1990s

Post-Adolescent Idealism (Formalist Art)

Posted on by Tim Kuefler

Formalism – what is it? Why does it matter?

Formalism is a philosophy of art.

Let’s consider what formalism espouses then – It is centred around the idea that art should be judged and also created so that value can be derived solely from technical elements. Composition, symmetry, line, colour, and depth are all taken into consideration and then used to understand the work. This of course means that the artists personal pedagogy, beliefs, cultural background, and even technique are not relevant to evaluating the work.

Which is odd, because technique is the application of technical elements, but an argument could be made against theatricality then, so I can see why technique would be omitted.

And if you were to ask one of my professors from the University of Alberta, he would tell you that formalist art is the only TRUE way to look at and enjoy art.

His rationale for this belief is that feelings and emotions about art are difficult to assess, while technical aspects of a work can be very easily addressed and help to identify the strengths of a work against other works as well as determine if said artist/art is worthy of a place in art history.

Or if I were to put it another way, he was very quotable and one of his favourite sayings in response to the statement, “but I don’t like that kind of art”, was always the exact same one – “it’s not about what you like, [insert student’s name].”

For a twenty-something going through his post-adolescent idealistic phase, that statement bothered me very deeply at the time. W teh F.

a7983d032490766a9d8d58c183ea9879

I mean, how could I possibly deal with that? Liking things had proved to be useful in other areas of life, and when it came to what was popular in culture as it related to music, movies, and comic books, what I liked (or rather what youth liked) did matter, because it led to new and significant ideas and interests. Also, I was told that formalist was an aspect of modernism, and we were well into post-modernist thought. It was stupid, to put it bluntly, and seemed regressive.

At least, that’s what I thought at the time.

But like anything in life, looking at a subject with black and white ideals, is a non-answer.

On the other side of the coin was post-modernism, and while I don’t want to get into details of post-modern thought versus modernist thought, I was fortunate to be at a university where there were effectively two tenured heads of the fine art program. One a formalist, and the other a conceptualist.

So what does that have to do with defining formalism? Well, I am getting to the point dear readers.

The idea that art should be purely formal is an absurd notion in an age when we have ease of access to both images and video. And interestingly enough, art that is purely conceptual is also impractical because as the playing field levels in a globalist economy, we are all responsible for our share of entertainment, politics, and environment.

Conveniently for us, that means that a moderate approach is likely the best solution for the time being. A transition from aesthetics or ideology to moderate formalism or as I prefer to call it modern craft is definitely the sandbox we should be playing in right now.

According to Nick Zangwill, who wrote a book called The Metaphysics of Beauty in favour of moderate formalism, all art has aesthetic properties, but not all art is defined by its context.

I can buy that for 5 bucks. There is inflation after all.

hqdefault (1)

What that means for artists is simply this, you should create art that is well made and which you dedicate considerable time in constructing, whether for volume, quality or a combination of both. Ultimately, it will provide you with expertise and ability. If you choose to seek formal education or not, your art will improve over time, and supply you with the aesthetic needed. As to the contextual claims of personal or cultural narrative, you can decide how important that is to your work.

No one has to be defined by their environment. That is the beauty of modern craft. A theory to support the current generation of artists, but not one to define them with. Though it is only a theory at the moment.

But what do you think? Would you rather your work be purely formalist in nature, purely conceptual? Share this with your peers and join the conversation. Otherwise, I’m out of theories for now. I’ll see you tomorrow with a music review about a band of brothers.

Tim!

Tell Tale Art (National Poetry Month)

Posted on by Tim Kuefler

I’m sure many of you have stories about how much you hated reading poetry and learning about the hidden meaning of poems when you were growing up. Especially in junior high, also know as those years between 12-15 years old, if you aren’t Canadian.

I’ve always loved to read and to write myself, but I’ve never had much of an attention span for reading at hours on end, unless I was really committed to a book, but not much can do that.

Which is why I often enjoyed poems.

Poems can be short and sweet or incredibly long, because their forms vary between generations, authors and cultures. I think of it like this, if you can enjoy music, you certainly can enjoy a poem. Because poems can serve a similar purpose, invoking emotion.

But a fair number of people ignore poetry because it doesn’t have that same sexy appeal as music. Music can be enjoyed socially (more easily), you can dance to it, and you can walk away and then come back to it.

Which is probably why academics of the form became discouraged in the 1990s and decided to do something about it, to get your attention and share the beauty of the form.

National Poetry Month is an event in the United States which takes place every April and is celebrating it’s 20th year of existence.

Did you know that the Academy of American Poets came up with the celebration after the success of Black History Month (February) and Women’s History Month (March)? Now I am not going to assume any authority on black rights and women’s rights, because I am neither black nor a woman and I don’t know what it’s like to be either, but doesn’t mean that poetry and political rights are on the same level.

I can write that statement fairly safely. But you know what that tells me about poetry, a written art form that often gets the short end of the stick? We don’t give it nearly enough respect.

Luckily for me, you, and everyone else who loves to read beautiful words, national poetry month has grown rather organically over the past 20 years and publishers have taken note. Taken from Wikipedia:

Each year, publishers, booksellers, educators and literary organizations use April to promote poetry: publishers often release and publicize their poetry titles in April, teachers and librarians focus on poetry units during the month; and bookstores and reading series frequently hold special readings. National Poetry Writing Month encourages writing a poem a day in celebration.

Canada joined the efforts in 1999 and has been supporting this event ever since, so Canadians like timotheories benefit from this as well.

