The Triumph of Mischief

On the Telos of Art

Have you ever asked yourself one humble, but complex, question: Does art have a purpose? 

When staring at the confluence of colors in a painting or the feeling of catharsis elicited by the actors’ performances on stage, have you asked yourself: What is the source for all this motivation?

Or when feeling perplexed by the dashing and swift moves by a dancers ensemble or the lush sounds emitted by the golden instruments on stage, do you ask yourself: Why do I find this so appealing?

Some of us find solace in art for many reasons. Most of us are drawn to our favorite photographs, a paintings, or films by their aesthetic pleasure or that inexplicable but tempting feeling of connection to the artwork. Others confide in the cognitive attributions that a work of literature can give us about a country, a city or issues we are unfamiliar with or have never heard of. Some of us even find at home when we are place ourselves in a gallery or museum. Life, to put it bluntly, could not be the same without it.

But whatever it is, we know we need art in our lives. It’s an essential part of the human condition in the same stratum that politics, philosophy or science all fall under. And though art itself may not have a definitive, universal telos we can all agree on, we find it nurturing for the soul and mind.

So find your inner-drive. That nexus of energies and fountain of inspiration that provides you with meaning and direction in your life. Artists animate our lives by creating beauty and providing us with ways to look at the world in complete new ways.

So ask yourself, is there such thing as “too much art”? The answer is no. And that’s only because it fulfills our need for drive and purpose. We all need it.

The Ties that Bind us: How the Art of Jean Shin Discloses Forgotten Worlds

One of the most striking and unique effects of the visual arts is to illustrate the bold dichotomies that permeate society. Whether it is absence and presence, creation and destruction or growing and shrinking, these are all differences that we take for granted in our busy, daily lives. To that effect, one could say that contemporary visual art brings attention to the ties that bind us; or the growing gaps that estrange our experiences. After all, our identities in post-industrial societies – whether as citizens in the public sphere or consumers in the private sphere – are shaped and delineated by the people we interact with daily; the social networks we belong to; the socio-political institutions that dictate rules of behavior; but most importantly, by the natural phenomena that surrounds us.

Hence why the New York-based visual artist, Jean Shin (who has marked her career with elaborate works that redefine the inextricable links between individual and collective identity) recently collaborated with artist/architect Brian Ripel for her latest two-part installation, Unlocking, currently on view at SMoCa in Scottsdale, Arizona. As her website explains it, “The first part of the installation Lost Vista, is comprised of a dense collection of obsolete keys, stacked sideways to upwardly reveal their cut edges. The material is transformed into a topography that references the surrounding mountains.”  This topography shows us how random and accidentally-shaped objects are built with shapes that mirror nature. Usually taken for granted, these shapes are highlighted by Jean so that we may see the metaphoric connections of materials and nature, in what she calls “the paradoxical relationship between tectonic development and the desert landscape.”

In doing this, Jean alerts us to an old but forgotten understanding of truth. The Greeks called it Aletheia (ἀλήθεια), which roughly translates to the unconcealing or disclosure of something previously hidden. The fascinating aspect about Unlocking is the unconcealing of how the cut edges of keys and the object’s relation to something outside our world – the outside world that paradoxically we all belong to. It is almost as if the earth is calling forth itself and reminding us of its richness and beauty. The world is opened in a complete new way via Jean’s art. It is our turn to experience it, protect it, and rejoice in it wholeheartedly.