Art and the Information Age
Updated: May 28, 2020
It was interesting for me to observe how people relate to paintings during my exhibition.
Painting by Eva Lewarne, from a series titled: Hugging the Environment.’
Sometimes people would walk in, take a quick spin around and come up to ask me what I wanted to say, ignoring the artists statement pinned to the wall and titles of works even.
“This is very interesting,” I heard, “what does it mean?” and they’d look up expectantly at me. to be entertained and shared information with.
We, as a society, have become gluttons for information and are unhappy if for a moment the information snake is not feeding us. It takes time and patience to stand in front of a visual piece, to take it in, to understand it, to appreciate it.
The Information Age, hand in hand with the Technology Age, has killed our access to not only mystery but our souls (that can no longer be heard above the din of network static). We have officially become robots powered by megabytes of data….No wonder visual art is so hard to digest.
Where are the ready words?
Well some artists obligingly try to add them to the visual work, but alas often without success because people don’t know how to think anymore. They want it all laid out for them, so any words missing from a sequence are too much trouble to try to understand. Even metaphors are often misunderstood, and take too much time to understand. Good literature suffers as a result.
“Vexatious” – by Eva Lewarne
Wake up folks to how computers are making us addicts of information, depended on external sources — just what this political climate likes, lobotomised and soulless candidates at the polls. With soul comes compassion, with compassion and soul stirrings an understanding of beauty and love, no use in a fascist society powered by fear.
Visual arts have become a commodity to be bargained with, no longer a voice of humanity’s conscience….very sad.
That voice needs space to be accessed, just like paintings need space and time to effect the viewer and a quiet mind to be understood. We are tuned into fast information gluttony, and are too afraid to actually stop long enough to appreciate the visual – let alone see what it has to say. As a result we are enamored with Hirst and diamond skulls, very appropriate for this age.