Is Art Contaminated?
Written by Cindy Wang
Edited by Dominique Cao
Photo from martaltes.com
One of my absolute favourite pieces that my choir class studied is The Bird’s Lullaby; I love its tenderness, playfulness, nostalgia, and melancholy. When we rehearse the piece, I feel my voice blending in with those of others. As the choir sings, carols, swings, and sighs, I’m often hit with an inexplicable but intense emotion pulling me out of this world into an entirely different universe.
By the way, everyone should attend carol service to listen to this piece as well as numerous other absolutely gorgeous ones; the choir worked really hard on them.
To me, this inexplicable feeling is the most important aspect of art. Art links my soul to something beyond human reach. It’s the purest form of connection to our internal world. But when external forces, such as societal expectations, rewards, and popularity, meddle with the process of art creation, what would happen to the art itself?
Art as Boundaries: Imprisoned by Expectations
I’ve been following the journey of a teenage singer. Her artistic career took flight at the age of 10 when she performed at huge venues and sang in well-known TV shows, receiving brand deals, releasing songs on her own, and gaining millions of views. However, just when her international popularity peaked, she disappeared.
Recently, she resurfaced and released her new single and an interview, in which she spoke about her feelings for singing.
She said: “I thought I liked it and I thought that was something I wanted to do for the rest of my life, and just because all the pressure came in, and the money also, singing just kind of became my work… When you get into it as a kid… since you’ve started it at such a young age, you kind of have to keep going.”
At first glance, the thought of the artist and their art merging into one is romantic. But under a modern context—with the influence of parents, peers, social media, and production companies—what does it really mean to “become” your art?
When your identity is tied to a certain artistic form, societal expectations push you to mold your narrative around that identity. The response following these expectations (publicity, money, recognition) create a drive to seek something other than art’s spiritual connection, and when presented with both options, we gravitate towards the extrinsic reward. As we build this curated artistic narrative, the intrinsic regret hits us with a delayed effect, and by the time we realize the feeble foundations of our artistry, what we’ve built upon the foundations has become too significant, and we have no option but to continue.
In today’s world, when you become your art, are you really opening up your soul, or are you imprisoning your thoughts?
Art as Competition: Dissonance among harmony
One of my middle school classmates was great at singing, but she hated it. I asked her why she didn't quit, and she said with a bitter smile: “I need it to win something for my university resume or I just don’t stand out. I’m just gonna have to tolerate it until I graduate, I guess.” I thought to myself, should art ever be something that’s tolerated?
I always found the concept of competition in art to be rather ridiculous. Art is the reflection of self, and measuring its “greatness” in relation to other pieces is to compare the artists’ identities – none is superior. Art is a way for our souls to speak to others, for our voices to weave melodies into a poem. When art becomes competition, however, it becomes a speaker, attempting to amplify and blast one’s own voice over others.
If artists don’t create for themselves but for the sake of outshining others, they are not creating art, they are merely using art as a tool for personal success.
Art as Spectacles: “Fake” innovation
Recently, I saw a video of someone sawing the violin, creating a cacophony, and laughing it off as “contemporary music”.
People, including myself, make fun of contemporary art, where the boundaries of art expand to include sometimes absurd objects like a toilet seat. Some hold the perception that contemporary artists are merely craving attention and publicity by creating gimmicks.
Does art’s innovation ever get too far? When does art start becoming “pretentious?”
American composer John Cage wrote a piece 4’33’’, composed of 4 minutes and 33 seconds of silence. His artistic identity was inspired by his studies in East and South Asian cultures, as he maintained that music is governed by chance – a reflection of our life and circumstances rather than the result of deliberate calibration. His piece 4’33’’ follows that philosophy: it serves to remind the audience of the sounds in their surroundings.
Those criticizing 4’33’’ as a performative act are not aware of the influences and inspirations that shaped Cage’s genuine expression of his perception of art. In this case, the subject of art is not the process of giving birth to an entirely new object, but creating a new perspective, a new gateway to view something as art and not anything else. However, some artists pushing the boundaries of art are not motivated by their artistic values. Rather, they want to stir up conversation and cause a spectacle, increasing their exposure, whether it be positive or negative.
Artists like John Cage, guided by their faith and personal beliefs, disrupt the flow of art like a deep current. If artists create art merely to cause a scene and gain publicity, they are no more than kids slashing pool noodles around the surface of the water.
Conclusion
I was speaking to a composer friend about trends in the art industry, and asked him if he was able to distinguish works that are extrinsically motivated. He thought that it is very difficult to tell at the present moment, but through time, pieces that are intrinsically compelling will make themselves obvious.
Rick Rubin writes in The Creative Act that the joy of art comes from extracting information and processing it internally to weave strands of it into ideas; those ideas in turn fit into our life like “a missing piece in a puzzle that has no end.” I pray that we all continue to enjoy this creative process as a pure form of connection with our inner selves—with as little distraction as possible—whatever that may mean for each of us.