Artist: Daniel Joseph Martinez

1. Is Martinez's work political or just socially dissentient?
2. Is he preaching to the choir?
3. Is his motivation just dissent or for the better and/or the bettering of the world?

1. This is fairly clearly answered by Martinez, "It is about power, but not activist based." While the political world around his work is affected it is not his goal to transmit the ideas of change into politics. It seems that Martinez has a natural lean toward dissent, most likely just making art as a means to announce his dissent. Part of what he calculates as being successful is "the disruption of the status quo." He has used tactics of Hannibal and Sun Tzu to help him in his advancement to the opposition, which is the status quo. Obviously he sees what he does as conflict with an enemy and his works are driven by this.

2. Apparently not, otherwise he wouldn't get such strong negative reactions. The imperative of his work is that it be experienced by unsuspecting viewers and become the part of a dialogue. Considering the overt purpose of his work it is a wonder that he has been able to create public pieces that are condoned by the authority. It appears that he takes every chance he gets to display works of dissent.

3. I guess this is really answered by the first part. His motivation is mainly dissent. Bettering the world is just a consequence of his actions and not the purpose.

Three more:
1.Through all his actions of dissent is it still possible for him to be able to create sanctioned works?
2. How do his photographs, which I've not seen, relate?
3. Does his work change any viewpoints?