What is most fascinating to me about this month is the ability to draw up debate amongst its supporters and antagonists, because by drawing attention to poetry every April it draws attention to the art form, but potentially detracts from other months when writers release new works.

The National Poetry Website of course has some great content to help celebrate the history of poetry while encouraging increased publication and distribution of books to support poets and poetry. How the organization highlights the history of the form is through sharing both living poets and classic poets with readers, introducing poetry into the school curriculum, and facilitating positive attention through traditional media and the internet.

The website even has a list of 30 ways to celebrate National Poetry Month. As you folks know already, I love list. But I’m not going to share the whole thing with you, just a taster.

Some of my favourite suggestions are as follows

  1. memorize a poem
  2. buy a book of poetry from a bookstore
  3. attend a poetry reading
  4. read a poem at an open mic
  5. learn about the different poetic forms

Now I’m not expecting you to leap onto the poetry train while it’s running full bore, but just consider for a minute that this type of creative writing could provide you with an experience you just cannot get from music or long form literature. Start with the more well known favourites like T. S. Eliot or Robert Frost and do yourself a favour and investigate another area of the arts. It may only be a theory right now, but growth only happens through change.

That’s all I have this week my friends, I hope you’ve enjoyed yourselves! Come back on Sunday for a new episode of Cross Talk, and of course, comment, subscribe and share!

Tim!

The Night Is Dark, And Full Of Terrors (My Personal Murderer, Cauchemar review)

Posted on by Tim Kuefler

The Game of Thrones TV show and the book series which it is based off of, A Song of Fire and Ice, features a rather complex fantasy world with various belief systems and a cast of interesting and rich characters to fill these roles.

One of these belief systems in the world is the religion of the Lord of Light, a belief system which espouses that there are two gods, one a good god of love and light, and the other a god of darkness and evil.

This week’s Melodic Monday entry is about a band which asks questions of dark and light and hopes to share some thoughts on the duality of those themes.

But obviously life is not so simple as to be divided in this way.

Or is it?

 

 

 

My Personal Murderer – Cauchemar
released February 4, 2016
******** 8/10

cover

My Personal Murderer are a Ukrainian rock group which have been been active since 2008. Influenced by director David Lynch, the 1990s, and the socio-political environment they live in, My Personal Murderer have created three studio-length albums in the past six years.

I was very happy to hear from the band’s frontman and get an opportunity to review this album, because it’s themes are interesting and the sound distinct. I admit I had little idea what I was getting myself into, but I’m glad I said yes to Yevgen Chebotarenko. Did you know that the word Cauchemar is of French origin and means “to have a nightmare”? My Personal Murderer are a rock group with a few self-proclaimed influences, ranging from alternative, to atmospheric, depressive rock, post-punk, shoegazing, and I would also add emo into that mix.

Yevgen has an incredible control over the music and lyrics of MPM, as he is the lead vocalist, guitar player, and heart of the band, and he told me that Cauchemar the album has been a labour of love from the start. The band has seen some lineup changes from the time that the first single of the record, Constant Waiting, was put together last year, but the trio worked out the kinks and got the album out.

Yuriy Kononov plays drums currently, but Maxim Kovalchuk, who played bass, left the group midway in 2015 and was replaced by former bassist Nikita Perfiliev.

Cauchemar represents that collaboration between these three artists and a new direction for the band. The album evokes feelings of intimacy throughout, shifting from obsessions of lust, pain, spirit and struggle to grind out the themes focused in each track. The title track features a talking sequence and is one of my personal favourites on the record. With lines like “why is there nothing, if there is nothing, where did I come from?” asking questions, the tone is set up quite well. You can hear the talking sequence shift to feature background voices and eventually give way to percussion and wind instruments.

The Worm Prince traces out the actions of a body in contortion, fighting itself and attempting to excise the unwanted portions (people and emotions) and challenges with a hollowed out self, while Constant Waiting is less obvious. The melancholy is there but the lyrics on this one are curious, I can’t tell if it’s an admission of lustful guilt or a suicide note, but the pain and suffering in the story is very deliberate.

Dear Pigeon is up next and has a similar pacing, but the tone is one of both anger and empowerment, the author is aware that he suffers, but he wants the audience and players in his life to admit their limited participation and lack of commitment to his misery.

I think my other two favourites are Crawling Son and Soup For the Creature. Crawling Son has a spiritual feel and evokes a story of fallen angels, while the later includes a narrative of the end of a love story, a lover spurned, a lover lost.

Finally, comes the song Streets. This is the longest song on the record, at 9 minutes and 32 seconds. The build up for this one is pretty intense and delayed, the first three minutes are instrumentals; it then dips back and forth into instrumentals after the 5 minute mark. Another story to be told here about identity, maturation, and the struggle of isolation by defying conformity.

 

 

 

It’s important to recognize that while the members of this band are collaborating together, My Personal Murderer is a band not yet fully realized. I am willing to bet that Yevgen and the rest of the group will come into their own as they perform these songs and hone the focus of these tracks. Shoegazing is a genre of music which isn’t for everyone, but if you are interested in introspection and want to hear some solid music, give this album a try. It can be found on mypersonalmurderer.com and is worth the price of admission.

After all, the night is dark and full of terrors, and it can be scary to go it alone.

And that’s it for today, dear readers. I’ll see you tomorrow with another introspective genius review, or should I say review on an introspective genuis?

Tim!