Art Buff |
Conceptual art, design work, and crafts from a 140 lb art history weakling determined to flex his creative muscles. |
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![I’m hoping to make this idea of cultural connectedness a more central part of my life. I want to engage in it more and gain a better understanding of its qualities. I would love to begin to tie some of my art into it as well. May 17, 2010What this all comes down to is that I think that it’s on us to create new traditions, symbols, and cultural products for the purposes of representing our local, regional, or national cultures… If this idea “sticks” for me, if it proves to be something I continue to believe in, then I can see myself working to make it a focus of my career. I’ve always known my passion for culture was stronger than my passion for art. Perhaps I’ve found the cause I’ve been looking for. July 24, 2010 Back in the spring I felt like I finally came upon what I was searching for through these past ideas. I hadn’t forgotten my passion for culture and identity building, so I began re-reading chapters on National Romanticism I first came across during my thesis research on the Arts & Crafts Movement. From there I began putting all of my thoughts about it down on paper. The part of the movement I was interested in was how architects and designers took imagery from folk crafts and textiles, translating and visually updating them to create buildings and objects that worked to build their nations’ identities. A peasant-made table leg might be translated into the column of a great library, for instance. It was that abstraction and translation in particular that really struck me. Romantic Nationalism was particularly popular in Scandinavia, Poland, Hungary, and Russia (though the aims of Chicago’s Prairie School of architecture tie into it too). I’d been deeply interested in National Romanticism and the notion of folk art and folk culture for a while, but always got mentally stuck when reading about them because they just don’t make sense in today’s world. Both concepts are very much 19th century ideas. National Romanticism relies on a peasant folk culture that we don’t have anymore and that America never quite had in the same way Europe did. Still, one quote in a particular seemed so beautiful to me:National Romanticism provided a series of answers to the 19th century search for styles that would be culturally meaningful and evocative, yet not merely historicist.Reading that, I thought, that’s exactly the idea I want to get at today — tying cultural meaningfulness into aesthetics. But how? Things that worked in the 19th century just can’t work the same way in the 21st. So, I started reading about all the ideas I was interested in that related to the intersection of culture/identity building and art/design: vernacular architecture, The Prairie School, the 1970’s Roots Movement in the US, the 21st century “new roots movement”, and folk art. With every chapter, I took notes, created questions, and tried to make sense of it all. My main question eventually became “How can folk art, which drew on a shared community culture and aesthetic be created today in an individualistic, culturally fragmented/pluralistic, much more creative society?” After all, when you get right down to it, folk art relies on a certain lack of creativity and cultural isolation. How else would numerous people make objects in the same style? Art making, for the most part, is much more individual and creative today. People create their own styles, and often times even go beyond that and create their own techniques and personal iconographies. Eventually I came upon how this could all work. If an artist can’t draw on a common aesthetic anymore why not expand one’s sources of inspiration and shoot for a common history, experience or lifestyle? That way an individual retains control over their aesthetic, but still draws inspiration from something a community holds in common. I thought of communities I was familiar with, what did they share? What would be relevant to create art about? I thought about the Athena Grocery Store I used to frequent in Greektown. It’s the only Greek grocery store in Chicago and closed due to fire a year ago. Greek people all around the city relied on it, it was a staple of the neighborhood, and now it’s gone, damaged by the smoke which burnt down Costas and severely damaged the local Greek music shop next door. I thought too of Batavia, with its shut down of Fermilab’s Tevatron, the world’s highest energy and, until a few years ago, largest particle accelerator, and a source of pride for most people in town. Could an art project speak to these common experiences? Out of these and other ideas, I came to think a new breed of folk art is certainly possible. If one were to create very public, accessible art pieces addressing the common history or experiences of a community wouldn’t that be a kind of folk art? Wouldn’t that help bolster a sense of shared identity? As I became excited about this idea, I started reading a book published by the American Folklore Society on folklore, folklife, folk art, etc. Their quotes seemed to speak to this same idea.Botkin poetically sounded the humanist call for “folkness”, the use of traditional ideas that could invigorate mass culture through creative artists. Robert Bishop + Jacqueline AtkinsFolk artists are the ongoing celebrants of the American experience and spirit. They are the documenters of the way life is lived. Simon Bronner[Ruth Suckow was] concerned for building social identities that revolve around one’s own heritage and contribute to a national cultural awareness, she wages that this movement relate to…the social context of the folk arts. It may include looking to the traditions of family or small-town life, the ordinariness of everyday life, or the specialness of local celebrations. Simon Bronner Ruth Suckow’s essay was my favorite and really summed up my ideas best. Written in 1932, her essay focused on a need for more domestically, rather than exotically, inspired art. In it she asked, “Who constitutes ‘the folk’ today?” I’d wondered the same thing myself, and both of us had come to the same conclusion. It’s us. It was that simple idea that made me realize that I have the power to create folk art because “the folks” have expanded to include me and everyone else within a given community. This whole idea of a contemporary, relevant approach to folk art really excited me for a few reasons. First is that I’ve been slowly searching for and working towards a workable idea like this for the past year. Second is that I’ve had dual interests in art and culture since high school (always viewing culture as more important but art as more fun and thrilling), but had never found a way to tie them together. Whenever I tried to think up a culturally based art piece, I couldn’t generate any ideas. With this new approach, I came up with four rough ideas without even pushing myself very hard. Third is that I’ve always had an interest in movements. Counter-cultural movements, youth movements, subcultural movements, whatever. I’ve always found the idea of people banding together, calling themselves something, and working passionately for something new or different to be really exciting.
