Seeing Art Differently

Design and art are so prevalent in our lives today that we hardly ever notice. The ubiquity has drained much art of its power to shock, to unsettle, to provoke. In other words, even political art is frequently sapped of its meaning and its power by being swallowed up in and lost amongst a culture filled with remnants and fragments of expression, the simulacrum or shadows of once significant art.

For instance, you have probably seen this image:



The artist/graphic designer is Barbara Kruger. Her work attempts to juxtapose captions and images for a provocative, disjointing effect. Yet I bet that most people miss the reference to Descartes, miss the sarcasm, and instead see it as kitsch. Or perhaps some see a joke (yay! I like shopping, too). I am willing to guess that few see it as a radical critique of a consumer culture that reduces our lives to shopping and demands that we constantly pursue meaning in commodities. Shopping, consumption, and commodities have also become so ubiquitous that we do not notice them. A perspective from which to critique them is denied or laughed at as sheer folly. Shopping and advertising are like trees and air, so natural and widespread that it seems silly to imagine a wold without them. Except, more shopping and more consumption may leave us with less trees and less clean air. Maybe someday we will be able to see trees again when the endless expanse of strip malls makes the solitary few stand out in stark contrast.

So just for today, take a minute and really look at these images from Kruger. Do not glance at them like advertising. They are not here for a laugh. Follow every little detail, explore the association of thoughts they call up, let them lead you into new ways of thinking. Take the time to look differently than we are accustomed to in the rushing flood of images of our consumer culture. Treat them not as waste, as expendable fragments ready to be replaced by the next web page or the next new fad. Imagine them in a museum. Try to see in a mode displaced and devalued in our culture, a mode of insight and contemplation.

And then ask, what did I think? Was it worth the patience and the time? And perhaps most importantly, what are we missing in our rush to glance, to consume, to discard, to ignore, and to forget?