists he's no martyr and that his material-free status will not last for long. "My pay will come into my account the following week and ... I'll start again," he says. In the meantime, he hopes to raise enough money to save a few drowning children. ''To me, it's important not just to talk the
talk, but to walk the walk."
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 152
.9..rre.. ... !/Jif!.!LY..Cl.IJ. .. ~Ci.c.':<: launches tonight at 5pm, Kudos Gallery in Paddington. The auction will run until Sunday.
21 comments so far
Dont you just love philosophers ? No grasp of reality at all ! Why would saving a child from drowning, ruin your clothes (new or otherwise) ? What is this hypothetical child drowning in-oil based paint? And if I saw a child drowning, and could do anything to save them - the possible damage to my clothes would not even occur to me ' Reality check please. Anyway. Good luck to Aaron ! (but I wont be bidding on his underwear no matter how clean it is)
Avatar I Reality Dec ember 04, 2012, 3:43PM
I think he has been smokin' da weed too long man' Just donate to World Vision and sponsor a child or two to make a real difference.
Ben I CBD December 04, 2012, 5:20PM
@Avatar You are missing the point.. read this ... http:/twww.utilitarian.neUsinger/by/1972-.htm
SB I Mentone December 04, 2012, 5:47PM
It's been done plenty of times before in the media. Good on him though. Just make a pile and burn it aiL But keep the watch ...
Xyz I Burleigh December 04, 2012, 3:46PM
I considered logging on to buy one of his items but why should i be the one who is condoning consumerism?
I donated instead. good cause, and great way to bring this to people's attention. I will also be reading the Singer article.
Well done
inspired I melbourne December 04, 2012, 3:56PM
I got all my worldly possessions down to one bag and as much as I can store on my hard drive.
Things are overrated, see if you can get what you have down to the minimum and have more time and space for you.
Flingebunt I Brisbane December 04, 2012, 4:28PM
err ... but after his next payday he says he'll just start buying stuff again - why not subvert the whole thing and donate his next pay to charity? Oh, then the 'journalists' wont have a story and this 'artiste' wont get exposure- excuse my cynicism. Dear-oh-dearyou couldn1 make this up'
3FS I sydney December 04, 2012, 4:55PM
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 153
... and then what when you can1 operate without your bits n pieces, then you go out & buy more! How truly stupid. You may as well buy some stuff now & donate it to the poor. Actually you owe a greater responsibility to your father & grandfather than you do to the so-ealled "poo(' ... Dad etc nurtured you and passed on a heritage, to sell their watch is just a betrayal of their trust. I'm appalled. I'm speechless at that, that's a vile thing to do, not a wonderful thing at all. What a total load of codswallop.
JJ I December 04,2012, 5:1 8PM
Totally agree, get rid of everything else if it makes you feel better but keep the bloody watch. My Dad and Grandfather would be (rightly) horrified if I did such a thing -what a disgraceful insult to your own heritage.
Cam I Sydney December OS, 2012, 11 :SSPM
Do you ever really own anything?
Charlie I Paddys Pub December 04, 2012, 5:29PM
Can1 believe people are knocking this. I can only guess that people feel threatened by Aaron's gesture. Scared, mean spirited people.
ANY contribution is great no matter how imperfect. Aaron is doing a wonderful, and difficult and meaningful thing. The press is good because it generates thought and anyone doing anything out of the box in this conformist world is extra, extra good. Nice work Aaron.
mimistar I mtdruitt December 04,2012, 8:28PM
He's just another artist... move along ...
Spender I Sydney December OS, 2012, 3:41 PM
But by his own admission he is just going to start buying stuff again anyway, why not just donate some cash to a charity- why the stunt with selling everything right down to his underwear?? I get it's about the "sacrifice" but that's just to make it feel more meaningful for him; it wont make any difference to the dying children that can just as effectively be saved by donating cash. Cash is cash whether you sell eveything including family heirloms or just set up a direct debit.
Cam I Sydney December 06, 2012, 12:01AM
If I had to choose, I would choose possessions over people every time.
So no. I would never sell everything I own.
Philrp I Wahroonga December OS, 2012, 9:26AM
To anyone knocking Aaron, exactly what have YOU done recently to raise the plight of the poor, poverty and inequality recently?
