Because of the Chaos: A Devolution of Artmaking
Yana Nungesser
1. The Creative Act
The terms - the creative act and the creative process - are ones that are felt, not seen. Rather than being a simplistic explanation of creation, those lucky enough to have felt it know that it describes the
fervour
and
the joyous energy
that makes the creation of the work possible, if not inevitable. For everyone, there was a first time they picked up their artistic weapon of choice. Not many can remember the reason why. Can you remember? For some, there was a second time (for this there is another reason more deeply profound and consequential than the first). There is an intersectional plane we lose our way into. Where thought and rationale reside as blurry, diaphanous forms which carry as much history, meaning and consciousness as you or me. If you are lucky enough to catch wind of this dimension the first few times you dabble in whatever form of artistic expression calls you, if those forms and ideas whisper to you, or perhaps give you a side long glance, its destined to stick with you for many years to come. This is the magic of "The Creative Act." This joy and catharsis serve as the foundation for why we do what we do. This could be equally the act of making ourselves, or connecting with the work of another person. The way in which the physical representation of an idea, born from a stranger, can make itself a home in the cavity of your chest, is proof of the necessity for artistic expression. There is an ability we possess to affect and be affected by
thoughts, materialized
by dreams, embodied
by experience and represented.
“To all appearances, the artist acts like a mediumistic being who, from the labyrinth beyond time and space, seeks his way out to a clearing.” (Marcel Duchamp, in his short and sweet lecture at the American Federation of the Arts in 1957, just eight minutes long.)
2. Ethical Magic
It is this magnetism of making and of viewing art that drives us. It is what drew us towards the creative sector in the very beginning; being beckoned by wisps of that inexplicable magic. But to be a creative today, working can feel like trying to clutch at fading, insubstantial vapors of this magic, or to be turning your face from it entirely. When considering making work in contemporary times, it feels inevitable to find yourself buried under an ever-shifting mountain of societal upheaval and devastation. The trial of continuing with your creative practice amongst global destruction can feel like an inherently futile act. Not only this, but the doubts that follow can lead you to believe that focusing your energy on art at this time is selfish and unimportant in the grand scheme of the issues plaguing our times.
3.Forgetting
Meanwhile the institution of art itself has become complicit with the same ideologies that contribute to these crippling global issues. We operate in an industry that is so amalgamated with politics and social structure, it seems unavoidable for capitalism to damage the framework of the art world. But it’s a poisonous cycle, it leaves us in a stagnant place. If everything becomes systemized in the same way, we begin to look at our own creative process in a similar light. Is it marketable? Is it digestible? This systemization is to take yourself out of the creative zone entirely. With the extent of the external forces affecting us, it is completely forgivable to call into question the value of art in our times. The disenchantment of being an artist in current times has caused a hollowness between us and our inner, primal, sensitive selves. It wrenches the question from us, unwittingly, and with great resistance:
“why am I doing this?”
4.Remembering
"Because you have to!”
To deny the call to create feels almost like a violation of nature. This spans across all borders of artistry. As producer Rick Rubin puts it:
“In the moment when we feel a work is taking shape, there’s a dynamic surge, followed by an urge to share, in the hopes of replicating that mysterious emotional charge in others...Through this we get to face our inner world outward, remove the boundaries of separation, and participate in the great remembering of what we came into this life knowing: There is no separation. We are one.”
5. Devolution
The desire to create is a fundamental human urge. We find ourselves becoming detached or disillusioned from our genuine creative selves through the chaotic trainwreck that is modern day society, and the severity of the contemporary art world. However, we must remind ourselves of the genuine authentic joy incited by simply making, with no intent or agenda. To scribble like a child can sometimes feel more authentic than executing something with a vision in mind. Create without borders of marketability, purely because you want to will this thing into existence. In a review of Duchamp’s previously mentioned lecture, Rebecca Bates of the Paris Review quotes the famous artist: “the artist has produced nothing unless the onlooker has said ‘you have produced something marvelous.’ ” Duchamp champions the experience of sharing art, reiterates the importance and reliance on art for the benefit of all. However, this stance also advocates the making of art for the validation of others, rather than for the unique and special process of making. Making work for the sole purpose of others to consume, feeds the arrangement of a consumerist art world, and eats your passion greedily from your outstretched hands. There is no more valid quantification of “value” than your own contentment with your work.
There is no more valid quantification of value than your own contentment with your work!
6.Art Persists
This is simply a skimming of a much larger and more important group of issues. The point of this essay is to promote the creation of art and to appeal to readers who may feel the hopelessness that I myself have felt pervades my practice. Assurance that you are not alone in this feeling and that what you do is not pointless. This by no means suggests we should “rise above” the conflict or promote any attempt to ignore what is happening in the world, in fact the opposite. Art must exist not “despite” but “because” of the chaos. There needs to be a “devolution” of the way in which we make art, a return to the dreamlike roots of creative joy. In this way, the importance of what we do remains. Throughout it all, art persists.