...and defining a culture.
Ambition.
Refection.
Refining.
A 'nudge'
Thought provoking.
Identity.
I have no education in art or 'the arts'. My interests tend to run to green space and the natural world, my mind to science. Some years ago a friend completed an arts degree in photography, focused not in the photography itself but in writing that (to me) unfathomable stuff that describes the expression, what inspired it and what it is meant to be making you (the viewer/experiencer) feel or reflect on.
A whole degree in that.
The emperors new clothes came to mind a lot as I endeavoured to be present...we were living together for part of that time, sharing space as we both reassembled adult lives that had gone off piste, failed to conform to plan, derailed. She used her art to explore her situation. I just took a series of agency jobs, working in various offices until I understood that being a victim was not an option*. Being present then meant trying to hear what she was saying, being attentive, asking perceptive questions. I'm sure I failed miserably. I never understood that stuff, and fear that my view of it as pretentious, strutting, in-crowd rubbish (designed to exclude people like me, to alienate), couldn't be buried deeply enough. Surely she could sense thinly disguised incredulity.
However I realize that in every concept of a human culture there is art. Whether it reflects them, defines them, represents an ambition, or is simply a celebration of creativity in colour, shape, sound, materials, words or performance - made without deeper meaning but merely because it was an idea crying to be given form or expression.
Therefore, without any agenda I have decided to do a week of posts on observed 'art works' in Singapore and you can all make up your own minds about the inspiration, what it conveys, how or why it might have been expressed as it was....
Maybe in the process I will learn something too, develop deeper appreciation.
 |
 |
| A polyhedron made of one way glass; mirrors on the inside. |
 |
| Entrance to the National Gallery |
(Where I can find them I will provide links to info for those of you who do have the education and the language forms to comprehend, extract meaning and engage with what artists and curators write about their art and exhibitions.)
*It took about 6 weeks. I don't do victim at all well.
Art is in the eye of the beholder. What I have learnt, oh so slowly, is that it doesn’t have to be “perfect” or even popular. If I like it. To me it’s art and it comes in many many forms
ReplyDeleteHari OM
ReplyDeleteI have a deep appreciation of art, from the visual perspective - but am inclined to agree that there can be a lot of bunkum spoken about it when it ought simply to be left to the 'eye of the beholder' as Angela says. That last one one though, does speak to the inspiration that was seen when someone somewhere understood the connection of applying heat to sand to form silicon... which ultimately has led to superfast internet connections permitting us to join hands and minds across the planet! YAM xx
If its beautiful or stirs emotion then for me it's art. A great guitar solo does it for me.
ReplyDeleteIt is definitely in the eye of the beholder.
ReplyDeleteOne analogy that springs to mind is the art of writing..Terry Pratchett's Discworld books. My children started reading them age 8...and kept re reading them. As they grew and gained different experiences they brought different ideas to the same books and saw different things in them.
So we bring different experiences and knowledge to the same art..and see different things in it
I SO love Terry Pratchett's take on the world. I guess you have to like a piece of artistic expression in the first place in order to come back and see more. That makes it sound like a meditation...
DeleteI like the polyhedron. I don't understand the importance of fashion shows where impossible designs are paraded by unhealthy-looking models but I can appreciate the expertise that is involved in the design and expression of such garments. Painters talking about their work can enlighten but mainly I cannot be persuaded, for example, that a pile of bricks or bold squares of colour represent anything than what they are - my loss, undoubtedly.
ReplyDeleteI get that about appreciating the skill and creativity that went into something. Have you ever seen the Wearable Art Award show from New Zealand? It is usually FUN even if you couldn't think why any of it came into existence in someone's imagination.
DeleteI never even think about what the artist is trying to say about the art, I look at it and admire/hate it, and talk to myself saying, the person who created this is gifted and loves this and some others love it to. Since i have a very large part of me that is OCD that enters into what I think. the ones today that i can say LOVE IT are the last one about what we see, the mirror art, I want it, and stacked silver balls. only because they appeal to me, not that i have a clue what it means. I am the same way with dancing, people gush about what it MEANS and how the FELT the emotion. I love it because its beautiful and i wish i could do it too. I think I am a visual person, not a thinking person. I also can not learn from listening. I have to do it to learn it. I even memorise by writing it down, over and over and reading it aloud as I do it.
ReplyDeleteHa😁 the mirror art - very snazzy - and about 6 or 7 feet across. I was fascinated by the infinity reflections.
DeleteArt and what constitutes art is different for us all. I enjoy seeing different pieces and rhe different reactions in people. Arilx
ReplyDeleteEverything means something different to different people, that's the beauty of it I think, we all see things differently. My grandfather was an artist so I do appreciate different art forms.
ReplyDelete