Why a “Strike”?
In unpacking the rhetoric of the Art Strike, we might begin by questioning the appropriateness of the term “strike” for the kind of action proposed. Charles Tilly, in his discussion of “repertoires of collective action,” reminds us that social movements do not have unlimited choices for modes of action. Only a certain number of actions will be intelligible as oppositional under any given set of social circumstances.[5] What is interesting about the Art Strike is that Home and the PRAXIS group did not choose types of action that would be more recognizably a part of the repertoire of “art” movements. Another sort of “art” movement might have chosen to act through gallery shows or festivals, or perhaps through non-traditional artistic forms such as street theater or performance art. However, those sorts of actions would have required an initial belief in the possibility of “art” to function as protest. this was precisely what the Art Strike’s organizers wanted to contest. Art is conceptua
