How can I better understand art?
Whenever I mention ‘art’, a very common response I get from anyone who is not in the art world is ‘I don’t know anything about art’ or ‘Yea I don’t really get it…’.
I have made it one of my life goals to set out to change that and make the concept of art something we can all enjoy and not slink away from.
One of the best methods I have found to work for myself is to remind myself that it is about a ‘feeling’.
The way music gives you a ‘feeling’? Art does the same thing.
There’ll be some songs you don’t enjoy because you don’t like the sound of it, or you perhaps you don’t like the lyrics, or maybe it doesn’t put you in the right mood.
And sometimes it just works.
It speaks to you, you can relate to it, it jolts a memory. It might be a really depressing song but you know what, you feel pretty damn shitty right now and you just want to wallow in it.
When you listen to a new song on Spotify, you may or may not look up the artist. Maybe you do, and maybe you read up on his or her history and that knowledge adds another dimension to the song. But maybe you don’t, and it doesn’t matter because you love the song, no matter where the artist is from, how old they are, or when they dropped the album.
Art is not very different. And don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.
You’re allowed to love a piece of art, and you’re allowed to hate it.
But give it a chance before you come to that conclusion. You don’t decide to hate a song when you’re 2 seconds into it… at least give it 35 more seconds mate.
When an artist makes a work, and you don’t recognise top from bottom, and can’t make heads or tails of it, remember that they might be painting a feeling. Feelings that most of us can’t quite put into words, but somehow paint or textiles or melody does the job. That’s what art is about.
Isn’t it worth 35 more seconds?
Saira Kalimuddin-May