Michael I melbourne December OS, 2012, 9:30AM
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 154
What's so great about 'raising the plight?' It's FIXING the plight that's required. Part of the problem is that so many people think just talking about something is sufficient. Aaron will at least be handing over some money, which is better than nothing, but systemic problems need systemic solutions. That's where I ind fault with Singer's thesis: it's just en•jless bandaiding.
photondancer I Decemrer 05, 2012, 9:56AM
@photondancer, Aaron works for an aid agency, donates money himself and at the same time raises the plight of the causes he is clearly passionate about. Nc-one asked him to do it, and I cant see him quoted anywhere saying his actions will end all that is wrong in the world. So I'm still not SUI~ Wllctl UJJSt:!l!:> you SU. Mayi.Jt! JJUSl SUI lit! tlt!lails Uf YUUI lilt! SiS fUI WUIItJ I.Jt!llt!l lllt!l ll, Qlltl 11101 t!
than just 'We need systematic solutions." Give us something wit~ some meat, some substance, something actionable. You're obviously without peer in that regard. No, seriously, do it. You and your like-minded fellows on this string should perhaps try to use your powers for good and actually come up with something rather than knock one bloke who's doing his best. I await your thorough, end-to-end plan to end poverty and equal ty.
Michael I Melbourne December OS, 2012, 12:37PM
*in..tequality.
Michael I Melbourne December OS, 2012, 12:50PM
Wow, this is pretty mind blowing. There is no way I could go without everything I own. And I'm so happy that his Dad is buying that watch!
This has made me take sericusly something I usually do for fun, buy charity presents to go along with Christmas presents. I ran oul of time last year, and felt a bit guilty bul got over it. This year I'm all organised and plan to make it happen this Sunday from the Oxfam shop. Reaching to those in need is so important.
Jesse I Melbourne Dec ember 05, 2012, 1 0:20AM
HA~r. hA~r . . 1.1 1 ;:;m wonc1Arino if hy tAiling thA wnrlrl how m11r.h thA w~tr.h ~nrl r.nin~ mA~nt tn him. some wonderful person wont purchase them and give them back to Aaron The Publicity Gesturer. I hope not.
Also Appalled I December OS, 2012, 10:30AM
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 155
http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/life/could-‐you-‐sell-‐every-‐possession-‐you-‐own-‐20121204-‐2asns.html
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 156
Bible society
Christian artist sells all he owns and gives to the poor
CHRISTIAN LIVING I Kaley Payne -=- Fhi~&Ofl .,Facebook
Christian artist Aaron Moore is making waves for poverty today, launching his latest exhibition in which all hiS possess1ons take centre stage- to be auctioned and sold for charity.
The 34 year old from Cronulla in Sydney's south says he wants to challenge himself and others in the way we respond to poverty. Citing Jesus' teaching on the rich young man (Lllk.!l!8..:!8..:~3; Ma.!~..:!g~! ~2.§) Moore has entitled the exhibition One Ttung You Lack.
Tonight the exhibition will launch and Moore has a week to sell everything he owns, Including his motorbike. surfboards, all his clothes, a watch given to him by his father and handed down from his grandfather, and a sent1mental co1n collection. also a family keepsake. He's also g1ving away all he has in sav1ngs. He'd sell his apartment too. but he doesn't own it. Instead, Moore has arranged for an auction of 5 nights in his sea-view shared apartment at the consent of his roommates.
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 157
"There's no easy answer to these moral questions about responsibility for poverty," says Moore. "But we're going to the movies and drinking chai lattes while 1.4 billion people live in extreme poverty."
"I don't have it figured out - I'm not a saint or a monk. I was on a dirt floor in Africa on mission and at the end of my month there blew a chunk of money b ungee jumping before I came home. I'm pointing that out, and opening up discussion. Perhaps Christ's words to the rich man are relevant to us today - they're certainly rei evant to me."
In the eyes of most Australians, Moore is not rich. He doesn't own his home or drive an expensive car. With a quick head calculation, Moore estimates his possessions and savings total less than 520,000. But on world standards, Moore sa¥[' he is one of the wealthiest. In fact, the Globalrichlist.com tells him he is 58,086,141 richest person in the world. (You can rank yourself here.)
