Blog #7: The Role of Art in Society and "What is Missing?"-

In order to explain what I think the role of art in society is, I'm going to attempt to share two distinctly different examples then tie them together. So here it is: Yesterday in the San Francisco Chronicle I came across an article in the Arts section entitled, "Maya Lin unveils, "What's Missing". This NY artist and architect won the award for public art at the Academy of Sciences. She names her style as"moving art"--a way to create a memorial that almost could go wherever it wanted to go." This specific piece has several components of which one will remain permanent at the Academy, while the others, transient to multi locations. This memorial is dedicated to bringing awareness to the current crisis surrounding biodiversity and habitat loss. Although she is unveiling recorded extinct species sounds from a cone, it's not really about extinct species. It's about things that are disappearing right before our eyes ... from the joyous sounds of songbirds reminiscent from our childhood to now having to purchase water since our tap water isn't sanitary due to corporate dumping into our oceans and people littering out land.

Scenerio #2: Last week, my 5 yr old daughter and I went on our first "girls week-end" to MD. There we caught up with my 11-year old niece who was in a week-end long cheer leading competition. The competition was categorized by age and talent...Although impressed and amazed by the athleticism of these girls and boys, what really shook me was how they DRESSED (or undressed?) for the competition. Can I say "loss of innocence??" I was a cheerleader myself (back in the 70's and 80's) and boy have times changed! There girls, ranging in age from 5 to teens were exposing there bellies and for some, body piercing. As a mother, I was asking myself, "would I let me daughter" don such a costume in an environment such as this? And my answer was, "ABSOLUTELY NOT!". These young girls not only were wearing tops that ended at the bottom of the breast bone (top of rib cage), but were wearing heavy make-up. And, while not judging woman's/girl's bodies, some of the girls had no right wearing such little clothes. Although the 3-5 year old had full top coverage, I wish the older girls maintained such "vigilance". Was it really necessary to expose themselves like this? For what reason? How did it add value to their athleticism and performance? Could the judges see their heavy glittery eye make-up? In my opinion- none what so ever.

So, to tie in these two very different scenarios, I say--"What's missing today in art is lost innocense and responsibility/accountability. Today, for some artists, like Maya, their goal is to shed knowledge about our waining environment while for others, it's about shocking the audiences so that over time we get so de-sensitized and in this case, de-sexualized that our values get lost in the translation. Youth cheer leading competition is just one by-product. I wish there were a lot more compassionate, responsible and humane artists like Maya Lin.