This is the first purpose-written ‘arts and culture’ feature for the PolSoc Paper!

Art has been used to convey important political messages for centuries. You might think of its more conventional forms like satire and publications such as Private Eye, as well as statues like that of Harold Wilson in Huddersfield. However, art has a far-greater reach than this. 

The minute you shift your understanding of political art away from that which requires money, and a great deal of time and skill to produce, you may begin to appreciate that anyone can harness their creativity to further a political goal. Art is not just by the rich for the rich!

We are all exposed to street art every day, and may not even notice its influence upon us, like the stickers and posters on most surfaces around Sheffield. This street art often features slogans such as ‘eat the rich’ and ‘your government is lying to you’, with graphics designed by local individuals and action groups. It is certainly encouraging to see how political messaging is moving with the times. 

As politics students, we know all too well how inaccessible information can be; tabs constantly open on long-read academic articles and papers, tirelessly tracking down physical copies of core texts. Even then, it can be difficult to engage with its content if the language used is not clear, meaning that important political messages escape our notice. 

The same can be said for the accessibility of art, which is so often stowed away in galleries and private collections where it cannot be appreciated, or the message its creator understood. Conventional satire in the form of newspapers, again, is costly and time-consuming, as well as demanding a high degree of existing political knowledge for us readers to be ‘in’ on the joke. 

However, this is not the case for street art, which by its very nature, is readily-accessible. We encounter it in our daily lives, absorbing its ideas which we should be actively allowing to challenge and inform our own ideas.

Within the University, no one has demonstrated this better than those supporting the encampment for Palestine outside of the Students’ Union. It is unlikely that anyone might have missed the slogans and murals adorning the concourse – demands for peace and justice. Around these artworks, a community has formed, uniting activists, artists and passers-by. This creative representation of protesters’ hope and frustration has been profoundly touching, but let us not overlook its purpose.

These are not just drawings, they are political statements. Statements of our University’s complicity in apartheid, and it is deeply important that we as students, but especially as politics students, engage with this. The more in-depth we study politics in our courses, the easier it is to become removed from real-world politics. The artworks on the concourse are a sobering reminder that we cannot disengage from world events in our daily lives.

Art exists for everyone, and it is an invaluable tool for political campaigning. If the messages behind the art we interact with every day are to be understood, we must engage with their creators. As students, we must seize educational opportunities wherever they present themselves, which at present means speaking with those participating in the encampment to broaden our political knowledge. We should be engaging with and contributing to the political discourse that art can provoke. 

Street art re-centres the idea that politics is for the people, by the people. Its value as both a creative and political outlet should not be disregarded, and we can begin to show our support by engaging with the creators of the art around us.