Mathew Rana and Rick Butler’s Branch in the Social Practice Family Tree

By Robin Corbo 5/26

Rana’s intention is truly in the vein of social practice. He wrote in the essay

Names for What We Do:Thoughts on Encounter and Art he  wrote: To be in dialogue with others is to find meaning in one’s experience. This way of meeting envisions speech as a recognition that the world is comprised of subjects rather than objects. Furthermore, it is a recognition that that these subjects are co-creative, equally capable of making meaning…. when we speak, we open ourselves to a common experience and indeed, we change our way of speaking.To speak is to negotiate meanings with each other. In this way, criticality through discourse becomes praxis (informed action) and a means toward self-determination. Yet, this discourse cannot happen without horizontality, the recognition that you are talking with someone rather than to (or at) them. In other words, it cannot happen without reciprocity and the recognition of mutuality. One does not speak with, without first extending one’s subjectivity outward, making oneself available to the interlocutor with whom we take up discourse. It is in this way that praxis can be thought of as human potential, a process of opening, of transformation and self actualization and mutual reinforcement.

The way that Rana puts these ideas into art was by creating an autobiographical comic book of the life and times of Ernest “Rick” Patrick Butler. Through different conversations and the many ups and downs of their collaborative relationship, the result book proved to be a power force in both of their lives.

As a biographer, or a collaborative autobiographer, Rana was faced with the challenge of chronicling the story of a person’s life. However, through the project he became an active part of Rick’s life. The publicity from the book has been one of the driving forces for Rick to work towards transitioning away from street life.

In linking Rana’s process to other artists who working under the umbrella of Social Practice I think of the relationship between Harrell Fletcher and Michael Patters-Carver.

Fletcher found Carver, a homeless political artist in Portland, selling his drawings outside. Fletcher guided him into the art world, making Carver’s work accessible to the larger art market.

In Fletcher’s case, it was Carver’s wish to have his work seen by the world at large. Fletcher used his resources to make that happen. Butler’s wish was for his story to understood and remembered. Rana used his ability as an artist and a writer to bring Butler’s personal narrative to a larger audience.

Rana’s and possibly Butler’s larger vision for future work is to create a program that is both  an artist residency program as well as transitional housing.

This brings to mind the work created through Project Row House in Houston.

Project Row Houses was founded in 1993 as a result of discussions among African-American artists who wanted to establish a positive, creative presence in their own Third Ward community. Their work was founded on the principle that art and the community that creates it can revitalize even the most depressed of inner-city neighborhoods, for the mutual good of existing and future residents changes lives. Thus, the mission of Project Row Houses is to transform community through the celebration of art and African-American history and culture.

Their mission includes:

• Art and creativity should be viewed as an integral part of life, exemplified in African traditions wherein art is interwoven into the very fabric of life through rituals and ceremony activities.
• Quality education is defined through impartation of knowledge and wisdom - including understanding that is passed from generation to generation.
• Strong neighborhoods have social safety nets, woven by community to support community and to raise social responsibility
• 
• 
• Good and relevant architecture; meaning housing that should not only be well
•  designed, but also make sense to preserve a community’s historic character.

Another artist who has tied his social practice with collaboration with the homeless is John Malpede. John Malpede is a director, actor, activist, and writer. In 1985, Malpede founded and continues to direct the Los Angeles Poverty Department (LAPD), the first performance group in the nation comprised primarily of homeless and formerly homeless people. LAPD’s mission is to create performances that connect lived experience to the social forces that shape the lives and communities of people living in poverty.

In closing I could see the collaboration of Rana and Butler moving towards the ideals of New Genre Art. Suzanne Lacy wrote in Time and Place; New Genre Public Art a Decade Later, “The thirty year trajectory of new genre public art-with its challenges to governmental and corporate motivations; its presentation of the larger historical frame of power relations; its deep commitment to the enfranchisement of all; its naive belief in the ability of the public agenda to right itself with enough information; its practice of bringing voiceless into the public sphere with dignity, community organizing, and political critique; its ethical questions; and its hybridity of thought, media and approaches-is one that mimics a trajectory of civic life, with its discourses, institutions, and public policies.