Artists Of Modernity

When it comes to most things, I would say I have an open mind... however if I'm being truly honest when it comes to what is called 'Modern Art' my mind seems to collapse in on itself... I can show no empathy towards it, and I'm not sure I want to.

On one of my many excursions to the Tate Britain I found myself pondering upon the works of Millais, Sargent and Turner, my mind totally absorbed by the texture, detail and feeling in these paintings. It was then I turned into the long hall when I came upon the curious works of Fiona Banner - 'Harrier and Jaguar'. Now my first initial thought was 'wow, how did they get that into here?' and apart from my worrying concern of whether the roof might fall on everyone, I had no other feelings or thoughts towards these objects.

Now of course you can say (and I agree) that art is 100% subjective (personal opinion). However coming from an outside or maybe logical view, I ask this question; If these planes were in a museum, would they receive the same reception, views and money? I think the answer we are looking for is possibly not. Of course I expect that our initial thoughts might be wondering what kind of plane it is and other various historical facts, but I doubt they would be called 'one of the most celebrated works on the art scene'. Why because a lady from Merseyside has put two planes in a hall at the Tate Britain, is it considered to be art and why is it worth thousands? It's a question I myself cannot answer.

My main concern is that these artists of modernity have no actual meaning behind their work, no passion. I cant help but feel that they are just looking for a deeper meaning made from anything someone can think of... the word that comes to mind is pretentious. Maybe, the reason I can never understand modern art, is because its impossible for me to go from being stunned by Rossetti to a concrete bath. My mind just cannot accept the two extremes together as art.

In truth, I feel that the art world is on a much different level than what it should be, I feel rejected from this modern world of art, it shouldn't be like that. It may be called strange that I (an 18-year-old) am comfortable with my gazing upon my friends 'The Lady of Shallott' and 'Beata Beatrix' than a few polka dots on the wall at the Tate Modern. Art has evolved and no longer has immediate subjectivity, this may in itself be a subjective view, but when we are not creating 'things' that aren't inspired by the beauty of this world I feel we can lose the real meaning of art.

The Pre-Raphaelites had an ethos of 'Truth to Nature' they wanted to reform art and create new passionate visions of beauty that were true to the nature of what they were painting. They possibly felt as I did about the common mannerist ways artists before them were painting. I can't help but wonder what they would think of today's 'art'.

I am saddened to not see any new artists that might compete with the works of the Greats such as Turner or Constable, where are they? Where is the diversity... I acknowledge completely that art is bound to evolve and change, But why does the Royal Academy now produce artists that seem to all 'fit in the same area of art'.

“This grandiose tragedy that we call modern art.”
- Salvador Dali

I think it is true, that gone are the days when we can gaze at a new piece of 'art' for more than 30 seconds, I can imagine what Rossetti, Michelangelo, Monet and Renoir would be thinking, as they wept into their paint pallets, there would be a story to paint indeed.

The Deluge by Francis Danby

John Lennon

I am a Beatles fan.
Like many I look up to the four members of this iconic and special group of 'artists'. The member that has seemed to have a hold of me is Mr John Lennon, but why? What do I know of this person? I know his music, and thats what I love. But like many others I have painted in my mind John to have been almost and angelic, and flawless. This was me being niieve. They say you should never meet your idols because they would disappoint you, thats because we think of them as we would like them to be, but the truth of it is, they are just human beings that have been put into the middle of the stage at the circus, and we must watch them till the show ends.
I have just finished reading Cynthia Lennon's book titled 'John'. Of course you expect that one cannot make a judgment of a person from someone's account, it maybe seen as bias. But Cynthia was sensitive in the way she wrote, of course in parts the tone relating to certain people could be seen as being angry, but that is understandable considering the situation.
I found the read incredibly interesting, and emerged in every situation that occurred. Considering what Cynthia went through in her rollercoaster of a life with John, she was mature and you could tell from the writing she was at peace with all that had happened.
As I mentioned previously I had painted a flawless image of John in my mind, and reading this book challenged my ideas of who he was as a person. But why should I have such a high expectation of him? He was just a normal guy with a normal guys problems.
I think from what I have read it is evident that John had deep underlying problems starting right in his early childhood (you don't need an expert to tell you that) and I feel sorry for him. Which is strange because usually when you hear of men cheating and abandoning there children (to a certain degree) your instant reaction is a negative one. I don't know why I feel a compassion for him, I don't suppose I ever will, I just can't for some reason despise the man, its a feeling that deep down he was a genuine good person, it was just unfortunate that in his life time he encountered too many negative things.
I didn't know much about Cynthia Lennon before I read her book, but I have a new found respect for her. I just hope that her and Yoko are decent towards each other for their sons sake, I just think that's how John deep down wanted everything to be,
A united family
A united world

