Wednesday, January 14, 2015

Is Art racist?

"The eye sees only what the mind is prepared to comprehend." - Henri Bergson, French Philosopher and Educator

So true!! You can only grasp what your mind is prepared to. So does this mean that artistic creations will suffer as they do not compliment ideologies of certain sect of people. What conspired in the murder of Charlie Hebdo, a French satirical weekly magazine, can be perceived as either “end of democracy” or “a start of an era of revolutionary art”. It all depends upon the pre-conceived notions of people who read this.

This French magazine’s new cover of Prophet Mohammed has drawn mixed reactions worldwide. To avoid racial criticism the magazine explained what the drawing is portraying however you cannot change the pre set perspectives of people. Hence many Muslims worldwide are feeling insulted. So who decides the division line in art? Does the religion give their dos and don’ts? So in a particular religion who will get this powerful role? Should government be given the power to censor art? Is that democracy?

The world of art is not new to criticism hence addressing racism both real and perceived is a sticky task. Historically artists, writers, painters and film makers worldwide were killed, slaughtered, disappeared and even send to exile because their art was considered racial. Recent image circulation of Russian socialite and Garage editor-in-chief Dasha Zhukova sitting on a bondage chair held up by a mannequin in the likeness of a black woman published on Dr. Martin Luther King Day drew attention worldwide. The message understood from this art was white dominance and black women as objects. However the real message portrayed by the artist was symbolizing chair as bondage and women their prey. This art was to bring out the message that even today women are being suffered in various aspects of society. One of the main roles of art is to talk about disturbing things and make people confront them in themselves. And both the artist and Russian socialite had to come out with apology.

I am not advocating acceptance of art as it is but where do we draw the line. How do we fence the creativity that is required to come up with art. Freedom of speech and expression is a right for all and protests should be expressed if artworks are deemed offensive. With intellectual understanding of a certain subject, real implications need be drawn of a certain art and artist.


I believe in meaningful art and society. Revolutionary art is what our world need today badly.   

3 comments:

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  2. Pope Francis put it best for me and in everyday terms "if (a close friend) says a swear word against my mother,he's going to get a punch in the nose" He also said that religious freedom and freedom of expression are fundamental human rights,but they are also not a total liberties,"there is a limit,every religion has it's dignity.I cannot mock a religion that respects human life and the human person"
    The Pope also condemned the Paris violence,"One cannot offend,make war,kill in the name of one's religion,that is in the name of God,to kill in the name of God is an aberration".
    This all on the Charlie Hebdo massacre.Sums it up for me,also for a strange reason reminds me of the last match of Zinedine Zedan,the punch in the nose part of the Pope's words.

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  3. thats what my whole point is where to draw the line and who draws the line based on what factors... everybody's perspective is different to every situation so there can never be a drawing line which makes everybody happy.. thats because god made everyone unique..
    the point that we always forget the actual concern... concern of terrorism which is not religious at all.. Jihad organisation does have all Muslims rather so many other nationals... so i don't understand why always a terror act ends up in highlighting Islam. that is precisely the motto of these terror groups.. they keep on killing innocents and we all keep on arguing on who to blame: press, leader, journalist or country. its really sad.
    the pope once called Europe as infertile grandmother and the statement drew its share of controversies. This racism came from pope Francis himself. although what he meant was the concerns building up in Europe but the words he selected were taken as racism.
    we all need to stop talking about religion now and need to talk about how to stop terrorism in killing more innocents.
    K.P.S Gill brought an end to Punjab's insurgency by putting aside the fact that Punjabi boys were terrorists and killing civilians irrespective of the religion that kill belonged to. Thats what we need now..

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