I have recently been reading a lot more art news in an attempt to make better posts here on Vagary Art. During some of this reading I came across something that interested me greatly. In a regular newspaper, not an art magazine or art blog, I came across the description of a recent art show in which the artist is described as “creating a dialogue (with the public)” (traer un dialogo). This struck me since it is a phrasing and concept I have never come across when reading English daily newspapers or even in regional art newspaper (although it does come up in arts magazines).  Essentially the idea behind this phrasing is communicating to the common people, not the high art world, that they have a role to play in art. By viewing a piece, they are participating in a “conversation” with the artist or creating a discourse. This concept accepts the influence of viewers on art, a piece of art on other art and society in general while it invites the viewer to respond in turn instead of simply viewing the piece in a vacuum.

This is a sharp contrast to what I have observed while living in the United States where many times art is seen as unnecessary and as the realm of the elite. On discussing this idea with a friend she suggested that those artists who do accept and embrace this idea of “creating a dialogue” are looked down on here, and their work is considered “folk” or “craft” art, essentially “not real art.”

This society seems to be pushing art out of common life and isolating it, with graffiti and tattoo artists picking up the slack and bringing art into society. This interests me because I find local tattooist to be more “artists” here than “transcribers of images” the way they are in Puerto Rico, but on the other hand, the level of accomplishment in graffiti art locally is nothing like that found in Puerto Rico. The reason for this, IMO, is the view (here in Albuquerque) that public art (graffiti) is a visual nuisance. For example, a local artist has recently gone around painting rainbows down the sides of ugly buildings in an attempt to entice people to look up and smile. His resulting jailing for this attempt at public discourse is in sharp contrast to the work of artists like Sofia Maldonado whose enormous graffiti works in Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico  became a celebrated focal point that inspired others to beautify the urban center.

As I find myself developing as an artist and figuring out what kind of art I want to create, these socio-cultural differences take on greater importance in my mind. I’ve come to believe that establishing a discourse is absolutely essential to creating “art” versus simply an attractive image. At the same time I am disturbed by how little importance is given to art and the role of art in society in many places which suggests to me a sort of cultural retardation. Not in the sense of becoming “less intelligent” but rather a slowing or reversal. Someone has suggested to me that the current atmosphere of art censorship is almost a cultural inquisition.