Enlightenment and the Holocaust

A few years ago I became an ambassador of the Holocaust Educational Trust, their main aim is to teach people about The Holocaust, what happened and people's accounts. In the courses they ran, we learnt about the Holocaust and of people’s experiences, the course ended with a trip to Auschwitz, Poland, this started my interest in the horrible time of the Holocaust, and the reasons why we should remember it.
Let me introduce you to a man named Primo Levi born on July 31st 1919 in Turin, unfortunately he passed away in 1987 at the age of 67, but during hislife he encountered experiences that not even our worst nightmares could conjure up. The book that I have recently read by Primo Levi is titled 'Surviving Auschwitz', as the title suggests, it is mainly an account of Primo's time at Auschwitz.
I encourage anyone who has a huge interest in history or someone that doesn't even think of history to pick up this book or another book written by a survivor of the Holocaust, it will change your perception on so many levels.
I have conducted extra reading around the topic of the Holocaust, such as Zygmunt Bauman’s Modernity and the Holocaust, from the several pages I read I felt that Bauman was highlighting the reasons of remembering the Holocaust, he tells of how horrific and on such a large scale the Holocaust was, a main fact he wrote has stayed with me;

‘Consider the numbers. The German state annihilated approximately six million Jews. At the rate of 100 per day this would have required nearly 200 years.’ (Zygmunt, 1992; p89)

He also writes of how The Holocaust differs from any other form of genocide, usually killings on such a mass scale are due to the fact the opposing group want land or property, but Hitler wanted a ‘pure’ race, he conducted these murders with pure hatred for the Jewish people or anyone else he deemed as un-worthy.
In reference to enlightenment, I read parts of ‘What is Enlightenment?’ a collection of works by various philosophers; however I focused on the works of Immanuel Kant. He speaks of enlightenment within freedom,

‘For this enlightenment, however, nothing more is required than freedom-‘ (Kant, ; p59)

I agree with this statement,  for example the prisoners in Auschwitz didn’t have the freedom to simply enlighten themselves and leave the camp, in a similar way to the people in Plato’s Cave.  But if you look from the Nazi’s point of view they had more freedom to be enlightened and not be a bystander, they had a possibility of using Kant’s idea; Sapere Aude (Dare to be wise) and think for themselves rather than for a dictator (Hitler).
I’ve also read various poetry about the Holocaust, I’m fascinated by the use of ekphrasis to act as a way of enlightening people about the Holocaust, and this is one of the reasons for choosing a testimonial book to read. (Primo Levi)
A lot of people's response to my views would probably be why should we linger on the past, when there are terrible wars going on now?
Well it's because of whats happening now that we need to remember The Holocaust, we can only hope and pray that nothing as horrific as the Holocaust happens again, but anything close to being the same should be stopped! We need to learn from out past mistakes, we shouldn't be a bystander! If every person had a direct emotional connection and complete understanding of The Holocaust then I doubt anyone would go to war or even start wars or confrontation etc.
So how should we remember, of course Im not suggesting you march right into the front line in Iraq and hold some flowers in the air in a mark of respect and remembrance to what wars can do! There are hundreds of ways to help, I know it's cliche to say that every little helps but it is true. One of the ways is to education younger generations, so that one day we might have a peaceful world.

