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The gift of the artist is to express ideas that are in the air of a particular time, but have not yet been articulated. So it is inevitable that a cultural uphe
by wstepp 12y ago
The gift of the artist is to express ideas that are in the air of a particular time, but have not yet been articulated. So it is inevitable that a cultural upheaval would have its origins in the art of a culture, even if it is not easy to draw a direct corollary. The art does not effect the change, except maybe in exceptional circumstances, it only expresses what is already in the air.
You don't have to look very hard to find examples. Take The Wire in the United States, which is all about the futility of the War on Drugs and the harm it causes to its citizens. Only now are we are seeing the first steps of decriminalization in states like Colorado, Oregon, and Washington. Did The Wire effect that change? No, probably not. But it did articulate the attitude long before it manifested in policy.
- bhrgunatha 12y agoI think you've expressed my question a bit clearer than I did. Does art cause change or reflect change that is occurring? I think it's probably more like a feedback loop rather than a simple cause and effect with both reflecting and reacting to the other.
- alexqgb 12y agoArt is often where change first appears, but it's also where change starts to figure itself out; to find a syntax and a vocabulary. In this sense, it's more than just a reflection, it's an agent - which is not to say it's causing the change, so much as channeling it. It can also go the other way by leading us away from things. 1984 is the classic example of a work that gave people the tools - in the form of language and images - that they could use to describe all manner of disturbing developments that could take place within heavily centralized, industrialized nations. Dystopian visions are now so deeply engrained that any efforts to move government in that direction meet an immediately negative response. Like the immune system, they don't block everything. But they block enough for us to know we'd be in very bad shape without them.
- Symbiote 12y agoFor anyone in London, it's worth seeing the Disobedient Objects exhibition at the V&A, "this exhibition is the first to examine the powerful role of objects in movements for social change. It demonstrates how political activism drives a wealth of design ingenuity and collective creativity that defy standard definitions of art and design." It's free. http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/exhibitions/disobedient-objects/ http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/exhibitions/disobedient-objects...