State of the Art

I am sure not all self-labeled creatives are rebellious by nature. I have yet to meet someone who fits the bill, but that's not to say they don't exist.
"Lets make art/design and stick to the rules we have been given" - never heard those words uttered, but perhaps I frequent a different support group? All this to say that spending 6 hours yesterday discussing a framework for regulating public art in the city of Cape Town was well, challenging.

Of course artists need guidelines and an authority to provoke, agitate and address. Providing suggestions as to how that authority should conduct itself was both frustrating and disarming at the same time. I was repeatedly brought back to the struggle playing out in my mind - not so much as what constitutes art, but what the role of that art is. A conversation I had today brought some clarity.

I sing with a band at our church. As we play, we seek to capture the attention of our audience so as to direct them towards thinking about God and the things of God. We worship Him and utilize our talents to make it easier for others to do so. I can honestly say that humbling myself before my creator and acknowledging who He is is a great blessing to me as it is honoring to Jesus Christ. To worship is to rightly align my priorities in my heart and mind, remembering that without God I have nothing and am lost. With Him, and through Him I am saved. As a vocal musician in a church context, my art is to lead others to that place of acknowledgment.

How does this relate to public art? Well, what do we draw attention to as visual artists? What do we draw people from and gather people towards? If art is not frivolous and whimsical as some like to believe, what are artists saying and how are they using their talents to lead us into realigning our perspectives and priorities?
Art and Worship are closer together than I realised. 

So how does a self-proclaimed rebel and follower of Christ do design and art?
I used to think that there was simply one type of rebellion, and that was it was wrong to rebel. In a sense that was right thinking, as the Bible calls us to be under authority and to operate under authority in a God-honoring way. My inner struggle is not so much with law makers, but with the position of law itself. Legalism. An overzealous desire to apply the letter of law, to the detriment of the spirit with which that law was created. Drives me nuts. That is what I rebel against (mostly).

So back to talking about rules and management of art. I would tend to focus such a document in guiding the reader to understand the role of art (which is..?) and that the manner in which is undertaken should inherently be for the public good. For example, rather than saying 'no sharp edges on any artwork', I would place greater emphasis on communicating safety. Favoring a more encompassing education about the heart of the matter over bullet-point style rules...

We all know that someone from my support group is bound to create something incorporating fireworks one day, coming back to say the document said nothing about THAT exact matter.
 We really are a rebellious bunch!

A challenging day for an anti-legalistic designer writing rules for visual worship leaders.

Thanks as always to www.leonslens.com for incredible shots!