voyageur

The Word is Art

The line between different forms of cultural expressions is small, most of the time smaller than we think. The universities as a site of cultural education and as cultural guards have established their own neat little disciplines with their own definitions of what constitutes Visual Art, Literary Art or Performative Art. Their system includes certain forms in their approaches as well as it excludes certain forms. Most of the time certain forms of work don't find the recognition it deserves-- whether due to the lack of approach or the artwork’s capacity to threaten the boundaries the various disciplines have drawn between each other.

One of the explanations, and that is one most Fine Arts department foster, is that people might not have learned to appreciate certain art. And there is truth to it. Most contemporary art is certainly not part of a popular cultural discourse and we lack the necessary references to decipher it. Nevertheless, when it comes to visual art, we also need to relearn the way we see things. Visual Art is asks us to watch carefully. Through the influence of self-explanatory popular media (i.e. TV), we tent to forget that looking at a work of art is a dialogue between the viewer and the medium. And a dialogue demands time and effort.
The literary boundaries between the written word and its various written forms have been an interest that has been carefully fostered in both my literature and my visual art degree. I have come across some wonderful art projects tonight--known and unknown to me. One of them is my fondness for Cy Twombly.

What fascinates me about Twombly's paintings is their relationship between the written word and its visual image. The closest relationship that comes to mind is the relationship between signifier and sign. The word in Twombly's paintings is at the same time sign and signifier. It is a sign in the sense that it related to a real concept, but it is also a sign in the sense of a new context: the painting. But it also signifies in more than just the two ways. The words on the canvas are written, wiped away and written over again. This process is repeated to the point of indecipherability. The signifier now signifies what cannot be signified anymore. But it questions not only the relationship between signifier, sign and the impossibility of signification, but also calls into question our use of language. How do we use words? At what point becomes a word a cliché? Can we, in the way we use language, communicate at all or do we attempt to do so by constantly overwriting signs? Cy Twombly poses less the question of the impossibility of communication than calls to attention the processes of human communication. Additionally, he points at the relationship between aesthetics and communication. Is the indecipherability due to the focus on the visual impression? Does that mean we give up communicative strategies when we concentrate on aesthetic principles? And if so, what does that imply for word diggers like us? Twombly triggers and consciously plays into a certain curiosity. We still want to know; we still want to make meaning out of the automated writing he uses to fill his canvas. He questions the relationship between our principles of communication, aesthetics, and the conscious and unconscious usage of both. And he does that in a darn beautiful way. In that sense his art becomes communal. Even though it has been created by one individual, it calls into question general principles and engages its viewers in the general act of making meaning-- whether it fails or not *grin* In that sense, the discourse that Twombly establishes is highly communal. And his automatedx writing creates a rhythm that is worthwhile exploring. I even found an art tattoo based on his writing paintings.

http://www.dingdongtwist.org.uk/Vol6/Tattoos/pages/twombly.htm

The second project I came across tonight was a communal project that excited me. It uses a communal principle in this origin but triggers and questions a similar curiosity.

http://postsecret.blogspot.com/

Is that exciting and disturbing at the same time? I am struck by the amount of work and creativity the participating artists have put into the design of each postcard.
And I was going to write about aspects of communal creation, curiosity and emotions in the process of deciphering the cards, the strange notion of intimate one to one sharing this piece creates even though it is a communal project and is publicly posted (would a counter at the bottom add or destroy their message?). But I should stop for tonight and go to bed. Some other time [...] as I miss exploring the visual components of Art. Damn it, someone drag me into a gallery in the next few weeks.

This is for Friends and Family at Home

From Point Grey
by Daryl Hine

Brought up as I was to ask of the weather
Whether it was fair or overcast,
Here, at least, it is a pretty morning,

The first fine day as I am told in month.
I took a path that led down on the beach,
Reflecting as I went on landscape, sex and weather.

I met a welcome wonderful enough
To exorcise the educated ghost
Within me. No, this country is not haunted,
Only the rain makes spectres of the mountains.

[...]

Spaziergang an Victorias Kueste und auf Salt Spring