For those who don’t remember, this thread broke off from the
contentious thread about metal clay after Kim used the term "hubris"
to describe someone comparing their work to that of James Miller (if
we have gods in this little world, he is one of them, so I
concede–Kim used the term correctly). Then it garnered a post a day,
or every other day, and I hoped it would just die out, because I
become so obsessive about this stuff. But it didn’t, and now I wake
up in the morning thinking about it. If I made all the points here
that I’ve made in my head, I’d be way over Hanuman’s word limit (I
may be anyway).
When I say I call myself an artist as a political statement, I’m not
kidding. My entire life was changed by studying Michel Foucault’s
concept of discourse (if you put “define: discourse” in Google, you
can get a simplified idea of what he was about, e.g. “Foucault saw a
discourse as a system of ideas or knowledge, inscribed in a specific
vocabulary [eg…cultural/literary studies]: large groups of
statements. The important thing, for Foucault, was that such
discourses were used to legitimate the exercise of power over certain
persons by categorizing them as particular ‘types’.”)
Under all the arguments made in this thread is one about authority:
who gets to define art, and who gets to decide if you’ve “earned the
right” to call yourself an artist. Never mind who gets to “put you in
your place” if you have the “hubris” to claim the term for yourself,
or why you might want to avoid the term altogether.
When I said I would like to hear from people in non-Western
cultures, I knew very well that the most traditional don’t have a
term for “artist.” But I was once closely associated with the
discourse regarding “emerging Native artists” in California, and I
watched the different ways that people from traditional cultures deal
with this shift. It lead me to believe that there’s a kind of
dialectic involved.
As long as people are working within a traditional cultural context,
the idea of “art” is unlikely to emerge. Then somebody decides to try
something non-traditional, or somebody gets sent to art school, or
something else happens, and both crisis and opportunity arise. The
opportunity is for an expansion of imagination. The crisis is
cultural alienation. And it’s not only the “artists” themselves that
deal with this in different ways–what’s left of authority in the
traditional culture can have fits over it, too.
We don’t see this dynamic in “the West” because it happened so long
ago. Maybe reading “The Name of the Rose” could give people some
sense of what happened in Europe. I believe that, out of the
alienation that came from the breakdown of traditional authority came
a new kind of authority–I think of it as academic/commercial–but
that authority was still entirely male.
So this (on my theory, anyway) is the “antithesis” of traditional
culture. In the brave new world, an artist is a “individual” man who
is trained to certain standards and has been anointed by other
men–men with authority. The men, and the dynamics, have changed
considerably since the Renaissance (I’m not an art historian, so I’m
only drawing on my background in social history). With the advent of
modernism, and its periodic shake-ups, some women managed to get
alienated enough to become anointed. But it remained an
academic/commercial system.
Then we have the 60s. Those who didn’t “live” that time can’t
possibly imagine what it was like–everything was up for grabs,
including the definition of art and artists. Many people who
contribute to this forum wouldn’t be making jewelry if the 60s hadn’t
happened (I am not referring to James Miller!). And now we have the
fall-out from the 60s–including feminism and post-modernism–which
has either been co-opted by academic/commercial discourse, or is
still whanging around in the wings, causing as much trouble as it
can.
I could write a book about this trouble, but I’m finally writing a
novel (what hubris!) so I probably won’t. One aspect of it, however,
is exemplified by Julia Cameron’s 12 Step-oriented "Artists Way,"
which invites anyone who seeks to serve the “creative force” to call
herself (and I use the pronoun advisedly) an artist. Despite
occasional fears that Nobodaddy (try good old “define:”) might be
waiting in the wings to punish me, I have accepted this invitation.
You’re invited, too.
Lisa Orlando
Albion, CA, US