Concluding our Art and Politics Issue we have extracts from Adam Burbage’s long poem, Slow Train Coming. Taking as its starting point the build-up to the war in Iraq, the poem seeks by way of cut-up and more conventional means to chart the emotional and intellectual history of the period, a period in which old distinctions between right and left have dissolved, and in which positions are increasingly polarised.

Kicking off our Art and Politics issue, Paul Nash interviews the artist Guy Denning.

As part of our Art and Politics issue, we are pleased to present Steve Ely’s poem sequence, The Visions of Vicki Weaver, which centres on the shooting in 1992 of white separatist Vicki Weaver during the so-called ‘Siege of Ruby Ridge’. A cause celebre amongst human rights activists, constitutionalists and the libertarian right, the incident has been cited as a motivation for the Oklahoma City bombing.

Increasingly it can seem that the separation of the civil and military spheres is being eroded by the direct exposure of civilians to both acts of terrorism and images of those same acts. At the same time new technologies such as camera phones put the means of representation in the hands of civilians. David Crawford discusses what role art might play under these new conditions.

Continuing our Art and Politics issue, Russell Manning explores the damage that art has done to the political gesture.

Continuing our Arts and Politics issue, Brian Butler examines the work of Ian Hamilton Finlay. Finlay died in 2006, leaving behind a body of work that uses war iconography to question the ability of art and artists to work outside of the conflicts and upheavals of their time.

Geometer ‘Art and Politics’ issue:
You can view all of the articles in this issue HERE.

“Issue”, given that we publish on the web, is to be taken broadly. But over the next few weeks we will be publishing essays and poetry…

In the final installment of our Arts and Politics Issue, James Wyness discusses the political nature of Sound art.

As part of our Art and Politics special issue, we are pleased to present poems by Patric Cunnane and Uddipana Goswami. Both poems, in different ways, address themsleves to the consequences of political upheaval and the impact on the individual.

Welcome to our Art and Politics Issue

Issue Introduction
Editor’s introduction to the piece – we discuss the background to the issue and introduce the first pieces.blank space

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