Art Now. As a young artist it’s a topic I think about most often. What meaning does my art have? Yes, art is about commenting and reacting towards society but what happens if I want to speak about myself? What happens when I want to speak about my family? What happens when I just pick up my paintbrush and just create with no meaning intended?
Art in today’s contemporary society has lead to the question - what is art? After all art can be declared as anything - however the artist perceives the world around him. After all art is a reaction to society. In South Africa, right now, Ashraf Jamal says - we are in the post post Apartheid stage. We have found ourselves in a stage that deals with both the past and the present. The past by older generations, who are still dealing with the anger and pain of apartheid like Brett Murray and we have a new young generation who never lived through Apartheid and don’t have the same burdens to bare.
As for the new young generation we are in a completely new and different world - a world of digital technology, social networking and complete freedom. No more do we fight for ideologies that once were deemed as bad and the good has become something now not worth fighting for, as our generation is filled with apathy. We are vein human beings, basing our lives on communication interaction, pop culture, digital technology, consumerism and self entitlement. As far as artists go, we are looking for something more.
Today, when representing who you are, it is always important to stay true to yourself while growing as a person. “Horizons are continuously shifting” and as the Y generation of artists come about, they are dealing with such issues. No longer is identity based on race, culture and beliefs but more based on the self. As artists, we know and feel that there is more to life than what the media feeds to us. For us, we are dealing with personal identity. We want to get to know ourselves, which so many people of the Y generation have forgotten about and the older generation never had issues of “trying to discover me” as they were in the middle speaking about racial segregation, human right destruction and the greed for western power.
Our war and fight is one of hedonism, personal space and personal politics. I want to know about me, the way I move the way I react to people, the way I see people, the way people see me and the way I see the world. Perhaps Zanele Muholi isn’t dealing with issues of race because of Apartheid but issues of race according to who she is and how she feels. That’s all that’s left for us right now – a personal debate with the self.
South Africa’s art community is now filled with all sorts of different generations all dealing with their time and place in the world. The 80’s artists going against Apartheid, the 90’s dealing with the after math of Apartheid and the 00’s with themselves according to Zen Marie. As I said earlier art is a reaction to society and as young artists we are doing exactly that – reacting to the rest of our apathetic brotherins.
Maybe our confusion of mixed messages is ok. Maybe in order to move forward into a new art era, artists are needing to wade through their emotions. We need to deal with social and personal identity in order for the future. Art critique comes after reflection. So let artists take time to reflect. Let us use our imaginations and let us look at ourselves, let us talk about ourselves. Maybe that’s all that’s needed a little bit of TLC time searching ourselves in a world where personal space is so limited as we all get drawn into a world of digital take over. Let us find out who we are first then maybe, we can look at our future and what it installs. For now let’s just play. Let us be free, young and inspired.
