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Why art matters
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welcome
Editorial
Sarah Cunningham, Intellect
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The point
article
Well I think we are getting somewhere, but these galleries filled not just with brilliance and wonder, but
are dark imaginings, aren’t they? What about the with the mundane and pointless, curated by people
lovely paintings on our walls at home, harmony in form overly concerned with image, position and fashion;
and tint? Surely someone is arguing for art as simply in short, people deeply afraid of not ‘getting it’ (even
something beautiful and life enhancing? Guillame when there was nothing to ‘get’). Ever more strident
Apollinaire is my favourite. He was friend and mage to cries went up, everyone shouting ‘art is over here’.
Picasso and the Paris school of painters. He believed People outside of this nepotistic world could only
that artists are people who can ‘recognize the symbols look on, confused and bewildered. By sophisticating
without which humanity’s divine view of the universe it to the point of incomprehension, these contesting
collapses with dizzying speed’. Along with Marx and voices wove an impenetrable wall around ‘art’, so that
Nietzsche, he sees art as a kind of visionary weaving: tabloids became, for many people, the arbiters and
of art
as recognizing and representing moments that help labellers. Art, essentially, had eaten itself.
us comprehend our mysteries. He lifts these visionary Ironically, though not surprisingly, this melee has
representations to the level of the divine. resulted in a retrenchment, as interest in art as a
So much of the art of the late twentieth and early series of socially mediated practices has grown. An
twenty-first century, though, has signally nothing to audience tired of headlines, of art as PR, of hollow
do with the divine. We have broken beds filled with pretentiousness and blood, seems more and more
condoms, a self portrait made of blood, rotting meat attracted to demonstrations of craft skill and dexterity,
eaten by flies, which then die, and a man hung by his in areas traditionally recognized as characterizing
feet bleeding over the stage from his own slit wrists. the ‘artist’. Galleries in my own town are filled with
Is there divinity there? Really? Before we become drawing, painting, textiles and ceramics, mostly
completely mired, I think the philosopher Georg adorned with figuration. In a way, this is the final
Hegel can help us with this apparent contradiction. divorce, moving art from the centre of our world,
He argued that in many cultures, art and religion are as the carrier of dreams and aspirations, to more or
effectively the same thing. So the cave paintings of less pretty demonstrations of the mastery of media,
Lascaux in France, the temples at Khajuraho in India trading the recognition of the ‘divine’ symbol for the
or the Hebridean Book of Kells cannot be picked role of decoration.
into separate parts that represent ‘religion’ and ‘art’. So is that it? Well let’s finish with one last voice.
Once religion and art become separated, as in our The painter Piet Mondrian created some very famous
Jonathan Day, Author, Robert Frank’s ‘The Americans’: The Art of Documentary Photography society, with the former being the proper concern of highly-abstracted works. Mondrian significantly
theologians and philosophers, he thinks that art loses predicted that film, television and photography would
replace painting in the popular imagination. If you
need proof of this, compare the numbers of people
Art, essentially,
The point of art? What kind of question is that? their tiny, crowded boats. Marx doesn’t leave it passing through the doors of the galleries with the
While our best philosophers are pointing out the there, though. After all, gypsies famously sing. numbers passing through cinema box-offices, or
powerful difference in our interpretations of the People deprived of any economic power, or subscribing to satellite broadcasting. He believed that
same bits of culture (language, art, etc.), isn’t it
puerile, if not idiotic, to think we can establish the
advantage, create achingly beautiful appeals for
something better. They sing up another world: a
had eaten itself. as people turned away from one they would turn to
the others.
point of anything? place where every tear is wiped from their eyes I wrote my book Robert Frank’s ‘The Americans’:
Shall we see? and their holy of holies cries ‘vengeance is mine’ The Art of Documentary Photography about a Swiss
There are conflicting voices everywhere. I at their oppressors. Marx sees these creations as photographer working in America in the 1950s. Frank’s
wonder whether we might look sideways a little the ‘cry of the oppressed creature’: a necessary work contains brilliant and seminal photographs that
and sneak up on this many-sided mystery, holding reflection of and reaction to an out-of-joint world. its social power and significance. Charles Saatchi embody exactly what Mondrian was talking about.
all its activity still for the slightest of moments He further argues that when freedom comes and evidences this loss wonderfully: in his ‘Sensations’ Taken together, his images are perhaps the finest
and thereby finding some harmony in the cymbal- oppression is lifted, religion and ‘art’, along with all exhibition, the only thing linking the various works description and analysis I’ve ever seen of America, the
clashing din? other ‘opiates’, will be needed no more. on display was their notoriety. The nature and dominant culture of the world in to which I was born.
I’m not going to start at the beginning. We So, does this bring us nearer to an purpose of art at that time had become so uncertain, Frank’s book helped me understand myself, by coming
live in the ‘modern world’, or maybe it’s ‘super- understanding? I think Friedrich Nietzsche can help so contested, that the only sure way to recognize to an understanding of the world that made me. His
modern’ or ‘postmodern’ or something like that. So move us on. He too describes art as a kind of ‘cry’. something as art was to see a tabloid newspaper art is resolutely located in the discussion of belief and
let’s start with a modernist. Karl Marx, the famous Like Marx, Nietzsche sees culture as schizophrenic, headline asking IS THIS ART? Questioning its nature meaning, honestly recording and examining what he
socialist thinker, saw the basics of human life, bifurcated, but not, this time, because of ironically secured it as such. saw. Now perhaps more than at any time since it was
the really important stuff, as air, water, food and economics. He sees instead a world filled with How did this happen? How did painting and published, we need his book. It is a mirror, reflecting
shelter. These are the foundations of our lives, our blood and filth, red in tooth and claw. He takes the sculpture become so divorced from social purpose? vision and wisdom back at us from our generation’s
‘economic necessities’. Everything else – religion, name of Dionysius, the Asian/Greek god of wine, The flag went up, I suspect, with the early twentieth- formative days. ‘Those who ignore the past are
art, music and philosophy – is a ‘superstructure’ wildness and debauchery, and applies it here. This century French artist Marcel Duchamp. When he doomed to repeat its mistakes’, the old wisdom says.
