what is art?
this question has gone on for as long as history has been recorded and intellect has been formulated into a series of processes known as reason. we live in a society where thoughts, if at all, come after actions and ideas that are told not made.
what i want to know is, why do people look to photography and photorealism as art, disassociating all other forms of art because either, “they could do that”, or “a four year old child could do that”? well, actually it has been prooven for people from binghamton and all around the world that a child’s art is beautiful. children’s art work is great and wonderful on the exploratory and naive level because it is so honest and unassuming. i have a two and a half year old nephew in syracuse whose work is phenomenal, but my point is (as a fellow friend pointed out), with their vast vocabulary and wonderful expressive skills, a child will never be able to write tolstoy. yes we can respond to their work and buy it and hang it on our walls, but are we doing so for the right reasons?
art that is gaining much credit in the new york art scene is photorealism and photography. for me they hold a wonderful place in history and require a tremendous amount of skill, precision, patience and time. most art work does. besides history, the future of photography is especially exciting with advancements of the digital world, the possibilities are quite vast. but then the greater question is what is art?
is it something displaced from reality? is it something beautiful and expensive that can be hung on a wall to match our furniture? is it something that is mass-produced to make it more affordable so the artist can become more “successful” and less prolific? or does art hold a greater purpose?
i have also spoken about the community’s role in the art being produced in their city. it is vital for art’s continuum to have it responded to and supported. the more support [financial] the artist has, the more art they can produce, the more the community can respond to it, the more the artist can be supported, the more the community can benefit, and so on.
now you can argue that a pretty picture can do all those things for a community, but then, what is the role of art? if the role of the artist is to make art and the role of the community is to support the artist, what is the role of art?
artists live on the fringes of society, absorbing and seeing their environment in a way that others may not be aware. i am not trying to romanticize artists’ lives or their senses of perception, but simply state that art has always functioned to challenge the norms in society and has been created mostly by people who live outside society’s constraints. art has been the independent form of media that has challenged oppression, war and inequality to name a few. this has been the struggle of the artist to act as a conduit for discussion and reason within the art produced in any time and any place.
art must help society face the reality of struggles in time. we must embrace art and be challenged by it. television is a good place to go to not have to think and feel apathetic about life. but art IS life. we must be able to look toward the arts to learn more about ourselves and our world in this place and time.
June 19th, 2005 at 10: 23 pm
The visual stimulation created through visual arts is a consuming process in which images and emotions become embedded into one’s short and long term memory. These “slices of life” are a form of propaganda and certainly effect day to day life. Abstract images or paintings can portray that life is complicated and confusing, a watercolor painting of a mountain landscape can remind us of nature, a photograph of urban graffiti can provide insight to urban mentality. Passionate singing or a creative poem can verbalize peoples thoughts. These arts can have a short term effect on daily life, but good visual art, music or writing evokes a long term meditation. It is these elongated experiences that change the mindset of individuals.
When an artist creates a piece, that piece is a representation of the artists life at that point in time. These arts are a collective of energy from one point in time that has become an artifact. Viewers, listeners and readers consume these artifacts of energy, thought, and expression into their lives and art propagation occurs. Overnight, and during the day, the subconscious digs these artifacts up and allows them to flow into our conscious decisions. A large portion of our daily decisions in life are driven by the subconscious part of our mindset. Fortunate people can surround themselves with good art and receive constant inspiration back from it.
Advertisers, news media, and politicians all use repetition of certain images in order to tap deep into people’s psyche and push ideas that influence entire cultures in very dominant ways. These “art” forms have been used in ways to manipulate individuals in our society to become part of a consuming machine. Disconnected from beginning to end, the individuals in the machine allow their advertised unconscious to drive their lives. It is seldom that these mass-media arts encourage individuals to think: “Why do I need a larger car?” or “Where did this tomato come from anyways?” Rather our media keeps us thoughtlessly consuming.
In this time when personal decisions are made based on an advertised reality, it is integral that our art helps people think inwardly. Everyone is connected in this world through purchases and until we consume responsibly, global inequality will prevail. Since everyone on this planet is dependent on clean air, water, and food to eat, it makes perfect sense that global interdependency exist. At this current time, our global population is consuming resources faster than they are being replenished, people are starving while others are obese, and our air and water are slowly being polluted with complex chemical compounds.
Somehow, art must inspire people to start thinking about the rest of the global community. Trees, rivers, wildlife and most of all other fellow humans need to be included in our daily decisions, political votes and discussions with friends. If “art” keeps us consuming more resources, exploiting more people in other continents, then it has failed to do a “good” thing for our planet.