Art: Is it all me, me, me?

If your looking for an answer to this question, I will tell you now. I do not know for sure but I can offer an opinion. We would know the answer if we could figure out an even deeper routed philosophical question. Is there such a thing as a selfless act?

I’m not even going to bother with ins and outs of that specific question. Bringing it back to question in the title, the answer is NO. Art is not all me, me, me. Though many artists would have you believe otherwise.

An artists work (an embodiment of their ideas) are in my opinion, a balance between the internal (self, ego, interpretation, opinion etc) and the external (everything else in the world that influences us). This balance may vary dramatically.

Even the best attempts at making selfless work still have some sort of artistic input. The Boyle family still chose darts to throw, a map to hit and the medium of casting.

Social and political art is by nature, swaying towards the external. Of course there will always be the influence of the internal and critics will often use this to undermine social, political or protest art (as well as other criticism), but what is prevalent is that not all art is me, me, me. There are people out there making art on the basis that they want to help influence mindsets or make a comment that goes beyond exploring ‘me’, some existential question or art in itself.

Now I want to make, encourage and spread social, political, ‘external’ art (and media) and maybe the subconscious part of me knows that it’s because I want to feel good in myself at some level, but I know I do so because I feel the world needs to see an alternative side other than being presented everyday. Though this could be argued against purely on number of ‘I’s in the previous sentence. Or even more so, based on the fact that I linked my own blog when mentioning the Boyle family.

What I do know is I will continue to show/make etc work based on the influence of others on me and then hopefully me on others so that in the end people can make their own, democratic decisions. And that sentence include a few “me’s” and “I’s” but I will still argue that it is not all me, me, me. Make up your own mind and come to your own conclusions.

In doing so you might to browse some social or political art.

http://www.socialpoliticalart.com/

Or if your thinking it doesn’t matter what the topic is because its all about taste, genre, style, medium etc… then I may do a write up about that. On MY blog 😉

 

Which I have now done: http://bobwinton.wordpress.com/2012/05/02/specific-to-my-own-work/

About

In a profit driven world, how do we know what is in our best interest?

SolRevoEvo’s main interest is to use the arts and media to project and spread alternative ideas. It is driven by ideas that are People based.

Topics addressed could include the arts, government, philosophy, science, social issues, environment, war, that old chestnut. Also anything else brought to the table that could contribute to addressing issues in a society that needs it.

We want you to be involved, even if it is just by liking our Facebook group, where new topics and work will be posted. From this you can give your opinion or just be updated with new work and ideas floating around SolRevoEvo.

In a bid to show people the other side of the coin, as well as utilizing the new sharing power of the internet, our tactics may include pamphlets, events, exhibitions, protests, graffiti, music, film, sculpture… and the list goes on depending on who gets involved. Whether creating these or just covering the topics, we want to unite groups, companies and People from the arts and media who focus the questioning of our society and all its features.

If you have any comments, want to be involved or think you can help in any way let us know. We are local to Edinburgh so if you are in the area definitely get involved, if not, get involved anyway.