balanced precariously on top. If you’re struggling ‘Dionysian’ world is too much for us humans to placed an off-the-shelf toilet bowl, signed with a In these dangerous and difficult days, we have need
to accept this, try comparing the wealth of most bear, he argues. We need an escape, somewhere fictitious artist’s name, in a gallery, he made concrete of works that help us understand who we are, where
artists to the wealth of most bankers. OK then, to run to. He sees things like God, poetry, music the notion of art as the action of an ‘artist’. His we come from and where we are going. Some might
but surely a cathedral, or Mozart’s Requiem, or or romantic love as pretty illusions, sandy holes intention may have been ironic, but he nonetheless argue that this has always been the point of art.
Picasso’s Demoiselles d’Avignon has to be more in which to hide from the carnage. He names this reinforced the post–Renaissance European elevation
than just froth bubbling on the surface of trade? world of confections after Apollo, the Greek god of ‘artists’ from anonymous craftsmen into celebrities: Read on…
The old wisdom, after all, says that ‘man cannot of poetry. For Nietzsche we are still creatures if a person is an ‘artist’ (and therefore somehow Jonathan Day | Birmingham City University
live on bread alone’. I think the old wisdom is of oppression, but this time oppressed by the different and special) then whatever they do is Author: Robert Frank’s ‘The Americans’: The Art of
talking about love not art: the sea gypsies of Sana, unbearable brutality of our world. Art is our frantic necessarily ‘art’. The ready acceptance which followed Documentary Photography, ISBN 9781841503158
for example, carry no paintings or sculptures in attempt to bury our heads and forget. the fêting of Duchamp’s joke led, inevitably, to
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article variations and iterations of a single artefact – allows statement he continues on to list the scientific instru-
Creative activity
for a flexibility of output that is once again attracting ments by which he is constructing his model. Given
virtual content creators to the very process of produc- the solidity of his assessment tools, as well as his
tion itself (McCullough 1996). When McCullough’s academic expertise in economics and public policy, it
observations are coupled with Castranova’s descrip- would not be too imprudent to regard his predictions
tion of the mechanisms of virtual economies then we as informed deliberations. Even if his cogitations only
end up facing a mode of creativity that harks back to bear partial fruit, humankind may find itself living in a
the days before the Industrial Revolution; the creator vastly altered world, or indeed in multiple worlds: the
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Q&A
Left image: © Kamil Turowski, Fire and Ice: A youngster passes time on a rare sunny winter day in Łódz.
– can move you and stay with you like a haunting. It
invites you to contemplate the power of perception.
It directs you outward, revealing a slice of the world,
a face, a reflection in the mirror, a courtyard washed
Right image: © Kamil Turowski, A Tailor Shop Showcase on Piotrkowska Street in Łódz.
in shadows; and it directs you inward, compelling you
to think about other faces you suddenly remember,
or places you have left behind. Playing with your im-
agination, it can produce a visceral response, a bodily
stirring, by touching a nerve you did not even know
you had and disclosing something new about your
nature as a visual being.
People use art in all kinds of ways: to hinder or help
revolutions; to incite or resist social prejudice; to high-
light or condone an injustice; to conceal or unmask
social anxieties; or simply to get an aesthetic high. As
a viewer, you decipher the way that art makes you feel:
you trace those feelings and the evocations they offer.
Art can provoke, inspire, or disturb; it can open your
eyes to worlds other than your own, or, as happened in
the case of those who managed to draw while impris-
oned at Auschwitz, it can keep you alive even in the
face of death.
Read on…
Katarzyna Marciniak | Ohio University
Co-author (with Kamil Turowski): Streets of Crocodiles,
ISBN 9781841503653
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article
Great artists since Baudelaire were in conspiracy been expelled from the armed services for being
with fashion. gay and lesbian accompanied Gaga to the awards. A
(Theodor W. Adorno in Doswald 2006) strong supporter of gay rights, Gaga suggested that
her dress had been part of that statement. Was it
When we look back on the twentieth century, a therefore a work of art? Where is the ‘original’ work of
time when the relationship between art and fashion art positioned within all of this? These are questions to
flourished in a way that it had never done before, we ponder, but what is certain is that the orientation of its
begin to notice that to call fashion ‘art’s inferior and appeal had gone from academic to mass.
frivolous other’ is far too glib, never mind inaccurate In the twentieth century fashion became a central
and unfair. For, since the beginning of the twentieth concern of many artists, who understood the pro-
century, fashion has played a central part in popular- vocative power of clothing in creating an identity and
izing art. This is not necessarily meant solely in the establishing their work as a global ‘brand’. Theo van
sense of debasing art for popular appeal, but rather Doesburg, leader of the De Stijl movement, wore a
more with disseminating artistic motifs amongst social black suit and white socks and tie to represent the
groups who have had little contact with ‘high’ art or negative of everyday dress. Dadaist Jean Arp created
who feel uncomfortable about dealing with it. Yves elaborate costumes as a form of oppositional dress,
Saint Laurent’s Mondrian dress is a case in point: it and Andy Warhol and Joseph Beuys informed and set
turned a relatively specialized artist into something of fashion trends: Warhol with his white wig and glasses
a household name. And it seems history has repeated and Beuys with his fishing jacket and hat. ‘The look
Right image: © Sølve Sundsbø / Art + Commerce.
