COMMENSAL ISSUE 91

Dear Theo,

Just found some bits in Commensal on The Purpose Of Art. C90, p14 & C90 p31 . Unfortunately my copy of Commensal 89 was burnt. This wasn't an act of Dada, but of necessity. In Welsh farmhouse over Christmas, cold, needed to start fire, nothing else available.

Here's my twopenneth.

Art's purpose is communication.

Any creative/destructive act any creature does with the intention of communicating with any creature including itself is Art.

Art comes in so many different forms because no one discipline is capable of communicating all messages. Different disciplines are more or less capable of communicating particular messages depending on the message, the ability of the artist and the perception of the recipient.

C90, p14 Eric Hills quotes from a book that says Art originally was probably functional, meant to store, transmit and retrieve information. How is Art today different? I know it is more complex, but it is still functional whether it transmits stories, emotions or the position of the local deer, it serves to communicate. I know someone is going to say Art today can be purely decorative, but doesn't decoration say something about the decorator. Of course it does. Our choice of decor is amongst other things a subtle form of communication to others and ourselves about the way we see ourselves.

I have seen cave paintings in the Dordogne, France. They were TOPtastic !

You can imagine early man saying to early woman "I love the way he applies paint with a club and his use of the lack of light. Your cave or mine! "

I suspect its major function has never changed!

John Stubbings

John : some good points ! However, I’d add some caveats to the "art is communication" theme. A ‘phone call is communication, but isn’t necessarily art. I do think, though, that communication is an essential aspect of art and I like the idea of self-communication. We don’t truly perceive until we try to express that which we perceive. Not simply facts, either, but feelings & impressions; ways of seeing or understanding the world.

Theo