Traditions, like religion, have tethered and bolstered, chained and comforted, justified oppression and provided models of discernment and inspiration against structure and order.
Art has permeated societies, imbuing magic, imparting knowledge. Art is a language. It has been used to manipulate for commerce in advertising, to galvanize social movements, to elucidate complexities. Art has re-enacted traditions and intentions.
I am drawn to illuminating lapses in social and societal sanity and order; and offering complexities in beauty-ugliness and ugliness-beauty. Whether or not it is “valid,” it is significant to me, and that is important. I am responsible to myself for living authentically. I choose to be responsible as a member of society by expressing authenticity in art forms that speak to me. The individual voice is important. My voice is important with its ways to differently express and communicate to myself, to others.
In arts-making, the forms as well as their history are important to understand for foundation. I work in communication design (visual, text, and auditory) with a visceral approach - consumed by elements, re-generating them incorporating complexities for clarity and simplicity.
My “art as action” (using Filippo Tommaso Marinetti’s term (Goldberg 94)) employs dynamic self-awareness and will to vulnerability. I choose to free the chains of the past - incinerate them, de-construct them, learn from them. From this foundation, new concepts based on truth and experiences can generate. This allows for deeper integration of what has gone before and how it has impacted.
The post-industrial age continues the onslaught of sound and mechanical inventions and inventiveness. The digital age onslaught overwhelms with sounds and images. It enlivens and provides new venues and vehicles for expression and innovation. For arts-making, the digital age increases access to tools of technology for exploration, yet it invites quantity in connecting without depth, without quality. It compresses sound, replicates images and text too easily, renders passive, and anonymous. In response, I propose a thoughtful approach embracing reflection:
With a will to elevate humanness, my goal in performance is to enliven individual voice and expression. The audience participates and expresses in performance as co-creators, collaborators of experiences for mutual benefit.
History and historical communicate. Gesture, tone, color have the potential to forge connections. Just as learning technologies and techniques, art theories expand and strengthen capacity to express. My arts practice evolves with learning.
The will to evolve involves collaboration with other thinkers and artists. I choose to support others in their creations and develop in enterprise, creatively using business practices as a tool. Increased access to channels of distribution makes protecting intellectual property tantamount.
Awareness of past and current trends, events, works of art, and commerce assist in gaining perspective. Based on emotional and psychological needs, my arts-making is to share expression and messages in the spirit of forging connection, promoting self-awareness, authenticity, and vulnerability as a position of strength.
Works Cited
Goldberg, RoseLee. Performance Art: From Futurism to the Present. 3rd ed. London ; New York: Thames & Hudson, 2011. Print. Thames & Hudson World of Art.