itself: at the MTV Awards, on 12 September 2010, the was as important as the art itself’ (Müller 2000). As
stripper-turned pop star Lady Gaga accepted the much as artists were attracted to sartorial codes of
award for Video of the Year wearing a meat dress fashionability, designers styled themselves as artistic
accessorized with a meat hat. The meat dress had savants in an attempt to be elevated into the realm of
already been ‘done’ by the Canadian visual artist Jana fine art: couturier Charles Worth’s self-stylization mim-
Sterbak in 1987, but this was a slightly more camped- icked that of Dutch painter Rembrandt, often appear-
up, risqué design. Known for her gaucherie, Lady ing with a similar black skullcap, and John Galliano is
Gaga had orchestrated a media storm. Curiously in the often described as the ‘Dali of fashion’ in his pose and
worldwide press that followed, no mention was made choice of clothing.
of Sterbak; that the pop star had come to this of her Returning to Sterbak, her ‘cured flank steak dress’
own accord is conceivable, but was the message the is also an example of art meeting fashion, inasmuch as
same? Somewhat: it was apparently a protest against fashion and dress are to be worn, and, more typically,
the United States armed forces’ ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell’ art is not. In this piece Sterbak used fashion and dress
policy. Four former-servicemen and women who had as a vehicle to communicate issues of the body and
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the feminine. The audience and the critic are chal- sual, linguistic frameworks that allow one to be art
lenged to confront competing definitions by asking: is and the other to be fashion. To say glibly that one is
the dress art, or conceptual fashion? Similarly Ster- embodied and the other isn’t is only half the argu-
bak’s Magic Shoes (1992), a pair of high heels tethered ment, and to counter-argue that art can sometimes
to chains, summons a response about women’s lives be worn doesn’t settle much. For art and fashion are
and the culture of victimhood. Fashion then begins defined by, or inhabit if you will, undeniably different
to share a similar language with art, for the creation systems, and it is these systems that define them as
of the ‘dress’ and the ‘shoes’ exist not only within the respective discourses. In other words, fashion and art
domain of artistic production, but within a sartorial occupy different modalities of presentation and recep-
discourse that renders art as an ‘embodied’ and per- tion; they have different uses and they are subject to
formative practice. Fashion, writes Joanne Entwistle, different responses within both monetary and desiring
‘is about bodies: it is produced, promoted and worn economies. Thus the differences are less in the objects
by bodies. It is the body that fashion speaks to and it of fashion and art, since both are aesthetic creations
is the body that must be dressed in almost all so- for which judgment is always subjective, and more in
cial encounters’ (Entwistle 2000). Whilst Entwistle’s the places of exchange – social, economic, linguistic –
focus is on fashion, rather than art, ‘dress in everyday that they occupy.
life cannot be separated from the living breathing Since Marcel Duchamp, what the history of art has
body that it adorns’ (Entwistle 2000). Art within this taught us is that art cannot exist without the elabo-
context signifies a breakdown of its traditional role in rate protocols that register for the viewer that the
high culture and begins to circulate within a series of experience of it is different, indeed something special.
meanings about consumption, popular culture and the The so-called ‘Duchampian revolution’ divests the art
everyday. object of inherent meaning and turns it into a cultural
And like mass fashion, with its dependence on the artefact whose status is conferred according to a
renewal of styles, but unlike art, the Sterbak’s meat delicate web of signs and agreements; from there we
dress is perishable, prone to the depredations of time. must even agree on the relative specificity of art to
Ironically, Sterbak’s work is now exhibited in a ghastly culture, class and race, without whose consent, ratifi-
dried state poised on a headless fashion mannequin. cation, or veneration, the art experience is diminished
If we had to tip it, we have to say that its status as art if not annulled.
is preserved. But seeing it, we are nonetheless made What fashion studies have taught us is that fashion
aware of the prejudices between the two different is a very specific phenomenon of the West and of
practices and of how these differences are insepara- modernity – to keep things sane and even, ‘modernity’
ble from the differences between social modalities as can be read here in the Hegelian sense of an aesthetic
they refer to class, gender, and consumption, as well phenomenon in existence since the Middle Ages, in
Does fashion really want to be art? How would it benefit the ‘systems’? Fashion uses while also highlighting what Gilles Lipovetsky called
And does art really need fashion? art in its rhetoric, it derives a countless array of its
idioms and expressions from art (for example ‘con-
the ‘highly problematic institution’ of fashion:
cept’ and ‘installation’), and vies for the esteem and And yet ‘fashion’, because it implies change and
social prominence that is afforded to the arts and high mutability, suggests something frivolous and
culture – architecture, music, theatre and art – but this, inconsiderable. A judgment based upon fashion
we would aver, is part of fashion’s nature, namely to is felt to be less reputable than one based upon
as the much wider notion of temporality: the values which, again in a Hegelian sense, humans began to maintain a perverse and agonistic relationship to art. those eternal values, those enduring truths which,
that inhere in things deemed permanent and in those have a stronger sense of individual consciousness Like the very nature of desire itself, once that desire is as we like to suppose, we can all recognize and
deemed ephemeral. and agency. Fashion, as a discourse, a system and an assuaged it is quelled. in the light of which we can relegate fashionable
When fashion is placed within the context of the area of study, even when it contains notions of dress, Fashion, then, might desire to become art, but opinions to their proper and inferior place. ‘It is
space of the museum and the art gallery, its value as a costume and clothes, is therefore a discrete histori- ‘knows’ that to do so might lead to its ruin, like gar- fashionable to maintain…’ – such a beginning al-
commercially driven, mass-market product transitions cal entity. This is much the same as the idea of art as ments on display that are too valuable to be worn. Im- lows us to anticipate that the speaker will soon
from ‘consumable merchandise’ to ‘art installation’. In an activity by individuals or specialized groups who portant work has emerged within the field of fashion refer to something more permanent than fashion.
