Art in The Garbage
Art is certainly existential, out there somewhere, locked in creative minds who are dreaming about it, or perhaps already sitting there in everyday existence, on a wall, standing on a plinth, stretched on a canvas, fired in a kiln, or even cast in bronze. An echo of ourselves, and essential to our existence. Always has been. Right from the first scribblings. Right up to our latest AI, ‘is it really art’ creations.
On that note I am wondering if college portfolio interviews will degrade to questions and answers that will determine if you are creative in your approach to art rather than showing what’s in your portfolio. With the possibility that all your images may have been created by “AI” college entrance examiners may find your art to be insignificant in comparison to the answers given to questions about creativity. Maybe you will toss your art in the garbage and start brushing up on your vocabulary and verbal expression. That couldn’t happen, could it? Well maybe it could as all art colleges are facing the present-day encroachments into portfolios by AI images.
I saw a snippet on TV a couple of days ago where these two young entrepreneurs are developing a system for getting graffiti off public wall spaces. They demonstrated their progress, and it was obviously successful in their early stages of use. So, if the process stops at removing defacing “tags” it might be good, but I can just imagine some great graffiti murals being wiped out in short order by opinionated city councils who don’t know the first thing about art and could care less. I do remember one city councillor saying to me “Peter, art is not important, roads are important” and no one else at the council table disputed that!
On that same city council topic, I was reading today that one council may ban any public art after finding that it might not be possible to ban just one kind of art, in this case a mural like composition which dealt with the modern and topical gender issues which we have all become familiar with in the last few years. Imagine that, the distinct possibility that all public art may be chucked in the garbage by being banned in that particular town because it was offensive to some councillors.
Two more examples on this topic. First a terrific artist friend of mine said to me a couple of months ago, “What am I going to do with all my paintings?” He is in his late eighties and figures he won’t be around much longer, so it is a matter of concern. If the world considered painting as compulsive behavior and its products of no significant value, I suppose all those pieces could be thrown in the garbage. And secondly, I know that could happen as I heard through others that a family took what they wanted from such a collection of another artist who had passed away, and threw the remainder “in the bin”.
Peter Marsh CSPWC OSA SCA TWS
November 2023
