Is It Art?

Last month on 60 Minutes Morley Safer did a piece on contemporary art and how it has consistently outperformed stocks since 2003 thus becoming a billion dollar industry. He attended the largest most profitable show in the US Art Basel Miami Beach and reported on its seeming absurdities, idiosyncrasies, extremes and more.  Many of the art pieces, admittedly controversial, fetched millions of dollars and could even have been labeled ‘shock art’. As he roamed the show he continually questioned, ‘Yes, but is it art?’

It was a good piece of journalism, memorable and thought provoking, eliciting strong emotions. Isn’t that what reporters strive for – a piece that you can’t stop thinking about? What if you take those parameters and apply them to the art itself? What makes it ‘good’ art? It comes down to this- what are you willing to feel? It’s not just about feeling good – it’s about feeling.

The purpose of art is to evoke emotion. These pieces were the expressions of artists who use visual clues instead of words.  Some artists use sound (music), or movement (dance) to express and elicit responses, all valid forms of communication. The question is are you listening?

We have become an unfeeling society – encasing ourselves in so many layers of protection that often we cannot be touched, as if this makes us safer or invincible. Shock art attempts to rip away the layers and expose us to deeper spaces within, thus assisting us to feel. Regardless of what emotion it evokes, it has elicited a response – something we frequently numb ourselves to. It offers itself as a vehicle to feel, to express, to let it out.

How often do we run away when a feeling arises within our bodies that we think signals ‘something is wrong’? We assume it will lead to a problem and heaven forbid I don’t want that! So we shut it down, push it away and file it in the ‘no more’ category instead of opening to it with wonder, listening to what this energy has to tell us? What if instead we appreciated ourselves for communicating and thanked ourselves with love and reverence and then just listened? Imagine the magic that might ensue if we actually allowed it.

Shock art, contemporary art, abstract art and modern art, all these are voices of the artists who have chosen to search a little deeper than the norm. Regardless of whether the piece is one that you would hang in your living room, can you open yourself up to perhaps hear what is trying to be communicated? Are you willing to go that far?

You might hate it. You might love it. You might fall somewhere in between, but allow yourself, if you will, to imagine the challenge of expressing a verb, an adjective or an emotion visually. Not as easy as a noun. The challenges involved in doing so entice certain artists – like the climber to Mt Everest.

So the next time you see art that shocks you, I invite you to stop and listen for a moment. Think of what the artist might be trying to communicate. It could surprise you. And I assure you, you can only grow by opening.

To see the 60 Minute Segment: 60 Minutes