one quick swoop, fashion’s fast-paced commercial role produce aesthetic objects or experiences of critical studies establishing the importance of approaching A fashionable artist is certainly one who will abide
ceases and it realigns itself within a new value system: difference to everyday life and the status quo. Both the dressed body as a ‘fleshy,’ ‘situated bodily practice’ our judgment. Such assumptions may be, in fact
it becomes a rarefied commodity to be collected. emanate from a social configuration of class, capital (Entwistle 2001). Such work has advanced theoretical certainly are, true; nothing is so mortal as fashion,
Whether an Armani privé evening gown, or a Damien and communication that begins in the late Middle engagement in this area and provided secure ground no flower carries within it more plainly the seeds
Hirst installation, the boundaries between high and Ages and the Renaissance, a period that saw a shift from which to extend exploration of the embodiment of its own destruction; the only trouble is that
popular culture now begin to fray, as ‘fashion seeks to away from rigid strictures of religion and governance and disembodiment of dress within a museum context. when we seek eternal verities against which we
attach itself to the value system of art, so art seeks to to that of self-ownership, mobility and the ability to The separation – some use the word ‘sublation’, the can measure the shortcomings of fashion they
remove the stigma of such associations’. A partner- exert change. Like money itself, fashion and art are clumsy translation of the Hegelian ‘Aufhebung’ – of art may be rather hard to find. But if in condemning
ship is produced and fashion ceases to be art’s other, symbolic agents, but their levels of transaction are dif- from everyday discourse is essential (here is no place fashion we imply that it is the produce of a light-
instead it begins to vie for equal status. ferent – and this is true no matter how many garments to begin to discuss art’s art-life agonism nor the way weight emotion and one that can easily be disre-
The question, is fashion art, leads to an argument, are displayed in a museum context. For we must that this separation calls for the (Hegelian) ‘end of art’ garded then we may fall into a very grave error.
or complaint, whose weakness lies in not addressing ask – above and beyond the different (albeit uneven thesis), but fashion needs to be embroiled in every- (Lipovetsky 1987: 4, emphasis added)
the systems of art and fashion themselves. For over and overlapping) areas of exchange and consensus day discourse. And herein lies the cardinal difference
a century the debates have focused on the art object in which fashion and art operate – does fashion really between fashion and art: their relationship to time, or The evanescence of fashion versus the lastingness
and the fashion item without looking at the consen- want to be art? And does art really need fashion? Time. Quentin Bell eloquently sums up this distinction, of art is the real sticking point. Even fashion classics
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are mendacious, as they are merely armatures that for someone to have style is to have a Je ne sais quoi article
said of contemporary fashion. ISSN: 20455852 all attributes of artistic activity – are considered impor-
Meanwhile there is always something left hanging Author: Street Style: Shanghai, ISBN 9781841505381 tant. What everyone needs is the opportunity to create Read on…
out there, the tantalizing ineffability of ‘having style’. and, when the occasion calls for it, to create something Richard Hickman | University of Cambridge
This retains the exceptional, if mythic, quality of exist- Adam Geczy | Sydney College of The Arts,
of aesthetic significance: that is, something that has Author: Why We Make Art & Why it is Taught,
ing outside of time. Great art is expected to transcend Sydney University
meaning for the person who created it. ISBN 9781841503783 and Critical Studies in Art &
the lineaments of its historically-circumscribed style, The term that I prefer then is ‘creating aesthetic sig- Design Education, ISBN 9781841502052
to speak to other generations in various ways; while nificance’. ‘Creating’ because of that word’s association
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article
Comics occupy less and less space in newspa- compressed time; as in motion pictures, visual devices
pers in the United States these days, and even when such as cutting, framing, close-ups, and montage are
they have a page or two of their own, each strip is so used by the comic artist, and settings can range from
reduced in size that old timers have to squint to read the realistic to the fantastic.
them. Why don’t we give them more respect? These Whatever they share with the other arts, however,
features occupy a few seconds of our time, but when they differ in distinct ways that are ultimately unique.
done well they can put a smile on our faces for the For one thing, comics depend on a balanced combina-
day, and may be something to stick on the refrigerator tion of words and pictures: the one depending on the
door for others to enjoy. We should treasure comics. other for maximum effect. What the proper balance
For as long as we have been recording our history, may be, or how much text is too much, and whether
people have been telling stories and jokes through the or not you can have comics with no words whatsoever
combination of words and pictures, and most nations are questions still open for debate. Was Prince Valiant,
have had a tradition of sequential or narrative art and with the narrative and dialogue beneath each frame,
caricature. It was not until little more than a hun- simply an illustrated medieval romance? Was the
dred years ago that American cartoonists began to wordless Henry a legitimate comic strip? What about
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Q&A
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publish
Publish
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20 20 21 21
article
When asked this question, the immediate response journal. Kept regularly, roughly and alongside the art
is to start a list of answers. I think this…then that…and… and design work, it is a place for thoughts, for ideas,
But actually the importance of this question is for attempts at articulation, for reactions to research,
the question itself. Not the answers. The answers will for memories and associations. It is creative in itself
change through time, and for different individuals, and not just a chore. Often assessed in the project or
and vary when a respondent is an artist, an observer, a unit, it needs to be a clear part of, and contributor to,
critic, an audience etc. the process of the project.
