The Role of Art

I've been reading Ian Lowe's A Voice of Reason. I got to the bit about the role of art in societal change - the questions bubble over - do we lead or follow? Give space to reflect or inspire to action? Is that so much wishful thinking or is it the reason that art of an overthrown regime is despised and destroyed? Following that - is vandalism of publicly accessible art an outright expression of alienation?

I remember talking to some school children - they were at the age when they are at their brightest and most inquiring: just before puberty hits and intellect takes a long ride in the back seat. I pointed out that we choose our purchases according to their "coolness" rather than optimal function - an iPod may not be the best functioning MP3 player but no cool kid would be seen with anything else - that we recognise the previous year's model by the line and shape and choose the latest. This is even though most of us couldn't say why the curve or the crisp line looks sooo well - 2007. The process of industrial design is on the cusp of form following function or form describing function or form enabling function or perhaps form camouflaging function and good old brand recognition. It certainly helps to sell stuff and can make or break a product. And sculpture is the precursor skill to defining those forms.

I discussed with the children the sculptures telling their story in form and giving clues with their titles (or lack of title).

Yes I build things to communicate ideas that are best conveyed with form - sometimes because they are funny, sometimes frightening, maybe beautiful or sometimes just because I can. Do I do this in a certain way because my perceptions and skills are part of the big matrix of right here, right now?

And what earthly use is it to make stuff that needs dusting or sits in the garden and provides a framework for spiders to spin their webs from? Why do people want it? And I guess that is where the answer lies - we exercise our capacity for empathy when we look at art and imagine: when we sense the changing light and shade that alters form and perception and takes us out of the narrow focus of getting from one minute to the next. A little bit like practising love.

Insurance

I notice in the news online that there is a move to have states take out disaster insurance http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/02/20/3143554.htm?section=justin. That should be an interesting exercise. I thought the state stepped in and indemnified when it came to the uninsurable - your taxes at work as the ultimate insurance. Still I don't have a problem with letting the cold hard actuarial facts drive some management decisions in the state: it was the Fire Underwriters Board who invented and funded the Fire Brigades. It's cheaper to fight fires than have them go to conflagrations and take out all the insured property at once. And I suspect that insurance companies didn't wait for the ultimate proof of the link between smoking and lung cancer - the risk of going broke makes a company wondrously aware of reasonable cause and effect and the balance of risk. So I suspect that the insurers are going to force whole countries to take steps on sustainability on the basis of scientific reason and the bottom line rather than wait to be absolutely 100% certain of the mechanism that is driving this uncontrolled experiment with climate.

All the rain for February...

The forecast said we'd get all the rain for February in one go.... now I believe them. I wonder what we'll have when the La Nina has finished?

At Herring Island

"Frankly, My Dear" from the back

Well at last the work was finished and taken to Herring island. It was a bit hilarious setting up in the rain - there was a wiping brigade to dry the work before it was placed in the gallery - then the weather cheered up and the opening was fine and sunny. The people in Queensland haven't been so lucky - and luck it is - we have no way of knowing if the rain will fall on Melbourne's catchments next.

Well I polished the work and polished the words to go with her - this time the woman is handing out the famous line. But we all know it's a construct and nothing is ever that easy:

"Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn"

So I wrote: 

"Frankly, My Dear"

As Rhett Butler's famous words mark the denouement of his obsession with Scarlett O'Hara and the Southern Belle, so "Gone with the Wind" describes the end of that era of flawed beauty built on slavery. I wonder what images will be created, in fifty or a hundred years time, to reflect on the end of this era of extravagance built on the myth of cheap, plentiful oil.

John waiting for the punt at Herring Island

My dad came and visited the show - we had a good discussion about the support work for the figure - a difference of opinion or interpretation? - all good. And am I lucky to have parents who can disagree with me on the intellectual and artistic level? Most definitely yes.

New Year's Rant

Instead of making New Year's resolutions that I won't keep, I'm telling the world of humans a few of my home truths - knowing that no one is listening - right!

I reckon so called free trade agreements should be negotiated in an international court of law with independent arbitration. There is too much power/economic imbalance and most of what I understand of these agreements is that they look remarkably like protection rackets operated by stand over merchants. Even if it's just an appearance this needs to be amended.

Barnevelder chicks settling into their new home

The priority of all nations is first to have people involved in communal activity for mutual benefit - we call it "work" - but I think the concept needs to encompass what we do within our families - growing vegetables and raising children as well as the voluntary work that holds the community together - the running of sporting clubs, the scouts, the choral societies.... there used to be enough spare capacity in society for these things to be well run - now it isn't just the climate of litigation that is killing these groups but the emphasis on productivity and efficiency (and consumption) that has taken away our initiative and our spare time - after all that, then add in the economic "keeping the wheels of industry turning". Trade is a communal activity whether it's between individuals or nations: there is not only the benefit of the exchange of goods and services but the cultural interaction that permits trade to happen. If people believe that there is exploitation by one side or the other the cultural "infrastructure" is damaged and the exchange is flawed.

work in progress

Then the next thing I want to fix on this little rant is the "war on drugs" - what did the drugs ever do to deserve this effort? We have a medical problem - it needs to be sorted out and the victims given back their lives. Why not address it in the same manners that eliminated small pox or reduced the black death to a mythological memory? What is a war but boys playing with their sparklers and causing a lot of death and destruction? We can do better than that.

Now it's time to go back to the studio and get on with the work - the piece for the Herring Island exhibition is slowly taking shape - the thoughts materialising in the form. Sometimes I get lost in the process - sometimes I watch myself working - sometimes I use the more mechanical aspects to have some thinking time.