Art — Self
Reflection from MoMA’s Modern Art & Ideas Week 3 Class in Coursera
It’s interesting to clash the notion of “freedom” and “determinism”. As I wrote last week, I don’t believe that “free will” is exist and therefore I contend that there is no such thing as “freedom of expression”. This week topic, “Identity”, gives meaningful meditation towards my previous takes.
Let’s reference to the famous existentialism conception from Sartre: “existence precedes essence” , meaning that there is no predetermined-essence-in-being-itself, because every existence gives its own meaning to its own being. It’s easy to false interpret this concept as a notion of “free will” as a liberation from any constraint to be “self-determined”.
First of all, people born arbitrary; we never have a choice in the first place about when, where, and most importantly, who we are as individual clinging to certain given identity. Identity is in-itself, first and foremost, limitation. Yes, identity-as-essence is following the existance and identity is also a construction that could change overtime. Sartre’s existentialism could be interpret this way, as somebody grow up, he/she could be whoever he/she wants to be. People changes.
Secondly, this ever-changing possibility is not limitless. People can’t change to be everybody. There is no freedom in the process of characterization, exchange definition of self from one to another. The change itself has to possible in the first place. In this logic, there are always preconditions for the ever-changing forms and therefore it’s determined beforehand.
I agree that artist should be free to express whatever they want to say. But, we must understand that their expressions are constrained with meanings and forms. This is the opportunity that art explores. Likes the possibility to break from ignorance (illustrated with Ellen Gallagher’s “Deluxe” artwork), from oppression (Kara Walker’s “40 Acres of Mules”), from false consciousness (Glenn Ligon’s “Untitled” from Runaways series), from society’s ideal projection of one-self (Bruce Nauman’s “Art Make-Up”), or even from previous version of one-self (Frida Kahlo’s “Self-Potrait with Cropped Hair”). Every artist “predetermined” by their history, trauma, hereditary, and yes, identity.
In conclusion, existance birth possibility and yet not everything is possible. People shreds blood, killing each other in the process of establishing certain identity of one-self. Every meaning is contestable, we fight for it. If the colour white is predetermined with the meaning of innocence or purity as newborn baby boxed with certain given identity from its environment, but, even if it is predetermined, white could also means anything imaginable by everyone. Those everyone are not synonym with every given meaning under universe. Everybody could have pre-determined disposition association of every given-meaning, but those every given-meaning are not so-called-everything. Simply put, because we don’t know everything.
Edit: Previously titled “In Search of Lost Self”. Just changed it to make it not so confusing.
