Art I found on a train window

Guten Tag Art Exhibition

Word of Art organized an exhibition for various local and international artists with a focus on the artists that were joining their art-commune. It was interesting to see such a  broad array of art from various artists. It was a very mixed exhibition with some really good pieces and some pieces that seemed not 'really good', but that was to be expected with so many different artists on display. There were unfortunately no explanation or information given on which artist did what, which would have been nice.


Outside was a live art piece and it was great to see art taking shape and be able to chat to the artists who seemed quite friendly.

I think one of the pieces I struggled to enjoy was actually by the new, international artists. Basically their exhibit was pictures of them vandalising municipal property. It was slightly amusing that these people would document themselves breaking the law for no apparent reason. I get graffiti and street art, because at least thats making a statement, but stealing the Gympie Street sign just says 'drunk-Friday-night-in-high-school'. I chatted to one of the other exhibiting artists and he couldn't understand it either, which reassured me that there wasn't some metaphor I was missing.

The exhibition was still good, and some great pieces were on display and will definitely keep my eye out for the artists, but am probably not going to be buying a picture of someone stealing a letter box or a street sign any time soon.

The Perpetuation of Creativity and Art

I went to go watch Exit Through the Gift Shop, a documentary style film directed by Banksy focusing on street art. I really enjoyed the film and the questions that it posed.

The main question for me was ‘how do we value art?’. Is it simply made important because of what the public and critics think? Is it the artist and his specific voice? Or is it the art itself? In Exit Through the Gift Shop Thierry Guetta, a Frenchman with no art experience or skill, creates an art exhibition that is only made popular by endorsements by Banksy and other street artists. Suddenly he is in magazines and doing interviews even though he can’t make art.

Art is very difficult to value as it is simply someone’s expression and I think this is Banksy’s point. The popular culture feed off what others are saying, what is in trendy magazines, what is on MTV. We base our opinion so heavily on what others think and how others value something.

Slap a $30 000 price tag on a piece of art and put it in a trendy gallery and watch it sell. In making it about the money we can often ignore what the artist is saying. It becomes dollars and cents and ceases to be expression and creativity. Success for the artist is not in money, but rather in being able to express a part of oneself.

An artist must move against culture, searching for new ways to express oneself. It is the perpetuation of creativity. An artist discovers a new way of expressing themselves and at first culture ignores or scorns them, but slowly people see an original and new expression and suddenly it becomes cool, and this forces the artist to move on. The arts will always be evolving trying to stay out of reach of popular culture.