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Artists as outsiders
I think Art is the social statement of the solitary human- the oyster
making a pearl in response to the sand grain that got in it's
shell.Balinese
culture doesn't have the distintion between Art and craft that wetern
culture traditinally has had. The Balinese also have ritual performance in
which they act out,give expression to their scary monsters from the
Id,seemingly making it much less likely that they project them onto each
other,or better yet the Other as we in the west do so much. This manifests
in everything from rejection and mistreatment of kids who are different,
to
rascism and xenophobia ,to polarized tribal politics , to War.
In western culture the outsider status of artists ,makes it more likely
that the artists have enough perspective to reflect something meaningful
back into the group,if it cares to notice.Van Gogh only sold one painting
in
his life .I think the misfit thing starts in school which tends to
cultivate
a sort of attenuated cognitive dissonance .We are taught that we are
free,freer than any one else in the world has ever been,and that we're all
equal.Then we're forced to conform by sittng still in one place all
day,learning what we're supposed to,basically punished if we don't learn
it,on schedule ,and then we must compete with each other(even tho we're
spozedto be equal) for who gets the privileges,ie getting into the best
colleges,getting the best education allowing one to get prefered
employment,afford to buy the best houses and consumer goodies.Cognitive
dissonance craves resolution -some find it in actively competeing,and
getting the goodies-some by rebellling ,and getting negative
attention-Some
just don't accept,or even understand the terms of the game and dabble in
creating more interesting worlds for themselves . I think the term self
esteem is partly misleading,because what the pressure for social
conformity
often causes people to do ,is to create a social persona.Persona is the
name
for the masks worn in the Roman version of Greek theater
.Persona,personality is a mask for playing a role. I think social
conformity
involves convincing oneself that one is the character,by convincing
others.Some of us have trouble with this,or aren;t convinced that they are
the character they portray. This could be low self esteem,or I could call
it
,not getting juicy feedback for the characdter one portrays.The Jungians
use
the term Individuation ,for the procerss of forming a sense of self that
includes the whole psyche,not just the social surface.I think the misfit
artists in our culture are the ones who have access to the deeper
subconscious parts of the psyche,which are mostly suppressed when they
can't
be ignored in "normal "life,thus we can give expression to a deeper richer
sense of the moment, of the experience of living.We can bring the best of
our solitary deep selves and imaginations to the group in a way that
enriches everyone,and strikes a balance between self and group that
doesn't
require suppression of the self.
As a child the outsider thing was painful,but now I feel almost like I
escaped prison by not being able to fit in.
BTW there is a huge Poetry Slam movement going on inthe US .I'm not that
interestsed in poetry as a competitive performance art myself,but the
ancient Greeks were,The Laureate was the winner of a huge competition that
drew thousands of spectators and was fiercely competitive.