Lastly, it also excites me because it feels so different than what’s expected of contemporary art-making. Since only a few centuries ago, the artist has been viewed as a heroic individual, pursuing his own vision and inspiration. To me this approach feels so different because it makes a community a higher priority than an individual. Inspiration doesn’t start internally so much as externally. Instead of art transcending culture (which it often does nowadays – arguably), it relies on it. I felt through all of this that I’d come up with something new. It resembles folk art and National Romanticism in the idea of identity-building through aesthetics. However, it does away with their reliance on traditional, communally shared art forms, instead making use of shared history, lifestyle and experiences, categories more associated with folklife. At the same time it adds to folk art the artistic freedom contemporary artists revel in. I’ve decided to call this idea lolk, combining the words local and folk. It’s localist in that the art would be particular to a region, folk in that it would draw on shared aspects of that community. Last weekend I finished my first lolk project in Batavia, and it was totally exciting. I’m excited to select other communities and then delving into their histories, values, daily life, and common experiences to find something to create art about. I like the idea of using this concept to create art in towns where the common person doesn’t get much exposure to it otherwise. How would they react to art focusing on something in their life and their community? I want to view these art projects as gifts. I want to create something people can relate to and take value from. As my own practice is moving more and more into guerilla/street art, I’m excited to confront people in public during their daily lives.](http://26.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lsol7h5kyS1qadu7zo1_500.jpg)
I’m hoping to make this idea of cultural connectedness a more central part of my life. I want to engage in it more and gain a better understanding of its qualities. I would love to begin to tie some of my art into it as well. May 17, 2010
What this all comes down to is that I think that it’s on us to create new traditions, symbols, and cultural products for the purposes of representing our local, regional, or national cultures… If this idea “sticks” for me, if it proves to be something I continue to believe in, then I can see myself working to make it a focus of my career. I’ve always known my passion for culture was stronger than my passion for art. Perhaps I’ve found the cause I’ve been looking for. July 24, 2010
Back in the spring I felt like I finally came upon what I was searching for through these past ideas. I hadn’t forgotten my passion for culture and identity building, so I began re-reading chapters on National Romanticism I first came across during my thesis research on the Arts & Crafts Movement. From there I began putting all of my thoughts about it down on paper. The part of the movement I was interested in was how architects and designers took imagery from folk crafts and textiles, translating and visually updating them to create buildings and objects that worked to build their nations’ identities. A peasant-made table leg might be translated into the column of a great library, for instance. It was that abstraction and translation in particular that really struck me.
Romantic Nationalism was particularly popular in Scandinavia, Poland, Hungary, and Russia (though the aims of Chicago’s Prairie School of architecture tie into it too). I’d been deeply interested in National Romanticism and the notion of folk art and folk culture for a while, but always got mentally stuck when reading about them because they just don’t make sense in today’s world. Both concepts are very much 19th century ideas. National Romanticism relies on a peasant folk culture that we don’t have anymore and that America never quite had in the same way Europe did. Still, one quote in a particular seemed so beautiful to me:
National Romanticism provided a series of answers to the 19th century search for styles that would be culturally meaningful and evocative, yet not merely historicist.
Reading that, I thought, that’s exactly the idea I want to get at today — tying cultural meaningfulness into aesthetics. But how? Things that worked in the 19th century just can’t work the same way in the 21st. So, I started reading about all the ideas I was interested in that related to the intersection of culture/identity building and art/design: vernacular architecture, The Prairie School, the 1970’s Roots Movement in the US, the 21st century “new roots movement”, and folk art. With every chapter, I took notes, created questions, and tried to make sense of it all. My main question eventually became “How can folk art, which drew on a shared community culture and aesthetic be created today in an individualistic, culturally fragmented/pluralistic, much more creative society?” After all, when you get right down to it, folk art relies on a certain lack of creativity and cultural isolation. How else would numerous people make objects in the same style? Art making, for the most part, is much more individual and creative today. People create their own styles, and often times even go beyond that and create their own techniques and personal iconographies.
