with most indiginous languages, if not all, convenience and trends and access to power, conspire to eliminate their influence. like this woman's daughter said, she and her siblings never learned eyak because it was frowned upon (in many cases children were beat by school officials if they spoke in their native tongue.) i see a direct correlation to the language of paint. it is not easy or comfortable to interact with paintings. but what they do offer is a multiplicity of readings which confront the encroaching societal forces that want us to think in very narrow ways.
i like thinking of painting as a subversive language like you put it. the act of looking at art and not 'getting' it, is in a way fulfilling its goal--developing new ways of seeing and so forth. interesting. i'm not completely nostalgic about the idea of a language dying. its like watching the waves come and go. it doesn't affect you till something of yours is directly tied to it. its the same, in many cases, with the work one makes.
2 comments:
with most indiginous languages, if not all, convenience and trends and access to power, conspire to eliminate their influence. like this woman's daughter said, she and her siblings never learned eyak because it was frowned upon (in many cases children were beat by school officials if they spoke in their native tongue.) i see a direct correlation to the language of paint. it is not easy or comfortable to interact with paintings. but what they do offer is a multiplicity of readings which confront the encroaching societal forces that want us to think in very narrow ways.
i like thinking of painting as a subversive language like you put it. the act of looking at art and not 'getting' it, is in a way fulfilling its goal--developing new ways of seeing and so forth. interesting.
i'm not completely nostalgic about the idea of a language dying. its like watching the waves come and go. it doesn't affect you till something of yours is directly tied to it. its the same, in many cases, with the work one makes.
Post a Comment