Aestheticization

the latest 11x14 watercolor

 A recent article on the Art21 Blog got my mind moving. It talked about fashion and altruism and the dangers in associating inherent morals to images. In a culture so image-based, I often overlook the underlying meaning in many of the images or messages in day-to-day objects. I especially thought it true in so-called "religious" art that appropriates an image and super-imposes its related-values onto other unrelated spheres.

As a Mormon artist I often grapple with how I can draw on my culture and beliefs in creating, but not produce art that comes off as a cheap knock-off, borrowing images that convey quick superficial messages. (I had a good wrestle about using beeswax and the hexagon in the installation I created for my thesis show). Like everything else, good art needs to have a lasting value, the kind that settles on you slowly and fills you from the bottom-up—rather than shoving a quick snack down your throat.

Here's a quote from the article that stuck with me:

[Here is] the danger inherent in aestheticization: signifiers become detached from their original meanings [and] float unmoored within our culture of images, vulnerable to endless appropriation and misuse.