My students study a range of art and design sub- Giving a variety of practical methods, fun tasks, ex-
jects, but as a writer and teacher I have found that amples, and using references to creative writing tech-
the key to stimulating their writing is the asking of niques, the book tries to overcome barriers to writing.
questions. The attempts at answers, the thoughts, the Experimenting with writing in different voices, talking
lists, the scribbling and arguments that ensue, start to yourself, questioning and answering, interviewing
the line of a reflective journey that, in itself, justifies yourself, drawing the journey of a project before add-
the existence of art. ing words, creating a shape for a written piece (not
It is not always about writing ‘this is this’, ‘that is literally but conceptually), these are some of the visual
that’ – setting something in stone. It is about the try- ways of making writing relate to the work. And writing
ing to understand, the witterings, the ruminations, the about working and ideas, thoughts and feelings helps
thinking out loud, the writing and not knowing what us to discover why art matters.
the end of the sentence is going to be, or when, or Writing reflects and pushes us beyond the surface,
even if it is going to be a ‘proper’ sentence. And then behind the mirror image, and encourages us to come
something starts to happen, a random word comes to at our ideas and ourselves from different directions,
mind, or writes itself, and there is an insight. It is about
the writing hand questioning the drawing hand: empa-
thizing, challenging and remembering.
from other points of view.
Many artists have managed to elucidate, through
writing, further thoughts to supplement, comple-
Art matters because it is about
Rarely does this result in world-renowned writing,
or first-class honoured essays, but it is about reflective
ment, and add to interpretations of their visual work.
Some were, or are, great teachers; others quite private
exploring being alive.
ramblings that are much more exploratory and search- individuals who used their journals to question the un-
ing. They are not set in a formula, a style or a format. It known, to challenge themselves and give themselves a
is about seeing where the line will go, seeing where it sense of doing something, when perhaps the artwork
will take you, writing without a known destination. seems directionless. John Berger, Paul Klee, Vincent
These ramble-some iterations may well be formed Van Gogh, Josef Herman, Frida Kahlo, Tracey Emin,
later into a publishable tract, a lucid review, the germs and many others, have used words to explain why art
of a book, or an article, the seeds of a statement or matters, why they write, why they create and why they
caption, but these word sketches are at the heart of ask why.
what art is: art matters because it is about exploring All speak of a journey: the answers are not set in
being alive. black and white, cemented in, blocked in, immutable.
The subtitle of my book is ‘Taking a Line for a They may write, as I do, ‘I deny what once I pro-
Write’ and in the wordplay of the final word (write/ claimed; I now understand what once was incompre-
right/rite) and in the reference to Paul Klee’s exhorta- hensible; I concede what once I defended; I see what
tion to artists, I set out my pitch for a book on writing once I could not feel; I contradict myself…’
aimed at art and design students, written to inspire And in writing that, I realize that that is what art
them into, and through, writing. They have come to does: we change, we age, we grow, we shrink, but we
college or university to study and develop art and de- always move. We re-view, reflect, re-flex. Art is part of
sign skills but frequently they have not thought about our journey.
the writing they’ll have to do.
Essays, dissertations, statements, reports, journals… Read on…
Horrified, many students give up: others hate it, and Pat Francis | University for the Creative Arts
most worry. Author: Inspiring Writing in Art and Design:
One written form that can help is the reflective Taking a Line for a Write, ISBN 9781841502564
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Visual Art
article From the viewer’s perspective it calls upon a scan or sonal matter. When difference or similarity is neither
search across a visual image. In terms of information perceived nor intuited, there is no gain of information
theory, it amounts to a search for information. Such of an aesthetic kind. Again we come back to the ‘eye
a search may be guided by previous experiences or of the beholder’ – a cliché but here we have given it
expectations. greater significance.
How this search is carried out relies on one funda- The comments above focus on perception: the
mental factor: the awareness of difference. It is here perception of difference and similarity arising from
that visual acuity takes centre stage, that is to say an awareness of elements given to vision, and their
awareness of the ‘difference that makes a difference’, place as sources of information. But we cannot afford
of the boundaries that allow for naming. It is here that to neglect the place of conception in our assessment
24 25
The encounter
Q&A Article
26 27
dynamics at play in the scene transpiring before them; Q&A
the spoken English they exchange coloured by their
respective Franco and Germanic accents. The lesson’s
pedagogy unfolds. The sculpture continues to stand
resolute in the face of such scrutiny as interjections turn
their focus to describing the shapes of its various voids,
negative spaces and the shadows that trail from the
twin supports of its firmly planted legs and unfurling
Art is a building
harlequin tail.
Conversations turn, as they do.
We finish our drinks and decide to explore the mu-
block of civilization,
seum. We immediately gravitate to the turret, drawn to
the natural light that infuses the interior spaces of the and a building block
of art is the image.
museum. We walk back and forth across the fifth-floor
truss bridge to register our presence there on Bill Fon-
tana’s Sonic Shadows. I relate to E. how the architect
Daniel Libeskind employed similar materials for the
viewing platform in his design for the Imperial War
Museum North in Manchester. (I make a mental note:
I wonder if while designing his addition to the Con-
temporary Jewish Museum, located just a few blocks
away on the other side of the Yerba Buena gardens,
Libeskind was influenced by this particular architectural
feature found in Mario Botta’s building?) The surfaces
of oscillating panels rigged by Fontana to the braces
of the walkway catch the late-afternoon light enter-
ing through the oculus skylight, and, in so doing, set
themselves apart from the pervasive white anonymity
of their surrounds. Next, we move on to the galleries
showing works by Belgian video artist, David Claerbout.
There, E. and I discuss techniques used to achieve the
expansive temporality of a piece such as White House
(2005) and those of contemporaries such as John
Gerrard and Victor Burgin; K. expresses her preference
Why does art matter?
for the beauty and gentleness of The American Room
(2009–2010).
