Throughout history, from the Renaissance to the Industrial Revolution to contemporary times, art has been used by society, to push a religious agenda or to propagate ideologies or used as a power or political tool by the wealthy and the influential. Indeed, it is the underlying part of many religions and cultures as societies develop.
There is a close relationship between artists and social life; they do not only live in it and witness it in person, but also transform their own situations into forms of art, and become the best metaphor for future generations to explore the relationship between eras and societies. Artists document what’s happening around them. In fast-changing times, artists remain conscious. They are the first people to articulate and represent problems in society, and so, art becomes a reflection of that society.
In today’s contemporary world, people seem to have lost the ability to deal with art in a meaningful way and push art to the fringes of society. Artists are sometimes looked upon as individuals living unconventional and unpractical lifestyles, ushering a sentiment that there is no need for art.
However, art creates the first step in crafting a future that encourages critical thinking. Art has the impact of changing minds and perceptions. Artistic expressions are the essence of striving for an open society.
Creativity is a gift, and without it, nothing moves. Creativity is extremely rare; most often it is mimicked as most people are not truly creative. As a local artist Leo, Yuen Wai Ip told me in person, “…to come to the creation of uniqueness, one has to observe, study, recognise, comprehend, acknowledge, connect, seek, discover, explore, probe, synthesise and conclude.”
Art is a vital force for humanity. It provides the opportunity to have the experience that we are independent human beings, and allows us to be ourselves. It elicits raw emotions and stands up for the best sides of human nature. Without art, there is no call for higher being. There is perhaps no greater insight into the human character than that possessed by artists. Art re-balances us. The art that a society calls “beautiful” gives vital clues as to what’s missing in us, as it compensates us for what we lack.
Artists are seeds of a healthy, forward-moving society. Art education is vital, not only for us to learn how to paint or sculpt, but to teach us to think like artists do. Artists and entrepreneurs share the same personalities – they are able to articulate the unknown and turn abstract into substance. They are used to working with limits – they free their minds to see and imply shapes, to imply ideas, to imply forms. They have the capacity to make connections and generate concepts and ideas.
They think out-of-the-box and teach us to see things from a fresh perspective. They are often the first people to pick up on a piece of decayed land and see possibilities of civilization and regeneration. Great artists evolve and do not follow the current or repeat the success of a predecessor. The same spirit moves societies forward and takes us to places we can only imagine. Art’s value to a society is incalculable although it is often very hard for artists to monetize their productivity in the capitalist world.
Different eras create some of the greatest artists of all times. Van Gogh with capitalism. Picasso with cubism, modernism and industrial society. Dali with surrealism and the post-war society. Andy Warhol with pop art and consumerism.
In modern Macau, the Las Vegas of the East of the 21st century, with its glamourous gaming industry and fast money, what kind of artists do we encounter? And when we are amongst them, do we see them living with us? How many true artists have we nurtured…or killed? And in answering this, where is our society heading?
