A Concise Cosmology of Art
The artist: Throughout her/his life the artist continually draws in meaning through life experience. The business of art, then, becomes the reworking, reinterpretation and reformulation of that meaning through the artist's conscious and pre-conscious mind, intuition and craft into an artistic image. That image then returns meaning to the world of experience to contribute richness to the lives of others. In this sense, the artist is a living torus of meaning. The art image: It's the spectator's toroidal window from their own world through to the artist's world....which is, in fact, the same world as their own. The art gallery: Extending this reasoning, the conclusion is probably apparent.
The word 'image' Image: [c.1200 - Middle English, from Old French, "image, likeness; figure, drawing, portrait, reflection; statue," earlier 'imagene' (11c.), from Latin 'imago,' 'imaginem,' "copy, statue, picture," figuratively "idea, appearance, piece of statuary; artificial representation that looks like a person or thing," from stem of 'imitari,' "to copy, imitate."] Image: A concrete representation, as in visual, plastic or conceptual art, literature, poetry, movement or music, that is expressive or evocative of something else. The conceptual foundation: The creation and witnessing of imagery (or of any form of art, for that matter), regardless of how it's been done, is an exercise in shamanistic ritual. And, intended that way consciously or not, it will have the same effect. For our purposes, the word 'image,' in a discussion of art, can be validly used to refer not just to the visual arts, but to all the arts. And so, we will use it that way. In the visual arts image generally refers to an individual work, though in the case of collage, assembled sculpture, works comprised of multiple panels or sculptural objects, the overall image is actually a collection of individual objects forming a whole. In poetry, a work is an assembly of individual images. While in music a piece is a succession of emotional and sometimes verbal images. In dance, many flowing images are strung together to form a whole In cinema the same is even more obviously true. And, given that the whole of any of these non-visual creations cannot be said to exist without any of the parts, the whole can also be thought to comprise an image in the mind. Art is, then, a multiplicity of toroids of meaning. Let's also keep in mind, incidentally, that the gravity (import) of the image is always of greater importance than are - however highly regarded or seemingly inelegant - the tools used in its making, or the materials of which it's made. The means of the production of a sensed image may be almost entirely irrelevant, and to become preoccupied with the means of production may seriously distract from the challenge of engaging the range of its possible meanings and implications - not to mention the spectator pleasures of inquiry and discovery.
Representational or Non-objective: What's in the image? Representational art is descriptive. And finally, since you are the world, and the world is you (toroidally speaking), the significances you find in any work of art - whether intended by the artist or not - will ultimately - whether you know it or not - be what you've brought with you. |
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