Art and the F Word

The planets that were dancing in the nebula littered sky seemed to be telling the stars about you. They said that you didn’t look nice, instead that you looked like art. I think there is a difference between the two as art is not supposed to look nice. It's supposed to make you Feel something.

-

I’ve always liked art. It's proof that we don't have to explode to be noticed. It challenges the architecture of our thoughts and feelings. Most notions explore how our thoughts make us Feel, but art helps us smash the glass ceiling of comprehension to indulge what our Feelings, make us think.

I recently read an article about the impact of climate change on people who live in environmentally sensitive areas. They referenced a notion called 'Solastalgia', which is the name given to 'the fear and grief associated with a rapidly changing environment'. I would describe that as the Feeling of being lost, even though one is at home. As lumps of fizzing carbon I think we've all experienced that Feeling; that Feeling of being a stranger in our own body, sometimes even a stranger in our own time. If you reflect on those personal anachronisms, you realise that the coastlines of your history are eroded by the same waves that always have, and always will crash along humanity's stormy shoreline.

I think that the main thing that history has taught us, is that humanity never learns. Hostility, conflict, be that with others, or ourselves, it doesn't make anything better. Progress only occurs when we engage in courageous dialogue, and yet, despite our predecessors showing us this, that's never our first port of call. And I think that’s because to talk, you have to be brave. You have to be human. You have to be generous, kind, challenging, comical, chaotic, anachronistic...good. I believe we're all capable of embracing those notions fully. However, the unfortunate truth, is that it is far easier to be destructive. I wonder sometimes if those that fight monsters become monsters themselves, but I believe that there is certainly a reason, as to why storms are named after people. Certainly a reason as to why Feelings can silence courage.

But they don't have to.

Not every Feeling has a thought process attached to it, not every Feeling can be justified or explained, and that can be disconcerting. But then you look at Art, and you realise, this confusion, this detachment from oneself, it's woven through every thread of history, waving at you, reminding you, they were lost too. They were hurt too. We may be standing on the shoulders of liars for time, in fact, has not brought the relief we were promised...

but we are also standing on the shoulders of human beings who looked up at the nebula littered sky and told one another that the planets had described them as Art. Why? Because they made them Feel something. Something like the Feeling of being home, even though one is lost.

LM