Art: Definition Please!

The question of what is art could not be further from my mind, life has been busy, incredibly busy, time like never before seems to be racing away from me and my head is a bulging sock and undie draw at the moment, all useful stuff but no real order. Reviewing just how busy life has been reminds me that 'what is art' is perhaps a more important question than I imagined, at a time when my thoughts are as functional as cotton underwear, perhaps bringing art into my life might make it feel a little less utilitarian. I liked Warhol's analogy of the department store and the gallery, it means that art can be and is everywhere and it is the observer who is artful rather than the work.

But seriously I wonder is it possible to go through life like you would a gallery in hallowed silence and challenged wonderment, would you even want to? And if art becomes everything in our lives what happens to the gallery does it serve any purpose? I can see here that I am asking more questions than I am answering. To be honest I starting writing this book about art out of questions that people constantly asked me, and to be honest again no one has actually ever asked me what art is, what they have told me often and vehemently is 'that this not art'. I could only presume for people to have such a strong understanding of what is not art, there must be a solid understanding of what is art. After four years of art school and further mulling over the question, I can really only tell you what 'I' think art is, and I believe if we really took the time to think about it, every one's answer would be completely different.

I have been stuck in writing this essay for a long time, after I finally committed myself to writing about it on my blog, I discovered why, underneath my reasonably calm willingness to discuss art, was a nasty voice telling me that quite frankly I didn't know what the hell I was talking about, and questioning who the hell I was to be defining art. I have only broken through to write this, because I truly believe that everybody has a right to define art and that it is only through the consensus of artists, galleries, critics and the public that art can be defined, and that this definition should be and is different for everyone and that everyone within their context is completely right. Were to follow this method of creating a definition art would organic growing and changing as our environment, society and culture does, our definition of art would be held within our own context taking into account our very personal journeys and histories.

The only sticky point in this business is this 'that's not art statement' which quickly cuts down what other's believe to be art and demands that the boundaries of art be somehow drawn closed to disallow this or that work. I guess in the larger scheme of things human beings are classifying animals our whole science is based on classification and ordering, naming and defining things, it makes a chaotic life seem somehow under control. To have this aberration called art that is constantly breaking out of its own boundaries, questioning itself and us can feel something like torture, as soon as we think we have got it down it goes and starts changing. If only we had a definition we could better control and classify it, it could not be challenged and we could understand it implicitly.

Unfortunately despite being a keen area of study within the creative arts for hundreds of years, the wheat and the chaff are yet to be separated and a set definition of art remains rather elusive. Art not having a standard definition is both it’s biggest problem and its greatest possibility, if artists were not to challenge our conventional views on art, then things would always stay the same and we would still be looking at staid portraits of the royal families and dramatic religious scenes for all time. In order for art to progress it needs to be limitless and since art is a human response to the world and humans have such varying and different views, giving art a solid definition would prelude it’s creative and exciting nature.

Stay tuned tomorrow "The Problems with Defining Art"