Wow....its been... *looks at previous journal entry* ...over 6 months since my last update! I'll admit that art has not been much of a priority the last few months with traveling and working on various sustainability and community projects. But the annual Sasol New Signatures exhibition is coming up, so I gotta get my ass into gear for that.

This got me thinking about the drunken slur that is Contemporary Art. Why do I call it a drunken slur? Quite simply, the manner in which we use our voice [art] has become so removed from the average person that nobody actually understands what we are on about.
Let me explain this further. Contemporary artists usually have some or other message they want to deliver about various pressing issues, from politics, to poverty, to global warming, and generally we want people to be moved in such a way that they do something to change the situation, or at the very least, become more aware of the issue. This is all good and well....but when looking at some of the work that's produced, unless you come from an artistic background and have some sort of awareness on the issue the piece is responding to, you probably wont know what the heck the piece is about. Sure you would be able to have your own interpretation about it, but chances are it will be so far off from what the artist intended. The open-ended nature [in terms of interpretation] is very much a post modern phenomenon (all thanks to Duchamp), and while it does cause people to interrogate both the artwork and its relevance to contemporary society, only a small group will really understand the work [elitist]. This is because we are taught to be more and more subtle, using symbols and signifiers that are far from obvious. So the work requires considerable thought when attempting to interpret it, in a time when the average person doesnt particularly like to think for themselves. Society likes things to be laid out nice and easy for them. Creating such 'deep' works really isnt going to have much of an impact on these people if too much is required of them to understand it.

SO WHAT IS THE POINT OF USING YOUR VOICE IN SUCH A WAY THAT ONLY A SELECT FEW UNDERSTAND.
Pehaps the time for subtlety and open-endedness has come to an end... If art is to be a tool for social change then it needs to be used in such a way that it both appeals to the masses and is easy for them to understand.

Hope this made sense to someone other than myself..LOL
Over and Out