'The Other Art'

Tumblr I don’t believe is being given enough credit to what it’s really worth. What it presents in terms of visual content can be considered so powerfully in regards to what our generation has become. A generation of consumerism, a generation that is constantly being over exposed to a bombardment of imagery,  the act of blogging on Tumblr exemplifies this exercise of viewing an over load of imagery and selecting what is connected mostly to us. Our general, everyday desire to have all the aesthetically pleasing items that appeal to us becomes simple on Tumblr – re-blogging an image (or a quote or video) is the similar act to spending on an item you like in a shop. It hasn’t got anything to do with money, but creates an act of choosing/getting pieces. Perhaps, relating such a popular blogging/’social networking site’ seriously to our generation appears to be something silly; am I trying too hard or making things too complicated? Regardless, I see the selection of images, quotes, music and videos that come in order on my blog as a virtual space that, in terms of what I choose to ‘re-blog’, relates to the physical gallery spaces that I encounter in reality. [My Tumblr blog: colainsemerald.tumblr.com]

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Keep in mind that at random, depending on whatever image which comes to take your interest next, the blog displays a miss-match of imagery. My blog at one point displayed an abstract expressionist painting by Mark Rothko beside a series of fashion photography images. Through my heart I feel an equal amount of beauty and respect from the painting and photographs; placing the two images together of different material and times somehow forms a kind of relationship with the two pieces where they are almost communicating with each other. [It can be considered as quite a surreal activity, I suppose.] Now take into consideration to what the gallery/museum space offers:

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Through the visit to a gallery or museum, it is perhaps more common for a person to view each single pieces of work one at a time. The viewer moves from the painting, to the sculpture, to the photograph in order to which the works have been set as. And, while when viewing each piece of work all energy of experience is being put onto the single piece that is being viewed, it is however un-doubtable that as the viewer’s experience of being exposed to a selection of art works in a space is affecting the viewer’s interpretations of the art being presented. That while art serves a sense of appreciation through each individual work, the greater picture is how it becomes a part of a collection – and the collection can be as limiting or as vast as possible. It can be as large as a work created to be a part of all of human-kind’s history of art, or as little to by a single painting communicating with the room it is in. A Picasso painting is a single painting apart of ALL Picasso paintings and is also an object of the early 20^th century. A Greek statue in the British Museum is a part of the British Museum collection and more specifically connected with the other artefact in its exhibited room, and also a photograph of that statue could be a part of my Tumblr blog (collection of images) because I feel drawn to it. The point that I am hoping to explain is that I see strength within the combination and juxtaposition of art works as a group, where our minds automatically read from one thing to the next gaining some kind of feeling/emotion towards it. I have strong interest towards events such as music concerts, theatrical performances and fashion shows as the content of them establish a mixture of the art of clothing, movement, sounds, set design and excreta. Its point is to create a combination, or a collection, of artistic senses to suit a kind of mindset. 

When producing art, whatever kind that may be, all energy and concentration should be applied towards that single piece – the second step is how it will become a part of something greater. You can’t skip a step and consciously treat the piece you are doing as merely one piece of work to add to all your other pieces of work. A musician must care for each song within the album; a writer must care for each for chapter within the novel. It is also important to remember that all arts are important and manage to work together. I believe that everything feeds into each other; all the different fields work together allowing you to greater your mind. I am fundamentally interested in fine art (that is what I will be doing a university along with history of art) and more predominantly what is known as ‘abstract art’. Yet from these thoughts that I have attempted to solidify, the point of the next three years of my university life will be to understand elements of other art. Recently I have gained the greatest amount of interest towards performance/theatre and plan learn into that, but this however no means that my fine artwork will relate directly into performance/theatre. No, the point is to understand the sense of ‘feeling’ that comes through this learning.

Two large paintings I have made this year around May/June

[And I understand that all this may not make much sense, or perhaps is sounds so blatantly obvious what I’m talking about. I am trying to put down into words what have only ever been thoughts in my mind.] [And obviously I don't claim rights to the first two images, as they are screen shots to my Tumblr (colainsemerald.tumblr.com) where you can find the sources.]