A critique of politically engaged art is that gallery-dwellers, concert-goers and theatre-lovers share the same political inclination as the artists. Often known as ‘preaching to the choir’, the critique holds that art's power to challenge and persuade is rendered valueless when it is experienced only by people who already hold the same (typically leftist) ideas. In this article I suggest three distinct yet interconnected responses to this critique: namely, ‘expanding’, ‘galvanising’ and ‘activating’ the choir. In the first part I explore ‘expanding’ and ‘galvanising’ through works by Stefan Prins, Sarah Nicolls, Pamela Z and Soosan Lolavar. In the second half I discuss how I ‘activate’ the choir in my own work.

中文翻译：

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关于政治听众：赞成向合唱团讲道的论据

对政治参与艺术的批评是，画廊居民、音乐会观众和戏剧爱好者与艺术家有着相同的政治倾向。通常被称为“向合唱团讲道”，批评认为艺术挑战和说服的力量只有在已经持有相同（通常是左派）思想的人才能体验时变得毫无价值。在这篇文章中，我对这一批评提出了三种不同但相互关联的回应：即“扩大”、“激发”和“激活”合唱团。在第一部分，我通过 Stefan Prins、Sarah Nicolls、Pamela Z 和 Soosan Lolavar 的作品探索“扩展”和“激发”。在后半部分，我将讨论我如何在自己的作品中“激活”合唱团。