wayvy weekly //// [what is art?]

I know, I know. It seems like an obvious, if not stupid question, right? Everybody knows what art is, or they at least should. We all know there are museums with their halls chalked full of beautiful Renaissance and Baroque paintings, subversive sculptures such as Fountain by Marcel Duchamp and the playful yet emotionally charged works from Basquiat, Haring and Pollock.

Untitled 1981 & 1982 by Jean Michel Basquiat

Fountain by Marcel Duchamp

Convergence by Jackson Pollock

The conversation about Pollock being a CIA industry plant to promote American freedoms and self-expression is a topic for another day. However, even within that sentence we can see that the military powers inherently understand the power of art and of expression as a representation of self, society and as a means to further their own goals, employing it as a vehicle. We can see the same history within film and Hollywood, where its roots stem from social engineering and co-opting narratives and thought patterns. Widely considered to be the first Hollywood film, Birth of a Nation follows this mold to the T, rewriting history and playing a massive part in the race relations of America today. So, what does any of this have to do with art?

Well, in the same way that a car is not Physics or Engineering in of itself, but a manifestation of the possibilities enabled by a disciplined study and application of the field, I propose art occupies a similar space. A movie, a painting, a sculpture in of themselves are not art, rather the products created by a dedication TO art. During a conversation I was having with my mother recently, she said “I thought you wanted to do art?” and it only occurred to me then that she may not know what art actually is. Having defined muscles and a low resting heart rate is not exercise, but it is the logical conclusion of exercising consistently. Furthermore, I believe that ‘gym-bro’ culture has warped our perception of what a healthy body even looks like, with swollen traps and impossible proportions becoming the norm. The exact same thing is happening in art.

The grassroots, community engaged, warm and helpful artist has been replaced by product pushers, ‘content creators’ and false prophets. Art is not a tangible product but a way of living. A lifelong dedication to observing, understanding, beautifying and uplifting our environments. Science also began its journey as an art, but as the industrial revolution took over the globe, investors saw it fit to steal it from its cradle in order to manipulate it and sell it to the highest bidder. With the proliferation of AI art, the ease of access to vapid content and the near death of literacy and subtext, I believe we are witnessing art undergo a similar process as engineering did in the early twentieth century. It is paramount that we understand what is truly at stake and what we stand to lose if art is co-opted by our technocratic overlords. It is impossible to strive for a brighter future if one cannot imagine one. Without art, there is no imagination. Without imagination, there is no hope. We are here to keep creating, to keep fighting for our inner children and to remain hopeful and imaginative. As Desmond Tutu said, ‘We do not have faith in the current circumstances, but in the ineffable laws of God’s Universe.’ It is for this reason we continue to rise, and it is from this well that all art flows.

And here we have the wayvywork of the week, WHERE. Another relatively simple piece, visually, that speaks volumes philosophically. Slight digression, but I think a lot about Pictionary as the great art equalizer. When we are all sat around the table, both armed with a pencil, paper and sixty seconds, it does not matter how much talent or skill I have, how much I have trained or how much art history knowledge is knocking around my brain. All that matters is how quickly I can get my desired point across to my teammates, and I approach my painting practice in a similar vain. With an almost engineering like efficiency, I consider what is the least amount of information the audience needs to understand my point. Dressings and aesthetics are nice too, but they can sometimes get in the way of the true message. As Adriel says, frosting is sweet but you can’t eat a cake made of frosting. So in WHERE, we can see that ethos on full display with a simple mountain starkly contrasted by the yellow sky with a river flowing towards the observer, giving a sense of scale and scope. The whole scene is framed in what appears to be a peephole, with WHERE written boldly across the top, suggesting the observer is seeing the ethereal nature scene, but unable to pinpoint where it is and how to get there. This, paralleled with the black text along the right side tells us that it is not only a literal mountain and stream, but a figurative one. Attempting to figure out how one can feel as peaceful as one would in a sprawling savannah with mountains in the distance and a babbling brook at the feet in everyday life, as we converse and commune with our brothers and sisters. I hope this made a modicum of sense, and if it did! You can see some more lovely wayvyworks right here at the KWAM Vallery. Until next week, stay wayvy yall <3.