Art is a building block of civilization, and a building block of art is the
E. has to catch his ferry back across the bay. We
image. The image takes form in an abundance of different ways with the
mutually exchange resolutions to remain in touch at
the entrance to The Steins Collect exhibition. K. and I sole purpose of communicating. Images like the Chauvet Cave paint-
continue on, diligently following the path leading us ing in Paris communicate human life over 300 decades ago. Images like
through successive galleries showing assorted works Lukasa, an African memory board, pass on cultural traditions from gen-
by the likes of Cezanne, Renoir, Picasso and Matisse. eration to generation. One of the most sustainable and resilient images
But even so, my curiosity is drawn inexorably towards in history – the alphabet – enabled humans to translate speech into
the archival materials that are carefully arranged in visual form and communicate across geographic borders and cultures.
assorted shallow vitrines. Intimate snapshots revealing When the image of the written word is unable to permeate the intel-
miniature salon interiors; their frames filled to overflow- lectual wall of illiteracy, we resort to using other types of images, such
ing with the bohemian accumulation of early-twentieth as photographs and illustrations. However, even those images can result
century Parisian sitting rooms and ateliers, walls piled in communication problems, particularly when the culture reflected in
high with an array of paintings. In certain cases, paint- their design does not match the culture of the user.
ings and objects that can be distinguished within these For instance, during knowledge-acquisition in science, technology,
pictures escape their black and white confines and engineering, and mathematics (STEM), under-represented youth form
rematerialize in the gallery with a self-assurance that mental images of their own cultural identity in relation to what they are
asserts their enduring legacy amongst a wide world of learning. The odds of them communicating effectively decrease when
things.
there is a lack of cultural resonance between their self-image and STEM
Later on, after returning to our hotel, I open an
images; and the effect of communicative ineffectiveness can be cata-
e-mail in which the following question is embedded:
strophic to them and to society. Thus, Design Your Future, a maths art
‘Does art matter?’
workshop, teaches youth mathematics using images like the Nok clay
Yes, I imagine it does.
sculpture and graffiti. Images can change the world for the better when
Excerpt from: they yield communicative effectiveness, but cultural resonance is only
Image: © Jastrow, 2006.
‘The World Is Everything That Is The Case’ one criterion for such effectiveness.
(ISEA 2011, Istanbul)
Read on…
Read on… Audrey G. Bennett | Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Vince Dziekan | Monash University Author: Engendering Interaction with Images, ISBN 9781841504810
Author: Virtuality and the Art of Exhibition,
ISBN 9781841504766
28 29
article
Creativity
in the streets
G. James Daichendt, Author, Artist-Teacher: A Philosophy for Creating
and Teaching and Artist Scholar: Reflections on Writing and Research
Street art is an exciting and relevant example of ‘invasions’ into cities (where some have been installed
creativity that has popped up in cities around the in high numbers) these ‘Invaders’ critique the larger ills
world. Installed in context-specific locations that of a saturated visual marketplace.
reflect on broader cultural happenings, it is often Understanding the personal and societal impact of
dubbed the art of the people. The act of installing this art requires some reflection on the activity that makes
renegade art form may be controversial, and yet the it possible. Dewey (1938) captured the essence of
commentary that ensues from a successful placement the art-making process with the concepts of impulse,
touches upon an aspect of the art experience that desire, and purpose. These three ideas are helpful
should be celebrated. It is also part of what makes art when visualizing the number of decisions that an
so important and vital to engaging with our surround- artist makes over time. Essentially when an impulse is
the use of glass and the box-like design favoured by street art have addressed these concepts, in addition
ings. frustrated, desire is consciously selected from a library
architects sought to take advantage of space and to the changing role of education, professionalism,
Art is a cultural product, invented and experienced of impulses; and when a certain desire is selected with
create a living utopia. This influence is heavily pres- and politics in the art world and beyond.
by humans in a particular time and space. It can serve a method and direction then a purpose is generated.
ent in the urban environments of the United States, In determining why art matters, be sure to look
many goals and purposes but is subject to redefinition This purpose can then take the form of a finished
where decorative exteriors were removed and society carefully around you. The creative and critical voice of
over time. This is a necessary presupposition in order piece of art.
was left with cold and plain rectangles: skyscrapers the artist is well kept in the ethos of street art. A far
to understand the history, philosophy, criticism and The creative process is made up of many small
of metal and glass resembling shoeboxes. A critique from perfect genre of art, its practitioners should be
production of art. However, the importance of street decisions, but purpose is important for understanding
by Tom Wolfe in his witty text From Bauhaus to Our praised for utilizing a keen eye and reflective process-
House bellows that the folks who work in these build- es to help us all take notice of our surroundings.
Great artists the time the image requires, and often this is relative theatre by Punchdrunk so much. It offers the same
must be
to the era the image was created. We expect to spend clues and random discovery options. Whereas Mirror,
time looking hard if the painting we gaze at is in a Mirror told its tale via technology (cutting edge for its
gallery: time with the crowd drawers, the blockbuster time) and was designed for a single user, the appeal
exhibitions. In fact it is extremely hard to see the of the large-scale discovery, the crowd pleaser, and
images because of the crowds, and they are usually the flash mob excitement conspire to reflect today’s
of work made in the past, often at least 100 years technologies, more hidden, more known, and perhaps
old. Recent work, particularly digital and interactive only as vaguely understood.
artwork, has a smaller gallery audience pull (although My stories are based on documentary themes –
great
online numbers are much higher); it is usually much the evidence often researched from day-to-day news
easier to view because of the lack of pressing crowds, items and the idiosyncrasies of human behaviour. In
and thus much easier to spend time looking without 1995 Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller were creat-
being jostled. The space in a digital gallery offers the ing The Dark Pool (1996), where a room full of books
irony that nowadays, on the whole, audiences spend and artefacts told stories through sound triggered by
less time looking, absorbing and understanding. devices in the space. Shown for the first time in the UK
Knowing how to read an image properly also relies in Oxford in 2008 I was unaware of the work in 1995,
on the medium. If the work is in immersive theatre, but the creation of a mysterious environment, and a
entertainers
publicized by word of mouth, via social networks, story to be guessed, has similarities to Mirror, Mirror.
