Exploring the Endless Possibilities of Global Art

Introduction

Global Arts has been a course that I consistently found myself being challenged from week to week when going through the readings and discussion posts. Before this course, art had seemed like a foreign language to me. I would never have described myself as having an “artistic eye”, however, I have admired people with artistic skills. Throughout these last 8-9 weeks, my perceptions have changed relating to all of the different possibilities of what art could be. The first assignment that consisted of searching for strange art allowed me to really be creative with my thinking of art. Early on in the class, I had learned from my peer’s discussion posts that art can be represented in a multitude of ways. For someone that didn’t know very much about art when starting this course, I feel that I now have more knowledge and a deeper appreciation for all forms of art.

Africanist Influence and Your move!

Concert dance, or simply just the movement of one’s body can be considered a form of art. The “Africanist influence” dance assignment forced me to analyze dance in a way that I had never really looked at it before. I began to realize that Global Arts consists of how one culture in our world can have a tremendous impact on another culture. Through watching the many different videos of the concert dance, I was able to notice the Africanist influence integrating with American concert dance. I found myself evaluating the rhythm of the music, the movement of the performers, and the mood/emotion being displayed during the performance. It was interesting to see how the dancer’s movements would interpret the music or tell a story. From these videos, this was when I began to realize how one’s body movements can be looked at as art. Body movement can basically be described as another language because people are able to express themselves through the movement of the body. This new knowledge that I gained about our bodies was essential to have when beginning to do the “affordance-based movement” assignment. Honestly, this assignment happened to be a little challenging for me. I had never done an exercise like it, so I believe that’s why I found myself in somewhat of an uncomfortable position. I was uncomfortable because the approach to the exercise consisted of the less thinking the better when it came to your body’s movements. Overthinking during this exercise seemed to be my biggest problem. However, after much thought, I finally realized why I believe I had trouble with the executing the exercise. Being an athlete most of my life, I had always been trained to move with a purpose especially in my sport of basketball. Athletes are instructed by their coaches to move with a purpose in order to accomplish a goal: victory. Even though I had trouble with the activity, it was very helpful to read about other’s successful experiences. I developed a deeper understanding of the movement exercise from my classmate’s posts for embracing a free mind, free body.

Irish Fairy Tales and Irish Music

For two weeks of this course, we spent time analyzing some forms of art in Irish culture, specifically their fairytales and music. It was interesting to see how one’s culture and traditions can influence art. One key takeaway from spending time learning about the Irish culture is that the people of Ireland seem to really cherish their culture and the history of their country. Their land is rich in its history which was expressed through their storytelling involving fairytales. Irish fairytales, an art of language that has been a part of Irish tradition and passed down from generation to generation. "The oral tradition has preserved the Irish cultural memory" (E-Learning, Lesson 1 Part 2). Each of the fairytales had their own moral to the story which gave more insight into the Irish beliefs and values. Story telling has been a huge part of the Irish culture. I noticed how much of an impact Irish music has had on their history and culture through the story telling of their songs/music. Irish traditional music has changed throughout its history because it has been impacted by emigration. Their music evolved through the travel of its people to various parts of the world. From my peers, it was interesting to hear their take on the impact of Irish music on the world music scene. Emigration of the Irish was key because people were able to collaborate and share ideas regarding music. Irish music began to transform and influence many bands/artists that we are familiar with today. Through other perspectives, I realized how Irish music began to inspire many American artists. Overall, the Irish are very proud of their culture and traditions surrounding Ireland’s rich history.

Frida

Similarly, to the Irish, Mexican traditions and culture has played a huge role in inspiring art for certain art pieces, specifically with artist Frida Kahlo. After watching the movie that highlighted her life and analyzing some of her art pieces, it was easy to tell how much her paintings connected to the Mexican culture. Most of Frida Kahlo’s paintings that she created were based off of her real-life experiences. Many times throughout her life, she was faced with many hardships and struggles that seem to motivate many of the art pieces that she created. Another topic that we read about in the module for this week was about stories and facts concerning the Mexican holiday, “Day of the Dead”. I noticed that the Mexican people seemed to be very passionate about this holiday. The celebrations and rituals that occur during the “Day of the Dead” have been portrayed in her paintings as well. Through her paintings, I was able to get a glimpse of the pain in her life, but also the perspective of life and death in the Mexican culture. The Mexican people don’t look at death as a time for mourning. The culture intends for birth and death to just be a part of a natural process where death leads to renewal. After viewing pictures and videos of the “Day of the Dead”, I noticed that this holiday is a very colorful celebration involving bright colors used in creating their decorations and altars. In the Learning Area, it stated, "Mexican culture is a highly visual one" (Lesson 2, Part 3). In Frida's art, she used many bright colors in her paintings, and also would include many bright colored flowers that she would wear in her hair. Skulls and skeletons were seen in her paintings that again connected her art to the “Day of the Dead”. Examining this holiday more has given me a better understanding concerning the perspective of death in the Mexican culture. Through Frida’s art work, I was able to gain an understanding of her appreciation for her culture.

Animal Bodies

Analyzing the art of taxidermy was a very strange and somewhat uncomfortable experience for me. I found it almost hard for me to refer to the different pieces as a form of art. During this week of the course, it was interesting to read about the different perspectives concerning “botched taxidermy” being morally or ethically correct. I purposely chose to read one article that was from the viewpoint of the art of taxidermy being wrong, and another article that viewed taxidermy truly as art. In the journal, Thomas Grunfeld described that his goal in his art work is to come up with thought-provoking ideas using the animals. I noticed that his perspective of “botched taxidermy” was different from other artists because he never directly worked with the taxidermy aspects. His role consisted of coming up with ideas behind the art pieces that are then constructed by a taxidermist. Angela Singer, contrarily, was not afraid to voice her opinion of taxidermy and the purpose behind her works of art. She was an animal rights activist, that through her work was striving to raise awareness regarding animal sufferance. Steve Baker had mentioned in his essay that many people view the art of “botched taxidermy” as being ethically irresponsible because of the way animals are treated. Singer attempts to expose her audience to the conversation of animal cruelty by humans. Through her art pieces, her goal is "to make the viewer consider the morality of our willingness to use animals for our own purposes" (Singer, pg. 11). Her art work basically portrayed her voice concerning an issue that she strongly believed in.

Socially Engaged Art

This last week’s discussion describing socially engaged art gave me a better understanding that art can’t be confined to what is considered traditional forms of art. I realized that socially engaged art can be very valuable in our world because it has the power to be transformative. I was really interested in learning about this form of art because in another one of my classes this semester, we had been focusing on communities creating a sustainable change and what that would look like. Finding a way to get people engaged in the community is essential when trying to implement a change. Socially engaged art is intriguing because an artist is able to connect people to a political/social practice or an issue. This is done by human interaction and participation. The audience engagement is a way for an artist to promote awareness or address social issues in the world. This would be how the previous week’s discussion of animal bodies ties in with socially engaged art. Socially engaged art is so unique because it can represent a bigger picture and greater purpose.

I never would have considered myself as an art person. However, after this class, I have developed a deeper understanding and appreciation for all forms of art. Exploring different forms of art from around the world has changed my perspective of what art is. I don’t think that it can be defined by just one thing. Not only did I learn about art over the weeks, but I was able to gain new perspectives of cultures from around the world as well. It has been interesting to see how art has connected people from different cultures globally. I am grateful that this class has provided me with new insights concerning various forms of art.