cultural relevance?

["Clive Murray-White" <clivemw@zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz>]

Dear Norman,

Re: Distressed

One of the most interesting things about very contemporary art is that no
one ever knows if what we are looking at is the thing that will go down in
history as being most representative of a particular time, this is simply
because we are far to close to it to be able to put it into any meaningful
context. New artists are really gamblers who gamble that their particular
proposition is going to be seen as relevant.

What we choose as being up to the minute is as much an expression of how we
see ourselves as it is an expression about our time by an artist.

No one will ever be able to codify  the "other" that Bill talks about but I
do remember trying to explain this to my students years ago by saying that
there just some art works that cause "goose bumps" or hairs to rise, and as
this is very rare we should look for an analogy to cover the next infinitely
more common level of appreciation, for some reason I called it "closeness
bubbles", that weird phenomena that allows us to be attracted to other
people, the more bubbles there are the closer we can be to someone. I reckon
its fairly similar with art.

I was talking about this whole topic with a potter friend the other day and
he said that he was not an artist as he just tried to make beautiful really
nice things. I remembered Bill saying that he would be insulted if anybody
said that of his work and I would probably have said the same thing a few
years ago before something clicked in me to have a good think about these
words.

Firstly both "nice" and "beautiful" have been devalued to the extent that
they tend to mean kitsch or something like it.

I believe that we should allow ourselves to restore their meanings because,
if we really think about it, a totally honest attempt to create beauty
actually involves putting every single value, argument, or feeling that we
have into an artwork. By attempting to produce the beautiful we will
automatically imbue our work with our views on cultural relevance, the
nature of humanity, our own individual differences and so on. The most
exciting thing about it is that all it requires is total honesty.

Even more exciting is the fact that once you start down this kind of path
you realise that being original is very easy too, because as each of us is
different and if we are completely honest we will almost accidentally
produce original things, similarly as everyday is a new day and if our
reactions to it are of the moment we can also the produce the brand new
without having to think to much about it.

In the end all it needs is the nerve to be completely honest with yourself.

Best regards Clive

Clive Murray-White
Web: www.cowwarr.com