revolution
ing his way to Tahrir Square to participate in the fight will not be the last artist to challenge the ‘normal’ and
for revolution, ‘Bring a camera with you and don’t be fight for freedom – inside the studio and out. Basiony’s
afraid or weak’ (El Noshokaty 2011). work is now being exhibited at the Egyptian pavilion
Art can be a powerful productive force and instru- at the 54th Venice Biennale. In 30 Days of Running in
mental in sparking change or critical thinking, with the the Place (2010), Basiony does exactly what the title
advent of recent uprisings and events in the Middle describes: he films himself running every day for 30
East and Asia we are reminded of this capability. How- days, whilst wearing a body suit that visually shows
ever, art as a tool for mobilizing thought and action the changes in his body temperature and vitals. The
is not new; in fact, history has seen this happen time work demonstrates the frustration of ‘running and
and time again. Kazimir Malevich, one of the leaders of getting nowhere’, perhaps reflecting his feelings about
the Russian avant-garde movement (post the Octo- the general progress of political change in Egypt.
ber Revolution in 1917) and the father of supremitism, Although he did not survive to see the change he had
Lauren Mele and Alfredo Cramerotti, Author, Aesthetic Journalism believed that pure form and positive change were been yearning for during his life, his piece echoes the
transcended through abstraction. Art for Malevich was fight.
34 35
Q&A
over others (for example via ‘splash pages’). From a semiotic perspective it
may even be appropriate to define the comic-book panel as a kind of hybrid
signifier (whose signified is a fictional moment or scene within a tale); in
each panel, word and image are inextricably bonded in a relationship that
can be subversive, complementary or reflective.
At Studies in Comics we encourage contributors to approach comics
from a variety of disciplines in order to explore both the visual and verbal
elements of each text.
Read on…
Julia Round | Bournemouth University
Editor: Studies in Comics, ISSN 20403232
36 37
Intellect Visual arts titles: Selected list Read on...www.intellectbooks.com | publishers of original thinking | To view a complete list of Intellect’s publications visit us online
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Aesthetic Artist Scholar: Artist-Teacher: Atomic Postcards: Streets of Crocodiles: Truth or Dare: Art Unmapping the Videogames
Journalism: How Reflections on A Philosophy Radioactive Photography, Media, and Documentary City: Perspectives and Art
to Inform Without Writing and for Creating and Messages from the and Postsocialist Edited by Gail of Flatness Edited by Andy
Informing Research Teaching Cold War Landscapes in Poland Pearce and Cahal Edited by Alfredo Clarke and Grethe
By Alfredo By G. James By G. James By John O’Brian and By Katarzyna McLaughlin Cramerotti Mitchell
Cramerotti Daichendt Daichendt Jeremy Borsos Marciniak and Kamil ISBN 9781841501758 ISBN 9781841503165 ISBN 9781841501420
ISBN 9781841502687 ISBN 9781841504872 ISBN 9781841503134 ISBN 9781841504315 Turowski £19.95, $40 | PB | 2007 | 1 £14.95, $25 | PB | 2010 | 1 £29.95, $55 | PB | 2007 | 1
£19.95, $35 | PB | 2009 | 1 £15.95, $25 | PB | 2011 | 1 £29.95, $50 | HB | 2010 | 1 £29.95, $45 | PB | 2011 | 1 ISBN 9781841503653 Critical Photography
£24.95, $50 | PB | 2010 | 1
Critical Photography
The Blind Contingency in Culture and Design Virtuality and the Visual Visual Cultures Why We Make Art:
Edited by Alfredo Madagascar Contestation in the Integrations: Art of Exhibition: Communication: By James Elkins And Why it is
Cramerotti By Stephen Muecke New Century Research and Curatorial Design More than Meets ISBN 9781841503073 Taught (2nd ed)
ISBN 9781841503622 and Max Pam Edited by Marc Collaboration for the Multimedial the Eye £17.95, $25 | PB | 2010 | 1 By Richard Hickman
£24.95, $50 | PB | 2012 | 1 ISBN 9781841504742 James Léger Edited by Sharon Museum By Harry Jamieson ISBN 9781841503783
Critical Photography £29.95, $45 | PB | 2011 | 1 ISBN 9781841504261 Poggenpohl and By Vince Dziekan ISBN 9781841501413 £14.95, $25 | PB | 2010 | 1
Critical Photography £19.95, $40 | PB | 2011 | 1 Keiichi Sato ISBN 9781841504766 £14.95, $30 | PB | 2007 | 1
ISBN 9781841502403 £24.95, $40 | PB | 2011 | 1
£19.95, $40 | PB | 2009 | 1
Drawing: The Engendering Franklin Furnace The Future of Art in Animation Craft Research Critical Studies Design
Journals
Enactive Evolution Interaction with & the Spirit of the a Postdigital Age: Practice, Editors: Kristina in Fashion & Ecologies
of the Practitioner Images Avant-Garde: From Hellenistic Process & Niedderer & Beauty Editor:
By Patricia Cain By Audrey Grace A History of the to Hebraic Production Katherine Editors: Efrat Dr. Shaun
Bennett Future Consciousness Editor: Paul Townsend Tseëlon, Ana Murray
ISBN 9781841503257
£19.95, $35 | PB | 2010 | 1 By Toni Sant (2nd ed) Wells ISSN 20404689 Marta González ISSN 2043068X
