Old stuff
MISCELLANY (June 05)1.
An artist is first a human being like everyone else, with anxieties, insecurities, problems, fears etc. I am first a human being, then an artist.
Joseph Beuys is right when he says everyone is an artist. Perhaps it should be ‘everyone can be an artist’. We need to demystify the artist because knowledge is transparent and open to criticism. Art is no longer ‘high culture’ in current times. The artist is just like everyone else, except he does creative work.
Art is an expression of one’s thoughts, feelings, and knowledge. The journey of art is about finding one’s own voice. One must study traditions and art history, as well as penetrate into life and nature.
2.
Art is not easy. Having struggled for years, I am still as one finding my way in the dark. I am still as one finding my way out of the desert, which may take forty years.
I have yet understood drawing and painting, and there are still conceptual art, installation art, new media art, and postmodern art in general.
Nevertheless, I also agree with Joseph Beuys when he says ‘One should not question if something has been done in intellectual or art history…’ I have forgotten the latter part of the statement, but I believe it has something to do with expression or truth or reality.
3.
One must be open to new ideas and knowledge.
Art problematises. Art does not offer solutions.
New knowledge or expression does not arise from a vacuum. It is founded on old knowledge and traditions. Then, one internalizes the old knowledge, combines it with one’s feelings, prior knowledge and experiences, and generates new knowledge and expression.
In this time, what we should do now is to assimilate and internalize. We must critically examine what has been done, and arrive at our modes of expression.
4.
Thinking and doing must develop together. Thoughts without actions are mere ideas in the air, like castles in the air. Action without thought is like a factory line.
Eventually, everything is about new ways of doing and seeing things.
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