Art – noun:
The expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power.
This, according to the Oxford Dictionary, is what art is ‘supposed’ to be defined as. Art is perceived to possess creativity, ambiguity and prestige within our society. Having visited the Usher gallery, I looked around at an array of different pieces of art, each with different hidden stories, interpretations and inspirations. No one piece was the same. However, what they did share in common was a general sense of appreciation for the artist’s work. There are clear instructions which tell you to not touch the pieces, you must behave in a respectful manner whilst visiting the gallery and even, in some cases, there were barriers protecting the art. This led me to think: is all art appreciated with such prestige?
Banksy recently uploaded this video where his art was sold by an old man on a stall in New York selling pieces which were worth thousands. The end of the day saw mere sales of $420. The majority of the pedestrians simply walked past without giving the pieces a second glance, would this have been the same if these same very canvasses were placed in a gallery?
It is the site of which art is displayed and the name of the artist that sadly taints people’s opinion on different pieces of work. In many ways, this was a cultural experiment taken out by Banksy leading me to the question: how do we constitute what is art? (What is worthy of becoming art?) Is art something only for the upper classes? Is art grand multi-million pound sculptures? Or is art having athletes run through the Tate Modern with Martin Creed’s Work No. 850? The answer is that art should have no limitations and should be universally appreciated and interpreted, regardless of the place in which the work is shown or who has made it.
Banksy’s experiment fundamentally exploits and confronts the values of commodified art by eliminating the conventional role of the ‘artist’ as producer when exchanging pieces of his work as he remains anonymous. Not only does he challenge what art is, but he also foments the discussion of cultural hegemony. The destruction of the role as producer of the art allows a political statement of art culture to be formed. This idea of the exchange and housing of art is something that is evidently explored within most art galleries, including the Usher, and is something that we will consider when proceeding to create our own performance.
Having first explored the Usher gallery, we were particularly engaged to certain pieces of art which channel the realms of what is accepted into the industry as artistic greatness. One common theme that seemed to recur amongst the pieces of work was the idea of rubbish and how it can be presented as art. For example, the grand chandelier made of broken pieces of glass juxtaposes grand beauty with something which is deemed as broken and useless. The notion of what society deems as rubbish is something that we are now going to explore further in our investigation as we attempt to create our work.
Works Cited:
Banksy (2013) Art Sale. [online video] Available from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zX54DIpacNE [Accessed 03/02/14].