The meaning of art; Creation of beautiful things, the creation of
beautiful or thought-provoking works; e.g. in painting, music, or writing. (The
Encarta Dictionary: English, U.K.)
Concept; Something thought or imagined, Broad principle affecting perception and
behaviour, Understanding or grasp, Way of doing or perceiving something. (The
Encarta Dictionary: English, U.K.)
Art gives the viewer the opportunity of seeing a ‘subject’
from a totally different perspective, it provokes thought; the viewer
is free to interpret or judge it in any way she or he desires. Art being thought provocative instigates
discussion, debate and new ideas. This being so an artist has the ability to ‘make
changes’ to social thinking.
Take notice of the differing attitudes people have. For example,
on Facebook today the various remarks about a photo of people looking at Ad
Reinhardt’s Exhibition at the David Zwirner Gallery in Chelsea
New York;
‘Deeply contemplating
against a wall with a black square on it WTF?’
‘Stuff White People
Like (Black Squares)?’
‘ART IS LAME’
‘They have more
patience then I do...I'm not a person to tell someone else that they can't
enjoy/define what is art for them, but if I wanted to look at black rectangles,
I could just stay home and stare at my television while it's turned off - LOL!’
‘It's like when you reach the dead end in a maze, you can't progress
from this point, so it's telling the viewer to go back, to regress or to say
WTF!? Hehehe’
Do you think the people who made the above comments were ‘closed’ or ‘open’ minded? Did they ask themselves, 'what is the artist's message?'
Open to Concepts: My journey as an artist requires me to be open minded. Initially I researched the history of art, the old masters, renaissance art and so forth. Then contemporary art; with visits to libraries, Art Museums and Galleries. About 3 years into this journey after being disillusioned by
the art-works of previous winners of my local ‘Contemporary Art Awards’, I contemplated using the contents of my studio rubbish bin as ‘installation art’
for the 2008 awards. I didn't for I feared being rejected. Silly I, for the winner was...
A well known local artist interviewed in the TV
news described the results and work as being ‘rubbish’. Yes, it was ‘rubbish’,
but no-one was saying anything about what the artist was ‘saying’, the message
he was conveying. I'm glad he entered this piece and not I, for at the time I
was an unknown artist, my version probably would have been
rejected. Dane Mitchell is known for ‘pushing the boundaries’, he has an
international reputation, he is accepted in the art world, he has made his
mark.
The Power of Art; Whether Music, Sculpture,
Paintings, Writing or film; art has the capacity and strength to influence people and their actions. Even more so, it has the power
for political and social change, the artist who chooses to use this
power has a serious responsibility.
‘Last
year the editors of 'ArtReview' magazine
named the Chinese dissident 'Ai Weiwei' the most powerful artist in the world.... In
China, Ai—a brave and unrelenting critic of the authoritarian regime—has spent
time in jail, was not allowed by the government to leave Beijing for a year and
cannot travel without official permission. As a result, he has become a symbol
of the struggle for human rights in China, but not pre-eminently so. He is too
quixotic a figure to have developed the moral gravitas of the great men of
conscience who challenged the totalitarian regimes of the 20th century.’ Dated
September 2012.
It is written ‘the meek shall
inherit the Earth’, in the state that it is in right now and the direction it
is headed, there won’t be much earth left for the meek. More people
are needed to
make a change to benefit not only Mankind but also the Planet we inhabit.
 |
| Smog over roads in China |
 |
| So much smog a breathing mask is needed |
 |
| Ocean garbage is out of control |
 |
| Ocean trash |
 |
| Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill death to bird life |
 |
| Amazon Rainforest, the lungs of Earth, diminishes by the day |
I am sure there are other individual artists or groups who are like minded. I'd like to hear from you. Let us unite to use the power of art to create a better world, a world with a future that provides hope for all. Kia kaha toi toi, kia ora,Tepora Watene.
PS: If you are going to make a comment could you please elaborate and define what you mean when using expletives,(see first comment) and to what the expletive is referring to, or even better still, if you don't have good English language skills enabling you to using better adverbs and adjectives other than expletives, don't comment. Otherwise, we'll all know what kind of skills you have as an artist, .... You can think of your own expletives to fill in the gap.
