FIELD Journal at the University of California, San Diego

Socially-engaged art practices have expanded dramatically in the past decade but they rarely appear in the pages of mainstream art magazines. FIELD seeks to address this imbalance, exploring the diverse strands of work being produced by artists and collectives working internationally. Throughout this field of practice we see a persistent engagement with sites of resistance and activism, and a desire to move beyond existing definitions of both art and the political. FIELD’s editorial vision is based on the belief that we are living through a singular cultural moment, in which the conventional relationship between art and the social world, and between artist and viewer, is being transformed. The title of the journal reflects two main concerns. First, it indicates our interest in a body of artistic production that engages the broadest possible range of social forces, agents, discursive systems and physical conditions operating at a given site. And second, it signals a concern with the questions that these projects raise about the “proper” field of art itself, as it engages with other disciplines and other modes of cultural production. How do these practices redefine our understanding of aesthetic experience? And how do they challenge preconceived notions of the “work” of art?

Above: Performance, “Strike Paintings,” Arek Pasożyt, during the “March of 100 Flags” organized in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of women’s right to vote in Poland (November 2018), Warsaw, Poland, images by Rafał Żwirek, courtesy of Rafał Żwirek and the 100 Flags Collective.