Visitor Holding A Hess Sculpture http://www.hessgunshow.com/images/emvg5vxmewri12qavwz2vbqz99n3h7
Expanding My View of “The Arts”: The Journey Continues
Americans in general are constantly seeking entertainment through sports, movies, television series and national best-seller novels, but the “cultured” also seek entertainment and enlightenment through “the arts.” “The arts” conjures up images of art galleries, concerts, and various performances in theatres. This best characterizes my view of art before this course. Very quickly, when faced with defining art and experiencing art from other cultures, my view began to expand.
My journey began with an exploration of “let’s find art!” The assignment required searching the internet using “creative search headings” and focusing on some terms that are not generally associated with art. I chose “gun art” and “disaster art” since I felt that neither of those terms had much to do with art. I actually found many interesting art pieces to choose from and just like that my view of art had broadened some! As I looked at the diversity of the examples from my classmates, I saw potato art, accidental art examples, unorthodox art made from spilled coffee and trash art where the artist used discarded items, painted landscape scenes on them, and displayed the art against the actual landscape. I also saw bizarre art that displayed Klansman and information about a controversial performance art piece titled, “Shoot.” In this performance art piece, the artist was shot by his friend in the arm in front of a private audience. I left this module with a firm understanding that “art” does not have rigid boundaries about what can be defined as art – it is a very “open concept.” The next part of the journey took me on an exploration of African dance movements and my own.
As a person who has engaged in African dance for most of my life, I was initially embarrassed that I had not identified the Africanist influences in American ballet before this course. However, as I watched the videos and read Stripping the Emperor, I saw that the African moves are deeply embedded in American ballet and are actually signature features of it. Many of my classmates discussed this as cultural appropriation, which it is, but I had chosen to celebrate these influences since it was a part of African culture in the U.S. that American slavery did not destroy. The reading discussed the human body as a “polyrhythmic tool for both the dancer and drummer” and the dance is “always accompanied by by foot sounds, hand clapping, by rhythm producing shells, seed pods or sticks attached to costumes, and/or by any number of drummers.” There is always a rhythm and the dances are not learned in the traditional sense. Professor Gee noted that African dancing is learned your whole life by seeing it from birth – it is like breathing. In some sense, my lifelong exposure to African dance made me less appreciative of it as an art form because it was just my way of moving. This became more evident as I attempted affordance based movements in week three.
Week three of the course provided me a rare opportunity to ask my body “what’s next?” After “roaming” and then “convening” with my husband, I concluded that the experience enriched my understanding of myself, my surroundings, and gave me an appreciation for the beat of my heart and my husband’s heart. Both heartbeats inspired movement that I would call dancing. I especially found it interesting that I unconsciously looked for the rhythm and beat in my surroundings from heartbeats, blinking and dogs barking in the night. The exploration of African dance and then my own movements was a very comfortable part of the journey for me, but I was equally excited to integrate the arts from other cultures in my expanded view of “the arts.”
Recently, many of my friends have taken trips to Ireland and though it looked like a beautiful country, it was not on my list of “must see” destinations. Week four explored Irish fairytales and week five introduced Irish music. By the end of week five, I was encouraging a friend to consider Ireland for her son’s graduation trip next year since he is an avid musician. It is now on my list of countries to visit as well. I gained a full appreciation of Irish fairytales as a form of art. I would not have characterized it as such before this course.
The reading was intense and required repeated readings, but I left each tale with a lesson for life. The ambiguity of place and time also made the tales personally relevant to each reader. My favorite was The Man Who Had No Story because the interpretations varied widely among my group. Some centered on the fact that we all have hidden abilities within us, but I considered it to be a story about the danger of desperation. It can lead you to a place that you do not want to be. The rich, expressive language used and the interpretive quality of the stories solidified its status as an art form from my viewpoint. The traditional Irish music that I chose to explore had many of the same elements as the fairytales.
