Articles
Art Is Communication... Right?
Posted: 03.22.07 by to Better Design
So I was just reading this article about a gallery exhibition by Tino Sehgal at the Insititue of Contemporary Arts. The “situation-based” exhibition is a group of ten local school children who are encouraged to interact with the audience. The kids can do whatever they want, but they aren’t allowed to bring anything with them to their “shift.”
It sounds like an interesting idea. It promotes interaction between adults and kids, which is good, but is it art? The first comment on the article said, “Not everything an artist does is ‘art.’ Do you say everything a doctor does is ‘medical science’?” That’s a good point, but I’m not sure that it applies here. I had a professor who was completely hung up on the idea that art is about communication. He never specified whether or not the artist had to be involved with that communication. Also, art should get an audience to experience a new point of view, which I think this exhibition certainly does.
What do you think?
Comments
Art is noise and energy, making feelings visible and thoughts concrete. Art can please us, disturb us, educate and shock us. Art challenges us. Art can reflect our reality, or hint at how things could be. In my opinion Art is visual storytelling; it articulates aspects of our culture – past, present and future – giving them shape and substance and meaning. Art can enhance your environment, give visual identity to your community. Art can shed light on the world, creating an original experience for each viewer.
There is no easy answer to this question – it’s like asking “what is life” or “what is thought” or “what is freedom.” Art means different things to different people, but the question can be examined in light of a few general statements. Art is personal expression. A burst of creativity, or political commentary. Art can be an observation, a suggestion. It can raise questions, or even attempt to answer a few. Art can provoke thoughts and reactions and intense emotions. It can provide beauty and stimulate thought. Art can make people smile and laugh; it can puzzle them or make them wistful, or bring a sense of calm to a chaotic day. Art can bring you to a dead standstill, with your mind racing or your heart pounding. Art can improve the objects all around us, from our cars and couches to medical equipment, or the computer you’re looking at, and the information to be found on it. It can help people lead more positive, productive lives.
Art appears in many guises through drawing, sculpture, printmaking, video installation, lighting and camerawork on a movie set, textiles, photos, performance, a ceramic mug, words, jewelry, woodworking, animation, design. Digital culture has introduced new ways of delivering art, and computers have expanded art’s possibilities, spawning entire new art forms. So yes- a situation-based exhibition is indeed art.
Art is so many different things to as many different people. In fact, I think what you see and process today may come across differently to you tomorrow. I can tell you what I see in this picture now and how it makes me want to act as a mother – which is probably very different, or maybe not – from other mothers. and I may look at it tomorrow and walk away with a completely different feeling. The beauty is in how art inspires us in so many different ways. The challenge in our industry is art that inspires the masses….
I was always on the fence with this, until I saw an exhibition of drawings, done by kids who were, knowingly or unknowingly, headed to their deaths in the concentration camps of Auschwitz and Dachau. It is impossible for me to know, but I suspect their art was inspired by the possibility of a world they once knew and could never know again. What were they telling us, or, as we say, “communicating,” with their ironically happy drawings of musicians, family dinners, kids at play? It’s impossible to know for sure, but I guess that’s the power of art, for we can only interpret.
Commenting is closed.
Beverly Fujiki 03.22.07 @ 11:39PM #
My first reaction was to say “no, that does not constitute as an art exhibition.” But in thinking about it further, I realized that a lot of art forms deal with interaction, be it listening to music, dancing, watching a movie or play, etc. With this particular exhibition, the art was in the interaction itself. Sure it’s off the cuff. But with contemporary art, isn’t that the point? To give audiences something different and new to explore? Hey, Duchamp did it with a toilet bowl, I say Seghal did it with communication with kids.