by Ben Spatz
Art has to keep a balance between unified vision (political or otherwise) and chaotic complexity. Of course, nobody likes a play with an obvious moral, where everything fits into place in order to prove something. Sometimes this is because the moral you're proving is already a cliche (like "racism is bad" or "you should be nice to people"). But even if the moral you're proving is not (yet) a cliche (like "the free market doesn't work" or "fat is not immoral"), if the moral is too obvious then it's not good art. I think this is because people resent having to sit through art if what you're communicating is not artistic. If you want to make a statement that can be articulated in speech, then you should make a speech. Nobody blames politicians or preachers for being too direct in their statements, after all.
But just as a play shouldn't be a decorated speech, it also shouldn't strive to be a "window onto reality." And this isn't because of the postmodern insight that no window is perfectly transparent (ie all visions of the world are biased). It's because there is no need for art to imitate reality. WE ALREADY HAVE REALITY. Sometimes theater and dance companies make themselves chaotically complex by bringing in randomness. This is indeed like the real world. However, it's is a silly thing to do in art. If I want to see the beauty of the world, I can go outside and look at trees. Everyday the clouds paint rorschach images on the sky a thousand times. Every day the theater of real life is available to be watched in cafes, subway stations, and airports. There is no reason to recreate this onstage.
I am more annoyed at good art that ignores politics than at bad art with obvious political motivation. This is because I feel like I am surrounded by good apolitical art. The theaters and museums and libraries are full of good art that is "apolitical" (aka it's politics are conservative not radical). I don't see nearly as much political art happening. Therefore I am happy to see people doing political art (even if it's bad art). It seems necessary to balance things out on the quest towards art which is good aesthetically and good morally at the same time.