Moore also points to philosopher Peter Singer's 'drowning child' analogy to explain his motive for the exhibition. In 1997, Singer wrote an article for New Internationalist, in which he asked the question of who is morally responsible for saving a child drowning in a pond as you walk by. According to Singer, the responsibility one feels in such a situation should extend beyond location to children perishing overseas. Singer argues the child drowning in a pond next to you and the child dying from the effects of poverty overseas are "equally within your means to save, at no great cost - and absolutely no danger - to yourself."
In comparing the two positions on rich and poor, Moore says, "Christ's words are different. WMst the poor are assisted through what Christ says, he's pretty much talking about the rich man and the thing that needs to change in him. I think that's relevant for me, and others like me. We need to change."
Giving his 'stuff away hasn't been an easy decision for Moore- nowhere near as easy as he thought.
"In our heads, we like to think we aren't the rich young man that Jesus talks to. We think it won't be difficult to give it all away. But I've caught myself trying to hide things so they don't get sold, making excuses for why I should keep my grandfather's watch. I've struggled with that .. . It's really sad when I look at my own life and my own heart."
Moore is curr·ently studying at the New South Wales College of Fine Art while working as global missions manager at NGO Global Concern. He says his experience on mission has brought him to this point.
"On one trip a few months ago I was in !Kenya visiting an orphanage in the mountains. It's cold there, and there are a few hundred kids. They wanted to install a hot water system, but they didn't have the money. Some of the kids were getting sick - they'd boil water on fire for the little ones, but couldn't do rt for all.
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 158
http://www.biblesociety.org.au/news/christian-‐artist-‐sells-‐all-‐he-‐owns-‐and-‐gives-‐to-‐the-‐poor
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 164
16 responses to "I have Aaron Moore's stuff"
Tracey January 29,2013 al 12:40 prr ~
This story actually made me feel quite sad. I just hope that Aaron doesn't
regret it. Whilst I can understand the high anyone might get from ridding
themselves of stuff I think that after a while I for one- would regret getting rid
of all of my personal memorabilia.
Lissanne Oliver "" 211 201 • p
I hear you Tracey but I can only assume Aaron gave his decision
much consideration, over a lengthy period of time. I reckon he
might not have had the high either - but perhaps he'll comment
and let us know! Chin up- maybe his memorabilia wasn't that
precious too him anyway!
sense in the senseless Februa'Y 2013 at 337 pm
I know Aaron, he knew exactly what he was doing. He has
a heart for the lord and those in need. When people are
struggling to eat, what are material possessions really
worth?
Tracey Januar, 29,2013 al 1 08 P'T' Reply
Hi Lissa nne - here is the question that's intriguing me - what are YOU going
to do with Aaron's stuff? LOL
Lissanne Oliver ~ 201 a IS
Ah!!! Well, lef s hear a few more comments from others before I
tell you ~
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 165
Jodi January 29 2013 at8:35 ptr ~
I was thinking the same thing as Tracey. What are you going to do \1\oith it? I
can understand some of the things you got as being easy to let go but some
(like the Bible) look too precious to let go. I hope that he achieves what he
wants with this project
John & Mary McPherson January 29, 2013 at 9A8 Plr ~
Hello Lissanne,
This is such a touching and inspirational story about Aaron. Amazing man and
he will be richly blessed by God. So interesting, and about he sold his well
used Bible too .. What translation is it? We are a Christian family who love our
Lord.
Hugs and God Bless
Mary McPherson.
Katie Januaf\' 3 2013 a; 3:25 pw Reply -
When I first read about this project I thought, could I do this? See article:
http://www.smh.eom.au/lifestylellife/could 4 you-sell-every-possesslon-you-own-
20121204-2asns.html
I'd find it extremely hard but think yes I could , with some provisos! After all if a
bush fire or storm destroyed my home I would most want to have my
photos/albums/negatives and am slowty digitising these in case of just such a
catastrophe. I'd grab my external hard drive & be off! Plus, one day, they'll all
be stored in 'the cloud• so I won't even need the hard drive. ©
Aaron talked about two things which were particularly hard to part wilh: 'the
watch his grandfather gave his father as a university graduation present' and
a coin collection his father gave him as a young boy. I wonder about who
bought them and have they retumed them to him as Aaron's intention was not
to permanently downsize.
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 166
I think I'd find it easier to part with sentimental possessions and memorabilia il
it had been beautifully photographed (as all his possessions had been for the
exhibition/sale). Meanwhile, I do take photos of any possessions that I'm
letting go of that I may wish to remember. The photos a ren't as beautiful as
his but they'll provide wonderlul memories, if/when required.
