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Time and time again, I'm ask myself or am questioned - why do I do what I do? What is the place of artists, crafts and the arts in our contemporary world?
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crafts people, creatives, and artists alike
crafts people, creatives, and artists alike
If you consider modern and contemporary art in the context of an instance such as the world wars, where you go into these conflicts with art movements like Dada and Surrealism, but come out of them with Constructivism and Cubism - you can see a visual vocabulary that describes how the world ebbs and flows. Where those former movements sought the deconstruction and the parody of tumultuous, nonsensical times - in post war, there is a yearning to make sense of all the atrocities and the cost of conflict. A way to put things back together.
The arts in its totality coincide within human nature - it's a reactionary force, a creative force, exerted by our reaction to the world that we know and are inhabiting at that current state in time. Now more than ever, have we needed the arts and humanities as we, the people of the world, are overwhelmed and over-stimulated by suffering, domestic and abroad, and face crisis after crisis from climate to the condemnation and damnation by the hands of our highest institutions.
There is a case and as previously read, that we have forgotten our ways in reacting to tragedy and everyday life. Something horrible happens everyday. That's not new. We’re exposed to more than ever. The accessibility of information has only made us into the very machines we fear. Binary minds that think in only black and white, and emotions and sentiments that move along at the stroke of a finger - forgetting to consider. Forgetting yourself. Processing, but not considering.
There is honor in all professions and many that we take for granted and many we can't live without. But art and artists will always faithfully serve you.
When you forget, we shall endeavor to help you remember.
When you have existential questions, or feel the world move faster below your feet, you may find sure footing (or more questions) in our galleries, our museums and in our communities.
And for as long as our arts institutions in this country are open (which may not be for long) and our communities prevailing, we welcome you - invite you to not just think critically, but to take the time and understand that you too are also a creative. We the crafts people, creatives, and artists alike - will always be ready to help put the world back together whenever it needs help coming together.
'How does it work? How does culture do its thing? The shortest answer is that culture teaches us how to see.
“The greatest thing a human soul ever does in this world is to see something, and tell what it saw in a plain way,” the Victorian art critic John Ruskin wrote. “Hundreds of people can talk for one who can think, but thousands can think for one who can see.”
Ruskin intuited something that neuroscience has since confirmed: Perception is not a simple and straightforward act. You don’t open your eyes and ears and record the data that floods in, the way in those old cameras light was recorded on film. Instead, perception is a creative act. You take what you’ve experienced during the whole course of your life, the models you’ve stored up in your head, and you apply them to help you interpret all the ambiguous data your senses pick up, to help you discern what really matters in a situation, what you desire, what you find admirable and what you find contemptible.
"How to Save a Sad, Lonely, Angry and Mean Society"
By David Brooks - NYT Opinion Columnist
Jan. 25, 2024
Photography by Christopher Liu
Shot on Lomography Lomo'Instant - FujiFilm Instax Mini Film
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