brief notes on contemporary arts

Today, the work of an artist is to lift a personal interpretation from culture. We no longer have the position of artist (creative) and non-artist (the public).

Today we are, generally speaking, technologically, educationally and culturally advanced. Culture is created, not necessarily by artists, but by advertising, educated, literate individuals expressing themselves over the Internet, through communications, fashion, sophisticated jobs or leisure pursuits. This list is not exhaustive!

The artist, to survive, can no longer claim to be an educated or intellectual elite, certaintly not in the same way that he/she could. All an artist can do is reflect this rich, creative culture (of the public) back to the public, in an individual way.

It is this personal expression that is important; the meaningfulness or meaninglessness of culture is not as important as the artists ability to soak up culture and express it in an individual manner.

This does not mean that artistic works should not be qualitative, but the days of creating "a crap art for a valueless culture" *, should now be over.

Art must lose it's self obsession, a hang up from the Romantic era - the artist as a great genius. Art is now about individual, personal expression, a reflection of a culture that is already present. Art will then allow artists to express humanness - the intrinsic position of being human, the inevitableness of individuality and creativity.

By this method, art(s) will engage with culture and the public, not alienating the public through over-complication or through private battles between art and academic criticism or the gullibility of the public. The practice of exhibiting bricks in the corner of a gallery, or marketing tins of shit at the public, do not engage the public, reveal "in-fighting" between artists and critics and the divide between artists and the public.

This suggests that art is in a state of uncertainty (Postmodernism), with no clear value, worth, purpose or aesthetic.

This can change, to deliver an art that can engage the public and be a satisfying practice for artists.

With this, we realise that the artist differs from the public, not by being a creative who stands miles above the masses, but by being a normal person, with a more developed imagination and who has the required skills to communicate his imagination to the public. He/She does this by reflecting an already existent culture, back to the public in an individual way.

* by this I mean art-forms that are purposely unartistic, with the purpose of reflecting a culture that is valueless. For example: Duchamp's urinal. This had a relevance when Duchamp exhibited it, however art is still critical of the public and critical understanding of art. 100 years after Duchamp, et al. I would have hoped that art could find different subject matter. "Crap art" can actually be taken literally - the use of excrement and piss in art works has been fairly common over the last 2 or 3 decades.