Thoughts on art No. 1: The Turner Prize, The Stuckists and what do we want from artists.

“Art is worth the consciousness that it raises.”

The Turner prize stinks say the Stuckists.  

The Turner prize is great say others.

What do they, and we, want from our artists and their art?

‘Thoughts on art No. 1’ – in a nutshell:  

Just what do we expect from an artist?  What do we have the right to expect?  Are we asking too much?  

In a world of increasing billions of communications isn’t an artist that informs you just a little bit more about

a) being human,

b) his/her being human

c)  or being human in the world with others worth his/her salt?

This is another way of saying that art is worth the consciousness that it raises.

For example two artists help me experience space differently and think about it differently are  Rachel Whiteread and Antony Gormley

 

'Ghost by Rachel Whiteread.  The presence of a room without the room, a memory that fills a space such a room occupied.
'Ghost by Rachel Whiteread. The presence of a room without the room, a memory that fills a space such a room occupied. WikiPedia

 

 

Space, (ghosts of) people in space and the inner space of people.
Antony Gormley's 'Domain Field' Space, (ghosts of) people in space and the inner space of people - and memory.

 SOURCE

 

Of course the two artists I chose are somewhere between very good and great.  But even if they were students showing just single pieces of their work it wouldn’t make any difference.

The gain was in and  around –  ‘space – being human – memory’ – i.e. a deepening and widening of consciousness. 

Whiteread and Gormley –  are both important to me for reasons other than  ‘space – being human – memory‘ but just for extending, deeping, enjoying the resonances of that area, “Thanks – many, many thanks –  I’m so glad I came across you.”


The art of spirit 1 – art as quintessentially spiritual experience

Antony Gormley with his 'Asian Field' made over five days in collaboration with 300 villagers in Xianxian in China
Antony Gormley with his ‘Asian Field made over five days in collaboration with 300 villagers in Xianxian in China

Art as quintessentially spiritual experience

I want to present a range of artists who mean a lot to me – in the context of a working definition of art, and the view that both the making of art and aesthetic experience are essentially one and the same as mystical experience.

Art is culturally, and personally, significant meaning, skilfully encodedin an affecting, sensuous medium.
(RP’s working definition  – after a definition by Richard Anderson quoted in Freeland (2001 p. 77))

All art is about movement of the human spirit.  Human spirit as heart-mind – ‘xin’ in Chinese.

The idea of ‘heart-mind’ for the singleness of the interiority of inner experience, as opposed to heart and mind as two mythical inner organs, which is the bifurcation of the human spirit that the Age of Reason has left us with, removes any need to argue for or against ‘conceptual art’.  Hoorayyyyy!

I can now love both art that is labelled ‘conceptual’ and that which isn’t, and with luck I get some sensuality, cultural references, significant personal meaning-making and skilfull encoding!

There are a range of reasons for suggesting that both the making of art and aesthetic experience are essentially one and the same as mystical experience. Here are three;

1) Art that really works for you takes you out of yourself – it creates a unitive experience.

2) The making of art mostly involves engagement that is beyond language and the conceptual.

3) The conceptual is stimulated by the experience but can never adequately render or re-present the creative or aesthetic experience.

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One artist that gives me ‘the full set’ – sensuality, cultural references, significant personal meaning-making and skilfull encoding and the qualities of the spiritual or mystical etc. –  is Antony Gormley.

The Asian Field (photo above) is, quite appropriately, much larger than the ‘Field’ I saw in the Tullie gallery in Carlisle.  The impact of setting eyes on all of the figures staring up at me was a force-field of heart-mind.  Reflection afterwards is endless.

His genius has developed art that is;

Transcendent

Universalist

Community generated and community-generating.

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Source and article on Asian Field HERE