ARTISTS AND THEIR COMMUNITIES
How is the artist contained in their community’s collective psyche?
How does a thoughtful/inventive/creative individual respond to pressures which seek to narrow their inner needs?
DISCOVERING THE INDIVIDUAL
In the Renaissance, and especially from Dante and later Leonardo Da Vinci, the distinctive nature of each person began to be recognised, even in the face of religious cant that designated people simply existing as reflections of their God. That was the beginning of the notion of individualism which is so much a part of the nature of true political freedom.
This struggle still continues, expressed as the need for the individual to conform by accepting to become a productive cog in the perpetuation of the community/ the village/ the town/ or the nation. It is an active social force, attempting to contain the nature of the individual, especially against those who seek a new way, perhaps a creative way or at least a way freed of the group’s norms. Historically, and still today, individual rebellions have led to the group exiling them. In the dark past this meant expelling the rebel into the savagery of nature – exile equalled a death penalty. In today’s dark times it is a form of psychic as well as physical assault.
EXILE
The exiled person staying within their school, their church, or the wider community may to be ignored, cold shouldered, or violently assaulted. Think of the Jews in Nazi Germany, of the Copts in Egypt, or an unmarried pregnant girl in Utah.
In the narrow pragmatic world of a community’s ways of making a living, the rebel artist is rarely seen to be able to provide a valid contribution to the group - better to be a plumber, a businessman, a lawyer, or married and bearing children for the group’s survival. This conflict between the inner urges of the individual to be free and freed from the group’s demands and the insistence of the group for the individual to conform is where great drama may be found in the arts.
OPPOSITION
The above explains why artists are so often in opposition to the group and the overall status quo. It is why artists are so often sympathetic to other exiles as for instance members of the LGBTQ community, or climate activists, or political revolutionaries and other oppressed minorities.
What artists are able to see, because of becoming and then being outsiders is a clearer picture of who they are and what they have come from. In the midst of this ongoing struggle to free themselves and to find a voice they discover many social and personal mysteries, and it is these mysteries which are worrisome to the static view communities wish to maintain.
In my next essay I’ll discuss how the above leads to the formation of a Cultural Canon, something invisible to most of us but very real and very oppressive.
Please note that the hardback of my latest book, will be available from Monday from here.
COMMENTS ABOUT THE BOOK
“Robert Golden’s eye is a truth teller…there is so much wisdom and compassion in what he shows us.” C.W., USA
“I can't describe how happy I was when I saw that this is the book written by Robert. I've learned so much from him and can't wait to dive deep into all these pages!” B.P., Bosina
"Robert is a brilliant image maker and a deep thinker, this in my opinion makes him an insightful story teller of beauty, and I mean beauty in all its brutality. When Robert's eye turns to conflict the considered moments are profound and a compassion arises in me for both the victims and perpetrators in this painful dance. His images of his friends makes us feel honoured and beautiful!” D.A., UK