ISBN 9781841504810 Online ISSN 20404697
By Mel Alexenberg ISSN 20427875 & Susan Kaiser Online ISSN 20430698
£24.95, $40 | PB | 2011 | 1 ISBN 9781841503714 First published in 2010 First published in 2011
Online ISSN 20427883 ISSN 20404417
£19.95, $25 | PB | 2010 | 1 ISBN 9781841503776 First published in 2011 1 issue per volume 2 issues per volume
Online ISSN 20404425
£29.95, $60 | HB | 2011 | 1 2 issues per volume First published in 2010
2 issues per volume
Girls! Girls! Girls! in Inspiring Writing International Issues in Curating Journal of Philosophy of The Poster Studies in
Contemporary Art in Art and Design: Dialogues about Contemporary Art Writing in Photography Editor: Comics
Edited by Lori Taking a Line for a Visual Culture, and Performance Creative Editors: Daniel Simon Downs Editors: Julia
Waxman and Write Education and Art Edited by Judith Practice Rubinstein, ISSN 20403704 Round & Chris
Catherine Grant By Pat Francis Edited by Rachel Rugg and Michèle Editors: Andrew Fisher Online ISSN 20403712 Murray
John Wood & & Tim Stephens First published in 2010 ISSN 20403232
ISBN 9781841503486 ISBN 9781841502564 Mason and Teresa Sedgwick 2 issues per volume
Eça Julia Lockheart ISSN 20403682 Online ISSN 20403240
£19.95, $40 | PB | 2011 | 1 £14.95, $30 | PB | 2009 | 1 ISBN 9781841501628 First published in 2010
ISSN 17535190 Online ISSN 20403690
ISBN 9781841501673 £29.95, $60 | HB | 2007 | 1 First published in 2010 2 issues per volume
Online ISSN 17535204
£19.95, $40 | PB | 2008 | 1 First published in 2008 2 issues per volume
3 issues per volume
Moving the Eye Narrating the Neosentience: Picturing Art & the Public Art, Design & Book 2.0 International Journal
Through 2-D Catastrophe: The Benevolence Immigration: Sphere Communication in Principal Editor: of Education through
Design: An Artist’s Engine Photojournalistic Principal Editor: Higher Education Anthony Harrild Art
A Visual Primer Dialogue with By Bill Seaman and Representation of Mel Jordan Editor: Linda Drew ISSN 20428022 Editor:
By Buy Shaver Deleuze and Otto Rössler Immigrants in Greek ISSN 2042793X ISSN 1474273X Online ISSN 20428030 Glen Coutts
ISBN 9781841503639 Ricoeur ISBN 9781841504049 and Spanish Press Online ISSN 20427948 Online ISSN 20400896 First published in 2011 ISSN 17435234
£19.95, $40 | PB | 2010 | 1 By Jac Saorsa £19.95, $40 | PB | 2011 | 1 By Athanasia First published in 2011 First published in 2002 2 issues per volume Online ISSN 2040090X
ISBN 9781841504605 Batziou 3 issues per volume 2 issues per volume First published in 2005
£45, $60 | HB | 2011 | 1 ISBN 9781841503608 3 issues per volume
£40, $80 | HB | 2011 | 1
The Place of Reaching Audiences: Readings in Primary Recording International Journal of Arts & Journal of Curatorial Journal of Visual Art
Artists’ Cinema: Distribution and Art Education Memories from Journal of Islamic Communities Studies Practice
Space, Site and Promotion of Edited by Steve Political Violence: Architecture Principal Editor: Editors: Editor:
Screen Alternative Moving Herne, Sue Cox and A Film-maker’s Director and Hamish Fyfe Jim Drobnick & Chris Smith
By Maeve Connolly Image Robert Watts Journey Founding Editor: Jennifer Fisher
ISSN 17571936 ISSN 14702029
By Julia Knight and By Cahal Mohammad Gharipour
ISBN 9781841502465 ISBN 9781841502427 Online ISSN 17571944 ISSN 20455836 Online ISSN 17589185
£19.95, $40 | PB | 2009 | 1 Peter Thomas £19.95, $40 | PB | 2009 | 1 McLaughlin ISSN 20455895 First published in 2009 Online ISSN 20455844 First published in 2001
Readings in Art and Online ISSN 20455909 3 issues per volume First published in 2012 3 issues per volume
ISBN 9781841501574 ISBN 9781841503011
Design Education First published in 2012 3 issues per volume
£19.95, $40 | PB | 2011 | 1 £19.95, $40 | PB | 2010 | 1
2 issues per volume
Research in Art & Robert Frank’s ‘The Searching for Art’s Spatialities: The Metaverse The Moving Image Technoetic Arts Visual Inquiry:
Design Education Americans’: New Publics Geographies of Art Creativity Review & Art Editor: Learning & Teaching
Edited by Richard The Art of Edited by Jeni and Architecture Editors: Elif Ayiter & Journal (MIRAJ) Roy Ascott Art
Hickman Documentary Walwin Edited by Judith Yacov Sharir Founding Editor: ISSN 1477965X Principal Editor:
ISBN 9781841501994 Photography ISBN 9781841503110 Rugg and Craig ISSN 20403550 Catherine Elwes Online ISSN 17589533 G. James Daichendt
£24.95, $50 | HB | 2008 | 1 By Jonathan Day £19.95, $35 | PB | 2010 | 1 Martin Online ISSN 20403569 ISSN 20456298 First published in 2003 ISSN 20455879
Readings in Art and ISBN 9781841503158 ISBN 9781841504681 First published in 2010 Online ISSN 20456301 3 issues per volume Online ISSN 20455887
Design Education £19.95, $40 | PB | 2010 | 1 £29.95, $50 | PB | 2011 | 1 2 issues per volume First published in 2012 First published in 2012
2 issues per volume 3 issues per volume
1 E-book available 39
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