July 10, 2013
2 LessonsNow that it’s summer and days are (literally) longer I’ve been thinking a lot about my time in Oslo so far. I’ve been here almost two years now and I’m beginning to accumulate a mental inventory of friends, experiences, and things I’ve learned. Oddly enough, I think my top two life lessons (both re: how to look at art) here in Norway were graciously given to be my an American and a Sudanese..
The first came as a friendly piece of advice from my old professor and artist Aeron Bergman. He’s unfortunately left Oslo to take up a teaching job in Seattle, but not without making an impact on me and also so many others here. Over one of our first conversations about the school, living in Norway, my despair over the absence of any “real” or harsh critique, etc, he paused and said: “You know, it’s a very dangerous thing to say something is not art.”
Though it seems like such an obvious thing to me now, at the time his comment gave me pause.
He continued (paraphrased): “By saying something is not art, you are not only granting yourself absolute power to arbitrate what is art or not, but you are narrowing the possibility for anything new to happen.”
So true. Remember this! Critique is a necessary and important tool, but it is even more important to remember to get off the high horse and take the high road when critiquing others. It is possible to be honest without being intentionally hurtful or close-minded. It is possible to possess an incredible amount of knowledge and still have things to learn. And while it may seem safe to stick to the definition of modern art as propagated by the art world and institutions, while commonly accepted, this definition is still inherently narrow and limiting. In order to take art further than it already is, we must be prepared for anything, especially that which we do not know or recognize (yet) as art.
The second big growing experience I had was going on a study trip to Sudan and Egypt with the Art Academy, organized by Fadlabi. For so many reasons I cannot number, this trip changed me and the way I saw the world. Now, one year later, I find in this interview between Fadlabi and the Senegalese artist Issa Samb snippets of familiar conversations that come up during our trip. Also a beautiful way of defining who an artist is: Fadlabi asks Issa Samb how he can become a good artist. To which, Samb simply replies:
“You don’t need to be good. You need to create art. It doesn’t matter if it’s good or bad. An artist produces art.”
Photo above: an email my friend Åsmund (also on the trip) sent me after coming home + desert rocks (2012)