Art for the uninitiated: Art as a living language

Posted by Kimberly under Blogging, Reflections, art
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It surely isn’t a sweeping statement to say everyone communicates on a daily basis. Through the words we speak, the text we type - we convey our thoughts and emotions through a multitude of languages. While it seems most obvious that art consists of visual imagery, art can also be seen as a language. It may not take the structure of a conventional language - imagine the grammar of art! (Has, have, had of art?) Yet in art, a new vocabulary is created. Consisting of images, signs and symbols - these construct a certain message that the brain hopes to perceive.

Wikipedia mentions languages live, die and evolve over time. A language that is in a “continuous state of change” is known as a living language. Though art may not adopt the technicalities of spoken/written tongue, it is to a certain extent a living language. While you might be most flabbergasted at this point, ponder on this deeper - art has been alive and used as means of expression from the earliest of times.

Scruffy cavemen have marked their conquests on stone walls with paintings of men killing beastly bisons with their spears. These raw drawings depicting successful hunts have dated back as far as 32,000 years ago. Research proves that these paintings weren’t merely methods of communication and could have served as religious ceremonial purposes.

Fast forward a few million years and Egyptians started using drawings to convey thoughts and ideas. These were known as hieroglyphs, which literally meant “sacred writings” as these were mainly used bu goverment officials for God. Characters represented by graphical figures of animals or objects, hieroglyphs may remind one of the modern day Wingdings but they were certainly illustrative and not all too cryptic.

I’ve been guilty of ruining the walls (weren’t we all?) of my home as a child. The moment my mother bestowed me with a pack of colour pencils, I took the chance to decorate the pristine walls with my child-like scrawls of princesses and rainbows. My mother wasn’t too pleased and grumbled every time she had to clean up my mess, but I suppose my drawings were just a projection of fairytales that I longed to live in (much thanks to the staple diet of Disney princess cartoons I lived on!). Even as children, we didn’t need much words, just some art to describe what we had on our minds.

Remember the party game, Pictionary? Participants are tasked to identify specific words based on drawings by their team mates. While one doesn’t need to be Picasso and produce a masterpiece, but doodling was the main objective of the game to get the message across.

Art as we know it today takes on many forms. The ubiquitous T-shirt is a mode of wearable art and all at once seen as a vehicle of self-expression. Once a mere garment that exuded humble beginnings, the T-shirt is now celebrated as a blank canvas and a crowd-favourite with its basic structure, cut and fit. Simple yet undeniably utilitarian, the T-shirt is envisioned as a fabric that reveals the influences and beliefs of an individual. Because of its universal appeal, the T-shirt has perpetuated as common wear in varied levels of the society.

With a portrayed image or an intriguing combination of text, the T-shirt may act as an added voice. Before US President Barack Obama was inaugurated into office, many of his supporters wore shirts with his image emblazoned across. Of words such as HOPE and PROGRESS on the tees, it rallied people together and provided them a sense of belonging.

Art may have gone through various movements - the Italian Renaissance, Fluxus, Post-modern to Conceptual Art, but it still holds words and thoughts that are waiting to be shared. The next time you see a work of art, just lean in close enough and let it whisper into your ear. Who knows what it might say to you.

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EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the fourth in a series of blog posts which aims to discuss art for novices.

To read the other offerings in this special series, see:

• Like this is art, meh?
• Art for the uninitiated: Let’s eat some cherries
• Art for the uninitiated: Not-so-beautiful
  

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