“I am constantly amazed by man's inhumanity to man." Primo Levi

The Hierarchy of Twitter

Its early 2006 and three regular people; Jack Dorsey, Evan Williams and Biz Stone have just created a new social network of which we now love and know as Twitter.


But what causes us (mostly) intelligent beings to be in a frenzy when it comes to Twitter, when its basic function is to tell other people all around the world what we're up to, is it a sub-conscious human instinct to want to know and to be known by as many people as possible?
As well as allowing you to connect with your friends and family, it is a connection between you and other worlds of which you wouldn't normally step into. All us regular twitters have been there, when you log on, and notice your following number has risen, and instant uncontrollable excitement fills you, who could have followed me? was it my favorite celebrity? etc. Maybe this feeling relates to us wanting to be known. In today's culture many of us seem to be obsessed with being famous; the 'Celebrity Culture'.
It's obvious that in last few years the internet has worked as a catalyst making many people huge stars, dare I say the name 'Justin Bieber' who is an extreme and excellent example of 'internet phenomena'. It's fare to say there's a side of the world's population that long to be famous or known for doing something, you feel you were born to do something in this world, its in your blood. If I'm honest I have this feeling myself, not to be famous but to be successful, I along with a lot of others have seen and learnt that social networking can be a great way to start your journey to being successful and therefore joining sites such as Twitter.
  There's obviously a system to Twitter, there are still platforms and 'rules' that 'twitters' have created for themselves, for example, you use the interests function to find others who have the same interests as you, you begin to follow them however this doesn't automatically mean you will be followed back, as in many cultures this can be seen as a form of segregation in a community. Not necessarily on purpose, but where do you draw the line on who to follow? Again our human instinct to be known might 'kick-in' and we might mention them in a tweet (e.g. @famousperson) desperate for them to follow, using twitter language such as 'RT' (Re-Tweet) and Hash-tags (#). Why is it so important for certain people to follow us?
Yes, Twitter has created a huge community of people, but this community has many walls, you may look into the world of a celebrity but not interact, you can follow as many celebrities as you want, but you still may only have one follower; who's a regular middle aged man from Hackney, called Bob. Do you strive to get that small blue and white tick next to your twitter name? or reach a million followers? Twitter is fueling the huge fame hungry population.
Let me take you back to school, your in the playground, your holding the latest craze in your hand (in this case Pokemon cards) but wait a minute you realise your fellow peers are not holding those precious Pokemon cards anymore.

Instead there are yo-yo's walking the dog and flying everywhere. You don't have what the rest of 'your world' want anymore, your not worth playing with (or following). Unfortunately this can be how Twitter works, if you dont have anything of interest, you cant be that interesting to follow. But you can't follow everyone, because then there wont be any special people that have been followed by someone they look up to etc. I call it the 'Twitter Dilemma'
I know I'm asking a lot of questions in this blog post and not answering, but really these questions are rhetorical, only you as a person can answer for your own actions. I myself am an example of, maybe even 'abusing' social networking to be successful, my ambition is to work for the BBC and be a successful photographer, (which I know is the same as many other people in the world) so understandably on Twitter I follow many people connected with the BBC, and try and tweet as much so I can to be heard.
I still sit on the fence when it comes to the question, 'is social networking a bad or good thing?' in someways of course its a good thing, but in relation to networking and celebrity culture etc. maybe not. Its becoming more easy to be what we might call 'famous', lets face it there's always going to be gossip magazines filled with material and there will always be a hundred flashing lights in peoples faces... the show must go on!
What we need to remember in this crazy world, is that each of our lives is a show, it will have its ending one day, just make sure while it shows, it shows you having a bloody good time!

Everyone will be famous for 15 minutes.

Andy Warhol