The role of the artist in society in WACE Visual Arts
“Consideration of the roles of artists in different societies, such as hero, outsider, commentator and social critic, and how these shape meaning”
Artists occupy different roles in society, including hero, outsider, commentator and social critic, and the role shapes how their work means and is received. A celebrated insider speaks with authority; an outsider speaks from the margins and may unsettle; a commentator observes and reports; a social critic challenges power directly. In Unit 3 you analyse the role behind the artworks you research, and you also choose which role your own commentary adopts, because that choice changes how an audience reads your body of work.
What this dot point is asking
The Unit 3 description explicitly asks students to consider the roles of artists in different societies, naming examples such as hero, outsider, commentator and social critic. This dot point sits in art interpretation but feeds straight back into your own making. Understanding the role an artist occupies helps you read why their work says what it says and how its audience receives it. It also helps you locate your own position: when you make social commentary, you are stepping into one of these roles yourself. SCSA wants you to see that an artist's relationship to their society shapes both the meaning of the work and the way that meaning lands with viewers.
The role is shaped by context, not chosen freely. Whether an artist is treated as hero or outsider depends on their society, time and place. The same artist can be an outsider in one era and a hero in another once attitudes shift. This is why art interpretation asks you to weigh contextual factors: an artwork's meaning includes the position its maker held when it was made. A work made from the margins of a society carries a different charge from one made by an honoured insider, even if the imagery looks similar.
The hero role frames the artist as a celebrated figure whose vision elevates or represents their society. Heroic standing lends authority, so the audience tends to receive the work as significant and trustworthy. But it can also dull a work's critical edge, because an artist embraced by the establishment may struggle to genuinely challenge it. When you analyse a heroically positioned artist, ask whether that status amplifies or softens their commentary.
A role such as outsider is not fixed in meaning; it depends on the society doing the labelling. An artist marginalised in their lifetime may be reframed as a visionary hero by a later audience. Strong interpretation accounts for this shift, treating the artist's role as a relationship between maker and society at a particular time, rather than a permanent label. This is why the cultural frame and context are central to reading artist roles.
The outsider role frames the artist as standing apart from mainstream society, by choice or by exclusion. Outsider positions often produce work that questions accepted norms, because distance gives a different view. Audiences may receive such work as challenging, uncomfortable or ahead of its time. For commentary, the outsider role can be powerful, since critique from the margins is harder for the mainstream to absorb and neutralise.
The commentator and social critic roles are the ones most directly relevant to Unit 3. A commentator observes society and reflects it back, often holding a mirror up without prescribing solutions. A social critic goes further, deliberately challenging structures, injustices or values and inviting the audience to question them. The line between the two is the degree of confrontation. When you research artists who comment on social concerns, decide which of these roles their work occupies, because it changes the meaning from observation to argument.
A student researches an artist whose photographs document a community ignored by the wider public. Read as a commentator, the work is a sympathetic record. Read as a social critic, the same images become an accusation aimed at the audience's indifference. The student uses contextual evidence, such as where and how the work was exhibited and what the artist said, to argue the critic reading, then adopts a comparable critic stance in their own body of work, accepting that this will make some viewers uncomfortable.
Locating your own role sharpens your body of work. Once you can name the roles other artists occupy, decide which one your commentary adopts. Are you holding up a mirror as a commentator, or pressing an argument as a social critic? The decision affects tone, imagery and how directly you address the audience. Naming your own role in your documentation also demonstrates the self-aware understanding of art's social purpose that Unit 3 is built around.
Students sometimes apply hero or outsider as if it were a permanent description of the person, ignoring that the role is a relationship with a particular society at a particular time. This flattens the interpretation and misses how reputations and readings shift across contexts. Always tie the role to evidence about the artist's society, time and reception, and acknowledge that the same artist may occupy different roles for different audiences.
Exam-style questions
Questions in the style of SCSA exam questions on this dot point, each with a worked answer. They are written by ExamExplained unless tagged "Past paper"; the year shows the paper a question is modelled on.
WACE 2023-style10 marksDiscuss the different roles an artist can play in society. Refer to examples of artists as commentators, recorders or agents of change.Show worked answer →
A strong answer distinguishes roles and shows each at work in real practice.
Name several roles: recorder of events and life, commentator who critiques, provocateur who challenges, and agent who drives social change.
For each, give an example and the visual strategy that enacts the role.
Argue that one work can occupy more than one role at once.
Markers reward distinct roles illustrated by practice, not a single vague claim that artists reflect society.
WACE 2021-style12 marksAnalyse how an artwork positions its audience to think about a social issue. Refer to the artist's role and to specific visual choices.Show worked answer →
A high band response links the artist's intended role to how the work positions a viewer.
Identify the role the artist takes (critic, witness, advocate) and the issue addressed.
Then analyse the visual choices that position the audience: confronting scale, uncomfortable framing, symbolism that demands a judgement.
Argue the response constructed: what the viewer is led to feel or conclude.
Markers reward audience positioning tied to specific visual choices and to a defined artistic role.