‘If you want to create something, keep resisting the mediocrity, the ordinary things.’ – Yohji Yamamoto
I know I’ve talked about this before… here are some further thoughts.
My tolerance for banality, mediocrity is low. I want to be challenged, to be asked questions, to feel. A lot of the art I see in local galleries and on social media is ‘pretty’: blind reproductions of nature, sofa-art abstracts, high-tech or ill-conceived dabbles. I welcome another ‘Immersion (Piss Christ)’ (Andres Serrano) because of the conversation it created. I relish seeing art that isn’t safe. Not radical for the sake of it but edgy because it asks questions. Or really comes from an artists inner self, as undiluted by ‘social’ media pressures and other outside influences as possible. There’s more interest in a storm.
‘It’s dangerous for an artist to fulfill other people’s expectations.’ – David Bowie
Contemporary abstraction seems to all be the same, sofa art for the masses who want to feel avant-garde.
I know I’m generalising and sounding snarky but I’m not being elitist. Art is like riding a bike. It doesn’t matter what bike we ride, it’s the fact that we get out and do it. Art (of whatever form) is an inherent part of being human, so no matter what level we are at, just allow ourselves to be creative. Just allow a level of honest critiquing that not everything we see is ‘fabulous, mind-blowing, awesome’.
My feeling is that anything that is halfway good is being commodified beyond our reach, and seen and collected only by the wealthy. And this is contentious too because artists have to live, have to earn a living. Our institutions, for the most part, don’t consider art as having value. This has a flow-on effect – people don’t value art because governments don’t emphasise the importance of art, which is an education issue. And governments see mining and industry as the big earners, ignoring the competitive collective earnings from art-related activities. Art isn’t male enough perhaps.
Why are people so frightened of being themselves? I think we still have tribal instincts, while the world has moved logarythmically fast. In 1800 life would have been much the same as it was in 1700. In 1900 we could barely fly, now we look at high resolution images from the surface of mars on Instagram. But we still feel the need to conform so that we are accepted as part of the tribe, for safety.
No-one is exempt really – we all find some form of tribe. Sports, religions, arts, fashion, goths, skateboarders, extremists of all horrible sorts. All tribes. And being part of a tribe means following social rules. If someone dresses differently or makes art that is considered different they are marginalised, even if only subtly.
‘In the quiet hours of reflection, do you ever wonder is the person you’ve become the one you chose to be, or merely the one the world demanded?
And if a piece of your soul was sacrificed to fit in, did you kill it willingly… or did you never notice it slipping away?’ – abyssaladvice
Everything about society is fast-paced now. Time for consideration and contemplation is lost. We are loosing the art of thinking in meaningful ways. And don’t get me started on the new trend: AI.
This I think means making art that has meaning and depth is not being created. And recognising good art and the role it plays in our society is not happening. Like proper journalism, art can hold up a mirror and highlight social issues, or take us to another world that lets us see our own differently.
Everything is made for the 15 seconds of likes on Instagram, and then the pressure is on to do that again. This all breeds banality.
And I’ve been sucked in as well, I am not any different. But I just want a quiet revolution. I want artists who are in it because art is part of their DNA to make, just for themselves. Not for anyone else. Because I think that is where it starts to get real, and interesting.