Ussanne O liver Ja '=1.1 20 o::~t 1.:: ~
Thanks for your comments, Katie! I too first read about this project at the
SMH website ... agreed, the coins and watch were a big heart-grabbing.
I like that you speak of the potential loss of photos due to a force of nature
and that you're preparing, just in case. I admit, I'm a fair way behind you on
that front, but trying!
Aaron January 31 2013 at 4 58 pm Reply ~
Hi Ussanne,
Nice post. Was interesting to hear your perspective on the exhibition and my
stuff, and that of those who commented. The exhibition raises quite a number
of issues and I've generally tried to let people take from it what they will
w ithout imposing my interpretation upon them. However, a few things to think
about might be:
1. Most of these item s (such as the bed room tile and ribbons) have sat in a
box for the las115 years. I have opened the box to look at them on 4-5
occasions over that period and the items brought back some fond memories.
really enjoy the memories they brirlQ but what if they had an even more
important value?
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 167
2. The monetary value of the items has been pegged at SSO, the equivalent of
5 mosquito nets, each of which can protect 2 adults or 3 children. Global
Concern is an NGO that can take my $50, buy the 5 nets and distribute them
to those in extreme poverty, usually pregnant mothers, the d isabled, elderly,
widows and orphans in households earning under S2 a day. An estimated 216
million people contfact malaria every year resulting in 655,000 deaths, 86% of
which are children under 5. Mosquito nets are the most effective means of
preventing malaria. There appears a good chance that if the SSO is used on
nets then at least one of the 5 nets may save the life of a child. To whom do I
owe the greater moral obligation, myself and the 4·5 occasions on which I will
enjoy the memories of the box, OR the 10· 15 people requiring protection from
malaria (which I can't contract here) and of which at least 1 life might be
saved?
3. The Bible appears to make a similar challenge in luke 3:11 ... "the man
w~h 2 jackets should share with him who has none." We might be sad to let
our second jacket go, but would we be more sad to see someone cold and
suffering without a jacket at all?
Lissanne Oliver Jar a.y 20 3 a! ..:
Hey Aaron! So great to hear from you! I really appreciate that you have
allowed observers to make their own inte rpretations. And I really appreciate
the reminder of how your actions made such an overwhelming difference in
other's lives. Our safe little Western work! is so far removed from suffering.
am amazed I don't have to toil for fresh water each day, that I travet for
"pleasure"' (certainly not to search for food or to escape hardship), that I am
a [relatively) extremely wealthy white woman with a dollar in my pocket and
choices on my horizon.
Thank you Aaron, for your bigger picture thinking and for the valuable
reminder. I hope it motivates one or aJI who hear your story to take action.
In the meantime, do you have an update on the coins or watch? I think
peeps would love to hearl
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 168
Aaron Januarv 31 2013 at 5 33 P"' Reply
In answer to a few of the other readers:
Tracy- no reg rets .. yet! I didn't really feel that 'high• either. However, if you
think it is the right thing to do (as I hinted in my previous comment) then I think
its not so sad. In fact d you think it is the right thing to do then not doing it
might be sadder
Jodi - the Bible did travel round the world with me a few times in my back
pocket but there are plenty more Bible's out there .
John and Mary - Its a Gideon bible. There is a story behind it. About 12 years
ago I was reading my bible in the morning on the train to work The guy next
to me started asking me questions about it. He seemed genuinely interested
so I gave it to him just before I got off at my s top. Jn the evening that same
day, as I got on the train to go home, a guy with a box of Gideon bibles \Na.S
standing on the platform and offered me one. This is that bible.
Katie- Yes I agree that having all the objects photographed in some v...-ays
may have softened the blow. But it also made me look at each individual item
up close and recognise its meaning and value which I think also made it more
drtficult to part w ith in, but I wanted the selling of the items to be a very
conscious decision where I chose to give it up for another purpose (instead of
just dumping boxes of stuff I had forgotten about).
The other items-The coin collection was bought by an anonymous buyer
who took the lot and I haven't seen it since (I had volunteers selling my items
so I never dealt with the buyer and the volunteer refused to disclose
anything). The watch was purchased by my father as soon as the exhibition
opened. To my surprise I unwrapped it under the tree at Christmas.
lissanne O liver "" '' 20 • 5 5J • ~
Love the bible story! It confirms my belief that when we let go (even if it's of
people or things we think matter) something or someone else will appear
pretty quickly!
