'An artist is a man who digests his own subjective impressions and knows how to find a general objective meaning in them, and how to express them in a simple form.'

- Gorky

The above translates roughly to; an artist is someone who finds ways to express their ideas in ways that convey meanings to others.

‘As an artist, my task is not simply to make political art but to make art politically.’

- Hirchorn

Here, making art ‘politically’ means knowing full well the capacity of art as a communicating, engaging and negotiating medium. To make art politically, in this sense, is to take on a sense of responsibility for practicing in the particular setting chosen by the artist for whatever cultural or social reasons outside the artist’s own (self proclaimed) unique mind.

Why, you ask?

Because- good sirs (no you can't be a madam), the whole POINT which has obviously gone amiss in the 'high ground' ideals of Modernism (if you don’t mind me saying) is-

‘to reconnect the meanings of art to the meanings of lived experience. This is not about creating or simply expanding audience. It is about transforming consumers into participants or, more usefully, creating the conditions where consumers can transform themselves into participants in the culture and therefore in society. It is about art as vitamin rather than tranquiliser!’

-McGonagle

Har har har.

Hence I have been arguing and probably will be arguing till my last breath, thanks to the preposterous lack of any common sense or even the sparing of a brain cell thereof amidst my fellow community members, to realise that art HAS-

‘to be understood, as it has functioned over the longer term anyway, not as a decorative antidote to reality but as one means of comprehending and transforming that reality.’

-Mcgonagle

Stop drawing pretty patterns on the pink elephant. It has not and will not leave the room. Until you construct a door big enough in your tiny occupied minds for it to take its leave.

You want a sense of identity that transcends culture, race and country? Then trust those among you that dare to dream. Trust the artists. Trust the (other class of) brainiacs. Trust the lunatics. Trust yourselves.

'Creative practice, art- is a means of expression. Being able to express ourselves and our opinions freely is part of what it means to be a citizen. And a healthy society depends on it.'
-Demos


Please promise to think about it. And remember, every time you say you don't believe in Artists, all the sparkling dreams of a little painter, sculptor, poet or bard in a town or street not so far from you shrivel up and die an untimely death.


Wasalaam ^_~