Contemporary artist Anthony Schrag main focus within his practice is Activism and using art to create an emphasis on this working with the community and also alongside the public to create contemporary artworks.
Schrag’s main focus within these social projects is to produce work that an audience or members of the public can be a part of and interact with the artwork perhaps creating a personal connection. Schrag likes to work alongside those who can bring different thoughts, opinions, policies and ideologies to his work pulling ideas from multiple people from all different walks of life.
When producing these community based artworks Schrag wants the participants not to focus on the end artwork but what the project or artwork has done for them on a personal level and also the community as a whole paying particular attention to the process of making the artwork and the topics that have been discussed on the works journey rather than the final artwork, project and/ or product.
An artwork by Schrag that spoke out to me was one titled Fathers Day exploring what it is to be a male role model and also what is the use of a father. This artwork was part of a long-term residency exploring the ever evolving dynamics of the family unit as more men each day have to work away from home leaving a gap in the family unit.
To get the conversation started on the topic of family units and roles within the household Schrag invited a group of young people up to the top of a hill. The group would then roll down the hill as you would normally with family (parents or guardians) this was to play on the words ‘role’ and ‘roll’ exploring the ideas that surround what makes a good male role model.
going on from this project exploring the ideas of a mans role within the home and the family unit Schrag then went on to create artworks such as ‘Rent A Dad’ enabling family to rent Schrag out to do fun activities within a family unit such as teach a child to ride a bike or do homework etc. He also went on to teach teenage boys how to shave using his own beard and beer making with dads. All of the above mentioned artworks ended up in a large scale event titled ‘ A Perfect Fathers Day?’
As much as I am not a fan of performance art I think that what Schrag is looking at within these artworks is something that many people don’t think about if a father figure is missing form the family home. The enjoyable tasks and activities the children will miss out on so Schrag was and well is looking at for himself what its like to be a father and then what its like for a father figure to have a presence within the family home. Also exploring the questions and feelings that it may raise.