Irish music’s influence on mainstream music was unknown to me prior to this course. The readings discuss the distinct qualities of Irish music. “Each traditional tune operates as a kind of “map” or outline of the melody. That’s the bare bones. It is up to the musicians to put flesh on the bones through variation and ornamentation.” During the interview with classically trained Greensboro musician, Scott Walker, he noted that he now prefers traditional Irish music to classical European music because Irish music is the “music of the people”. At the time of the recording, Walker had been playing Irish music for fifteen years. He stated that he loved the “sound of it,” the “intricacy of it” and found it to be “extremely challenging.” He also admired its “depth” and found the fiddle to be “fun to play.” His true admiration for Irish music as an art form, and his willingness to learn the history of the people and pay homage to them, kept his intentions pure. Consequently, there were no murmurs of cultural appropriation during our discussions. As I listened to the Irish music that I chose, and the music of my classmates, my appreciation for Irish music as an art form deepened. I even have the versions of Finnegan’s Wake in my regular rotation of driving music. There’s nothing like a lively fiddle, bagpipes and tin whistle to make you feel awake and alive in the morning!
Week six explored Mexico, the country for this course that is closest to us, but whose art I knew the least about. The movie, Frida, and the readings and discussions about Dia de Muertos provided a perfect backdrop for understanding Mexican art. During an interview Leal stated that she doubts if any visual artist in Mexico has not been influenced by the Dia de Muertos. Frida’s artwork is better understood when you understand Dia de Muertos and her tortured life. Without that background knowledge, her works seem dark and very morbid. An exploration of the art themes and Mexican folk art themes in Frida led me to a new awareness of Mexican art and I wondered how it has escaped the widespread cultural appropriation that we have seen with African dance and Irish music.
It was interesting, but refreshing to me that I had no knowledge of Dia de Muertos prior to this course. It gave me hope that it is still quite authentic and not tainted by commercialism. It was interesting to note the differences in opinions about Dia de Muertos from the interviewees in Mexico that are featured in The Skeleton at the Feast: The Day of the Dead in Mexico and the interviews with Laura Ramberg and Elizabeth Leal. Ramberg raised 5 children in the Midwest, missed Halloween when they grew up, and decided to create a Day of the Dead altar in her home. She found it to be “enjoyable” and “honored the people that she knew who were dead.” It was an emotional experience for her and she stated that everyone either knows someone who is dead or will know someone who dies, so it is the “most universal” holiday. Her private celebration was “fun” and led to a trip to Mexico for the holiday. She highly recommends that others “try it” and saw it as an “active way of remembering” those who have died. While she demonstrated some appreciation for the culture, her attitude seemed cavalier and I hope that others do not “try it” when they miss Halloween with their children. I was insulted by her casualness for a holiday that is built on reverence and honoring the dead in a solemn and respectful way. She even insisted that it be used to honor dead pets. As I learned with the next lesson, a person’s relationship with non-human animals can create perceptions that are very different.
Week seven was the most challenging of the course as “botched taxidermy” was examined as an art form. Understanding this art required me to explore my lifelong relationships with non-human animals and the affect that this had on my ability to deem “botched taxidermy” as art. In the end, I concluded that botched taxidermy is art because the work that is created causes the viewer to experience new thoughts and emotions. Whether it is a deeper appreciation for the life of non-human animals as gained by Singer’s piece, or confusion and revulsion from Grunfeld’s piece, it is still provoking a reaction. Many of the pieces viewed in week seven changed my view of art because they required that I look for the function/purpose of the art pieces as justification of its existence.
It was appropriate that we began the journey broadening the definition and in the last week of the course looking at criticisms of this “everything is art” mindset. Kyle Chayka of Hyperallergic says, “The standard cliché summary of modern (and contemporary) art is that now, anything is art [ . . .] After so long, we’ve started to run out of things to suddenly deem ‘art.’ It was interesting to re-examine the works from week one after reading about the difference between socially engaging art and art that is purely aesthetic.
During week one, my search for “gun art” had led me to an exhibition by David Hess. The “guns” are made from found objects such as old guitars, sneakers and pipes. An added value of the artwork by David Hess lies in his chosen method of display. The “guns” are displayed on tarps and viewers are encouraged to “try on” the guns. Some people smile for pictures when holding the “guns” and then wonder why they are smiling. I can imagine having a similar, conflicted response. This exhibit stretches the viewer beyond “wow, he used old stuff to make guns” to confronting the commonality of guns in our country and our acceptance of violence as a norm. I now know that the art that I searched for and found in week one is socially engaged art, but I also know that art can take many forms and the value is personal to each viewer. I look forward to continuing my journey.