Sunday 2 January 2011

Insights


As I get older I've found there's a spiritual language to being an artist. You're opening up and listening to your inner voice telling you what's needed, so , when I explore, going against the grain, that's when I find my art truly speaks to me.

Steve Hanks.






Back in October, I made reference to the worrying approach, at least outwardly in our culture, to marginalize or privatize the display of the nude as art, so I was delighted today to come across a well considered video piece about the contradictions of such approaches by artist Lewis Evans:


Nudes and Prudes
Uploaded by lewisevans. - Independent web videos.

The piece certainly makes you wonder about several "norms" in our modern world. Graphic nude statues can adorn the streets of certain places as 'art' because of their definition by us - they are viewed as "classical" and therefore acceptable in these surroundings, however graphic they may be, but they would often be frowned upon and removed if they were displayed in our own neighborhood or even at sites where they were deemed 'new' and therefore out of place (I recall the controversy over a nude in Trafalgar Square a few years ago).

What I found especially interesting here was that vast numbers of down to earth, family loving people of genuinely conservative values (Americans), clearly enjoy the whole experience of encountering and recording the wonder and beauty of the human form in such a context without any sense of concern or censor. Because of the way these works are defined and valued, they are seen as works of art, to be truly appreciated.

Lewis Evans makes the point so well that it is this same marvel in the miracle of who and what we that inspires him to create art, so why is nudity is commonly deemed to be a taboo amidst so much of our daily lives? We would find it folly to be begin covering virtually any other object so we could not see it in its natural form, but our own bodies are still often deemed unsafe for general consumption.

Clearly, there are reasons relating to sexual behavior, and especially sexual abuse, for some of this, but I cannot help but feel that the artist is correct to say that much of what transpires today is a vetting and censoring of nudity at an unwarranted level within our society. One example which quickly springs to mind is how blogs and popular media sites ban the nude entirely, even when other forms of public media (i.e. the classification system in movies) has already deemed such nakedness as perfectly acceptable for display (as a "PG" or "15" graded movie).

There can indeed be a 'shock' aspect to many displays of human nakedness, whether this is in art or in encountering an actual nude, but once this has passed, as is clearly the case with 'classical' statues and the like, we can begin to appreciate such forms well, and understand they are not hostile to everyday life.

The Psalmist, considering his form, echoes the marvel of the artist -
"I am fearfully and wonderfully made". That is the truth of it, and art and life itself should equip and encourage us to know the richness of such truth.

Let's hope that such insights help us to grow beyond the current follies regarding the nude, that we might truly inhabit our own form well, and value the beauty of others.

With many thanks to Lewis Evans.