New art
A prospectus for some new projects.
Weekly Three
HEAR: “Crave You feat. Giselle” - Flight Facilities
READ: I wrote the following prospectus after reading an article about wood-based architecture (Transforming Trees into Skyscrapers, New Yorker). The first version focused on sculpting only. I later added the music intent.
VIEW: A young man shows the differences in London accents from the 14th century to 21st century. This is REALLY COOL.
No. 72: New art
Today, I share a prospectus for new art. Have a great Friday and weekend, all.
Statement
Yes, I’m a writer. This is the artform that has captured my heart, mind, and effort for as long as I can remember. My passions are prone to many fluctuations, but somehow writing has held steady against low and high tides. To writing I owe my entry into the larger world of art and design and the infinite applications of these fields, and while my love for writing will never diminish, I’ve struggled to rely on writing alone for artistic expression.
This is because writing inherently involves some barriers for the reader overcome before being experienced or enjoyed. It cannot be understood at a glance. A quick look at a book, essay, poem, or a short story reveals only a jumble of letters. So it must be read, which requires reading proficiency in a given language, which implies a baseline age and intelligence. It also asks of the reader a not negligible chunk of their time — and not only time, but focused attention for an extended span, something increasingly difficult to demand. These obstacles have always made writing something exclusive. And perhaps this exclusivity adds to the beauty of writing as an artform. But these constraints must be acknowledged for their failings when it comes to the accessibility of writing as an artistic medium, and once acknowledged, it’s difficult to make an argument for the writer to constrain their expression to that medium only.
This is not a new realization. I’ve always been drawn to more accessible artforms as outlets for expression in addition to writing. Two of these are photography and film, forms which I’ve enjoyed practicing for many years. These have low barriers of entry for both artist and viewer, but suffer from a problem writing also deals with. That is, the method of delivery. Where writing must be presented on some digital or physical surface, so too must photography and film.
For these reasons, I’ve always gravitated towards music. Haven’t we all? It has been argued by great thinkers that music is the greatest artform because of the lack of obstacles when it comes to its enjoyment. Or, as Bob Marley once eloquently put it, “One good thing about music, when it hits you feel no pain.” Music requires no prior learning, no primary language, no artistic understanding. The baby is lulled to sleep by the lullaby alongside the adult. Music goes straight to the core of our being. It provokes our soul. It is rawly felt. It is powerful. And this being the case, it’s unsurprising that I’ve been constantly attracted to both listening to and playing music since childhood. In this prospectus, I want to announce my intent to use music as a public form of expression in addition to writing. I’ve acquired a DDJ-400 controller on which I’m learning to mix and produce. Of course, I’ve always played the guitar. But I want to make an official intent is to master this device and to publicly share my creations so that music making can become one of my preferred forms of expression, and so that I can hopefully positively impact the lives of others with my work.
There’s another new (to me) art that I’m beginning to practice, one that strikes the perfect balance with regard to the concerns expressed above about accessibility. That artform is sculpture. Like music, the mediums for sharing and experiencing work of sculpture are nearly infinite. The medium is space itself, and, like music, the barriers for enjoyment of this form are virtually non-existent. Sculpture gives the artist an uncommon amount of free range when it comes to creating. Space is your canvas and any and every material is your paint. You are the brush. The two genres that I propose to practice are traditional sculpture and installation sculpture.
Aesthetic
As a music maker, I want my work to follow these genres/themes:
Electronic
Hip-Hop
Lounge
Jazz
Bossa Nova
Dance
Detroit House
Chicago House
Samba
Techno
Experimental
As a sculptor, I want every material I choose to be reused and/or environmentally friendly. That desire does not serve as a warrant to crudely glue trash together, as I’ve seen many times. My work should be:
Polished
Streamlined
Minimal
Cohesive
Although potentially crafted from waste, the viewer should think each sculpture a net new object or installation based on its refined appearance.
Mission
As a music maker, my mission is to make listener feel happy, creative, joyful, alive, relaxed, sophisticated — and, of course, unable to stand or sit still.
As a sculptor, my mission is to raise awareness about climate change and environmental issues by creating new and beautiful things from discarded items, relics from the past, or sustainably sourced materials, and to be a part of creating a more beautiful future by placing evocative artworks in places where all have the opportunity experience and enjoy them. ♦
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