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 171
Screened on Channel 9 and pay TV http://www.wesleymission.org.au/home/our-‐words/wesley-‐impact-‐tv/refugee-‐week/
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 172
Bible society
Reflections of a man who sold everything and gave it to the poor
REFLECTION I Aaron Moore
Uonday 1 July 2013
~Fhlut• ._. Facebook ~ Twitter
On 5 December 2012, 34-year-old mternalional a1d worker and art1st, Aaron Moore sold everyrhmg ne owned and gave 11 to the poor. 'One mmg you lack' was a performance based on two texts regarding the poor, one theological and the other philosophical. The hrst was Jesus s command to the nch young man, round m the book or I,(J~!L18.c.!_B.:2..:t to 'sell everylhing you own and give it to the poor. The second was a challenge by uttlltanan, Peter Smger, who believes 'If we can prevent somethmg bad, Without sacnt1cmg anythmg of comparable signtficance, we ought to do 1t.' Aaron sa1d the performance challenges our nght to retam wealth when faced by me needs of those m extreme poverty.
Here, Aaron wfltes a renect1on tor Etermty on what It was l1ke to gtve up all he had and whether he thmks 11 made any difference:
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 173
Strangers sat on my bed and rummaged through my bedside table drawers: a woman placed a bid on my university degree; a flatmate handed over a few dollars for my beard trimmer; a man tried on my suit; someone inspected my half eaten boxes of cereal; people pointed out paintings and drawings they wanted to purchase; hundreds of my personal photographs were emptied out onto a table being carefully perused by a small crowd; a middle-aged man flipped through my tax records and other files to find an old X-ray, withdrew it from its envelope and held it up to the light to get a better looK.
'One thing you lack' was my first solo art exhibition and opened to a few hundred people in Kudos Gallery, Paddington, just before Christmas. That was a matter of months ago when at the age of 34 I sold everything I owned in the space of one week. I emptied the contents of my bank accounts and, along with the proceeds from the sale, gave it to charity, moving me to financial and material ground zero in the hope of moving others out of poverty.
The artwork was based on two texts regarding the poor, one theological and the other philosophical. The first was Jesus Christ's command to the rich young man, found in the book of Luke, to 'sell everything you own and give it to the poor'. The second was a challenge by utilitarian Peter Singer who believes 'if we can prevent something bad, without sacrificing anything of comparable significance, we ought to do it. '
In practical terms: if the value of an item in our possession (like pair of shoes) could be used to save a life, such as paying for the immunisation of a child in a developing nation, then we are morally obliged to use it for this purpose. Overall, the performance challenged our right to retain wealth when faced by the needs of those in extreme poverty by undertaking the simple act of selling everything and giving it to the poor.
As you might expect, selling everything you own in one weeK is not necessarily an easy task, but it's by no means impossible. All my major items - motorbiKe, laptop, iPhone, surfboard, wetsuit, paintings - 1 placed on a seven day auction, with no reserve, and opening bids of one cent. They all sold. The rest of my possessions were set up in a gallery space that closely resembled my home with a study, bedroom, art studio, bathroom, kitchen and garage, and sold by a small team of volunteers.
1 assumed that some items wouldn't sell - old clothes, linen, worn books - so 1 organised to deliver and donate what was left to the local Salvation Army store. But I actually thought that even the Salvos wouldn't take much of what remained. What about used underwear for instance? Since the aim of the artwork was to help the poor, not simply pass items to someone to throw in the trash, I questioned the manager as I dropped the boxes off, "Do you really want my personally inscribed under 12's soccer trophies and marathon medals?" "Oh yes," he said, "we'll mark them at one dollar each and people will buy them for an Olympics dress up party." When I returned to deliver the second load of goods, my medals were already in the bargain box, my boxer shorts were hanging on the racK.
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 174
Some predicted that selling all would leave me stuck in the gutter, lost in squalor, indefinitely destitute. keenly awaiting another more 'sensible' person to stoop down and rescue me. And that, they said, was exactly why they refused to do it. Others felt it would have little effect.
"Let's face it," one mate said, "if you really want, the day after the exhibition, you can pick up a free iPhOne 4 [on a phOne contract] and within a few months you'll have new clothes and be back where you started."