Eventually I came upon how this could all work. If an artist can’t draw on a common aesthetic anymore why not expand one’s sources of inspiration and shoot for a common history, experience or lifestyle? That way an individual retains control over their aesthetic, but still draws inspiration from something a community holds in common. I thought of communities I was familiar with, what did they share? What would be relevant to create art about? I thought about the Athena Grocery Store I used to frequent in Greektown. It’s the only Greek grocery store in Chicago and closed due to fire a year ago. Greek people all around the city relied on it, it was a staple of the neighborhood, and now it’s gone, damaged by the smoke which burnt down Costas and severely damaged the local Greek music shop next door. I thought too of Batavia, with its shut down of Fermilab’s Tevatron, the world’s highest energy and, until a few years ago, largest particle accelerator, and a source of pride for most people in town. Could an art project speak to these common experiences? Out of these and other ideas, I came to think a new breed of folk art is certainly possible. If one were to create very public, accessible art pieces addressing the common history or experiences of a community wouldn’t that be a kind of folk art? Wouldn’t that help bolster a sense of shared identity?
As I became excited about this idea, I started reading a book published by the American Folklore Society on folklore, folklife, folk art, etc. Their quotes seemed to speak to this same idea.
Botkin poetically sounded the humanist call for “folkness”, the use of traditional ideas that could invigorate mass culture through creative artists. Robert Bishop + Jacqueline Atkins
Folk artists are the ongoing celebrants of the American experience and spirit. They are the documenters of the way life is lived. Simon Bronner
[Ruth Suckow was] concerned for building social identities that revolve around one’s own heritage and contribute to a national cultural awareness, she wages that this movement relate to…the social context of the folk arts. It may include looking to the traditions of family or small-town life, the ordinariness of everyday life, or the specialness of local celebrations. Simon Bronner
Ruth Suckow’s essay was my favorite and really summed up my ideas best. Written in 1932, her essay focused on a need for more domestically, rather than exotically, inspired art. In it she asked, “Who constitutes ‘the folk’ today?” I’d wondered the same thing myself, and both of us had come to the same conclusion. It’s us. It was that simple idea that made me realize that I have the power to create folk art because “the folks” have expanded to include me and everyone else within a given community.
This whole idea of a contemporary, relevant approach to folk art really excited me for a few reasons. First is that I’ve been slowly searching for and working towards a workable idea like this for the past year. Second is that I’ve had dual interests in art and culture since high school (always viewing culture as more important but art as more fun and thrilling), but had never found a way to tie them together. Whenever I tried to think up a culturally based art piece, I couldn’t generate any ideas. With this new approach, I came up with four rough ideas without even pushing myself very hard. Third is that I’ve always had an interest in movements. Counter-cultural movements, youth movements, subcultural movements, whatever. I’ve always found the idea of people banding together, calling themselves something, and working passionately for something new or different to be really exciting.
Lastly, it also excites me because it feels so different than what’s expected of contemporary art-making. Since only a few centuries ago, the artist has been viewed as a heroic individual, pursuing his own vision and inspiration. To me this approach feels so different because it makes a community a higher priority than an individual. Inspiration doesn’t start internally so much as externally. Instead of art transcending culture (which it often does nowadays – arguably), it relies on it.
I felt through all of this that I’d come up with something new. It resembles folk art and National Romanticism in the idea of identity-building through aesthetics. However, it does away with their reliance on traditional, communally shared art forms, instead making use of shared history, lifestyle and experiences, categories more associated with folklife. At the same time it adds to folk art the artistic freedom contemporary artists revel in. I’ve decided to call this idea lolk, combining the words local and folk. It’s localist in that the art would be particular to a region, folk in that it would draw on shared aspects of that community.
Last weekend I finished my first lolk project in Batavia, and it was totally exciting. I’m excited to select other communities and then delving into their histories, values, daily life, and common experiences to find something to create art about. I like the idea of using this concept to create art in towns where the common person doesn’t get much exposure to it otherwise. How would they react to art focusing on something in their life and their community? I want to view these art projects as gifts. I want to create something people can relate to and take value from. As my own practice is moving more and more into guerilla/street art, I’m excited to confront people in public during their daily lives.
