Can Art Speak For What Language Fails To Convey?
Many art work seek to either describe the world or transform it. Language arts such as poem and novels are powerful because they can manipulate what people think. Similarly, visual arts can do the same. Art is an universal language. Visual arts convey as much as words do, if not more. Ai Wei Wei brought attention to the 2008 Sichuan earthquake by putting children’s backpacks into a pattern that shows audience their innocent lives. One of his arts used red, blue, yellow, and white backpacks to write the words “She had lived in this world happily for seven years”. This sentence alone wouldn’t evoke any emotion until audience know that each backpack represents each life lost at the Sichuan earthquake. The visual representation can sometimes be more daunting than paragraphs of words. The backpack is also a better representation for the lost lives because it has no language barrier. Everyone can experience this form of art. This piece of art both describes and transforms the world. It brings awareness to the malfunctional government in Sichuan that did not create strong buildings to prevent such disaster. It possibly transformed the world as it might have led to the government to better fund the country’s architectures or angry citizens protest against the underfunded buildings. In another perspective, it also describes the world. It allows visitors to see what had happened in that area. The message spread to other countries in form of photography, which is why we learn about it in TOK class. It made us feel sympathy about the helpless children in Sichuan. It is undeniable that this artwork has a profound impact in our societies.
Many artwork do not have a intentional message or reason for its creation. However, many of them bring us a conversation. For example, the artist Andres Serrano created the artwork Piss Christ that became a controversy. The controversial art brought society’s attention to it and thus made people think about what is the deeper meaning of the picture. Some thinks that it is disrespectful to the christianity religion whereas others think that the picture captures the truth about Christ. When there are differences in opinion, people would argue. And argument brought us into a better realization of the truth. Some critics have changed their minds after they learn that the art means to praise God, instead of diminishing it. Still some people do not agree and hare Andres Serrano, but a lot of people has added the other side’s view into their perspectives. This ultimately transform the world because it changes people’s thoughts.
Arts describe the world to transform it. Whether you know it or not, your mind changes every time you receive new stimulus. A ted talk by Lara Boyd, “After watching this, your brain will not be the same” demonstrates this very well. Your mind would never be the same again after you see something. And that something can be art. Art forces people to think and see the world through the lense of the canva. Of course, literature do the same. However, in my opinion, art can be more powerful than literary because it reaches a wider population. Children whose reading level are low might not understand words but they can understand what their eyes tell them. Without language barrier, anyone in the world can view arts. Art have a more immediate effect on audience than do literature.
When we look at art, we obviously use sense perception as the way of knowing. But sense perception would not allow us to understand the piece of art without also using imagination as a way of knowing. Imagination allows us to fill in the blanks that artists left for us. A lot of paintings do not draw out everything realistically. That is when we need to use our imagination to connect the dots to get a full image of what the artist means to convey. In addition, audience come up with a explanation for the work of art by using their imaginations. Because humans have different brains, not everyone in the audience have the same imagination, which is why we come to different conclusion when we view art. To expand our views on a artwork, we must listen to what another mind have to say.