I ask this question based on a conversation with Tony Brown that trickled down from a discussion about people who’ve saved art from certain destruction. The conversation moved to what triggers art from being a primary aspect within average lives, to secondary, and sadly, even tertiary.
Be it art you create, or art you appreciate, when can it become something you simply don’t need? I imagine the world embroiled in war, all of it. Is art then necessary? Can it save lives? I imagine someone looked to a statue or a painting during one of the last world wars and was inspired to “do the right thing” regarding humanity. I hope that happened; I hope it would happen again.
In my decade+ of slam, I have heard more than my fair share of political poetry/spoken word at every type of event. I have to admit that most of it seems overdone and repetitive. Socially political works tend to strike a better chord in me, whereas sophomoric “I just realized there is a whole world out there” über-political works tend to either depress me or bore the living crap out of me and most of the audience. I find a lot of this work quite unnecessary, most specifically works that don’t offer up any resolution, but are ultimately a lodging of complaints. However, when someone presents intelligent, calm, thought-provoking political work, I am almost always floored. Who do you know that presents worthy political works? What political poems or writings resonate with you most?
With regard to other non-visual art, Tony also directed me to an absolutely fascinating story I was completely unaware of: The Cellist of Sarajevo. Vedran Smailović, a member of a number of orchestras in Sarajevo in 1992, he made a widely noticed statement on the siege by playing his cello in public every day in the middle a very dangerous zone for 22 days straight. This is a clear example of art and politics going hand in hand and so very inspiring.
This also another reason I appreciate having “Professor” Brown as my neighbor. (Thank you for all you teach me, my friend.) Here is a poem of his reposted on his website that comments very clearly on this topic.
I have included another example of art in photography that may cross certain lines of necessity and witness. I have been fascinated with these two images all of my life for many reasons: the sheer horror of life and death, the fear and power within the images, and the undeniable example of humanity captured at just the right moment. Those are below and have links that give a lot of information with regard to the history and impact of the images.
“Two people died in that photograph: the recipient of the bullet and General Nguyen Ngoc Loan”
Please click on the image above to read more about the men depicted in the image and the photographer who captured it.
Click here for more information from Wikipedia.
Famous image of Phan Thị Kim Phúc during the Viet Nam War
Please click on the image above to read more about the girl depicted in the image and the photographer who took the image.
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Word to the nerd.
This entry was written by , posted on 24 February, 2010 at 4:03 PM, filed under Personal Updates and tagged art, cellist of sarajevo, Phan Thị Kim Phúc, political art, political poetry, tony brown, vietnam, vietnam images, visual art, war images, when is art unnecessary. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.
I’m stealing this from novelist Julian Barnes, but I think it’s the best answer I can come up with: Art and love are necessary because they are unnecessary.
In short, they’re both necessary because they are part of the defining features that make us human.