"Yeah," quipped another mate "you'll be back to the rich man who should be selling everything he has: Which begs the question; if it is so easy for all our wealth to return to us, why are we so opposed to letting it all go, even when faced by the needs of those languishing in extreme poverty? When Jesus gave his original command to sell all, the rich young man walked away sad. I guess I hoped I might learn something that he didn't.
I emceed a friend's wedding the same day I closed the exhibition. The bride and groom were married barefoot in an open-air service and no one seemed to mind that I also wasn't wearing any shoes. For a few weeks 1 slept on the floor. using a beach towel for a blanket. Then I went camping for New Years and sleeping on the ground didn't seem so out of place. My flat mate even lent me his inflatable mattress to use on my return.
About a month later, the couple that purchased my bed to accommodate their relatives during the holiday break were moving house and said they were throwing it out. 1 picked it up along with an antique roller desk and beanbag. They were getting rid of their couches too but I said I didn't need them. I generally lived simply, for example I didn't buy new clothes, but these few larger items made it appear like at least I was no longer squatting.
My break from pocket technology was even more fleeting. After only two days of freedom, my mother fished partly-operational cellphone out of the house junk draw and handed it to me under the instruction that even if I didn't need to contact others, they (meaning my Mum) would still like to contact me. Whilst 1 accepted the phone, 1 didn't replace my laptop but began devouring books instead, particularly during my now regular rides on public transport.
The artwork moved a private conviction into the public sphere. I originally hoped to do it in secret, but selling everything requires you to show people everything. It's basically impossible to sell all and not have others notice. The very act demands a level of public disclosure, and undertaking the act as an artwork provided greater opportunity for open dialogue throughout that process.
I was tempted to hide items and there were moments I pretended items weren't mine in the hope of keeping them in my life. When I revealed my internal struggle to sell an old watch my father received at his graduation and then gave me as a child, one person called the act of selling it an 'insult to your own heritage.' Yet another labelled the same decision a 'mind blowing' demonstration that encouraged her to purchase this year's Christmas presents from a store.
Visual art and global inequality | Aaron Moore 175
'One thing you lack' wasn't really a solo show; in the same way John Donne said 'no man is an island.' In order to sell everything 1 needed people to buy everything. Those that recognised this irony came up with their own creative means of dealing with it.
Some decided to abstain from the consumerism of buying my possessions and simply demonstrated their support by donating directly to Global Concern, the charity my funds supported. Others demonstrated their solidarity by buying items and then giving them back to me. In the days leading up to Christmas, I unwrapped several possessions purchased at the exhibition and gifted back. I guess it was handy that they could be guaranteed it was my size and style.
There was an obvious tension that I might be supporting the plight of the poor at the expense of my family and friends and I tried in vain to protect them from this. I stated that 1 would accept neither food nor shelter from them. If need be, I would sleep on the street. But these self-imposed rules soon became untenable. When people began buying things with the intention of giving them back at a later stage I gave up. What did it matter if I kept all my rules but had no room for love? The exhibition was possible because the people around me helped me to move, buy and sell everything 1 own in the hope of making a difference in the lives of the poor. The end result was strengthened relationships with friends and family as we bonded together in greater solidarity to help those less fortunate than ourselves.
Thus the real stories of life change belong to thOse in the poorest regions of the globe. Every day 19,000 children die of preventable diseases. Over the past six months, funds raised from 'One thing you lack' supported numerous social development programs throughout Africa and Asia. Enough to cover the full operational costs of a rural Togolese medical clinic, which delivered tens of babies, treated hundreds of patients from life threatening conditions like malaria and cholera, and immunised thousands of children.
It was enough to provide further funding to food security programs in Malawi and Zambia, training poor farmers in conservation farming methods, nutrition, gender and HIV/Aids, all of which is enabling them to become self-sufficient and feed their families all year round. And enough to further support sewing classes for impoverished women in both India and Bangladesh, providing them an opportunity to secure work, increase their incomes and pay for necessities like food, toiletries, medical costs and school fees for their children. As Global Concern's Overseas Projects Manager, I was able to visit some of these communities after the exhibition and see, hear and confirm their stories of change first hand.
The vast majority of my possessions are gone forever. Whilst I could have, I never returned to the Salvo's store to buy the items I left. In my head I'd already cut ties with them. My father bought the watch and gifted it back to me at Christmas.
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