Art is Void of Defintion

On a purely linear level we can physically define art as material in nature and occupying substantive space within an environment. In reality, art should at the very least, transcend the confines of decorative means and objectivity, but in reality, that isn’t genuinely true.

I have held a belief for over 30 years that art is every and nothing at the same time. As Hypocritical as it sounds, that is what I believe to be legitimate.

Art can be exponentially and quintessentially paradoxical and polarizing. A single piece of art can be admired or detested, understood or misconceived, critically acclaimed or vilified.   

Everything in this dimension is physically and energetically unique.  We all perceive what is true and real from a singular vantage point and because of this there are no objective realities when defining art.

Artists, critics and those in academia can hold some very orthodox, rather rigid beliefs as to what defines art.  I attended the Ontario College of Art and Design University in Toronto, Ontario for 4 years in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s. There were members in every department and faculty that held narrow and derogatory views and beliefs as to what was valid and what didn’t constitute art. With almost religious fervour they would defend their chosen philosophy very much in the same vein as one would defend a doctrine or a manifesto.   

So factually or otherwise art really can not be defined. We all have different perceptions and there are no absolute truths, just subjectivity. For we dwell on a plane where our thoughts create our reality within the realm of individual summation.

The by-product of invention, ingenuity and creativity takes form as something we conventionally characterize as art. In the end one’s true definition of art is not based on a construct, genre or a philosophy. It is the connection that dwells within the epicentre of aesthetic experience and emotion. This cannot be explained in words and is truly void of any categorization, classification or definition.     

Kirk Sutherland-

2023/02/16