Week Seven Assignment
Functions of Early Art
The Lascaux cave was discovered in 1940 but it made about 19,000 years ago. The caves are covered with painting of animals and other pieces of art. I believe the cave artists weren't trying to say a specific meaning but rather share an aspect of their life. We see this in many other tribes and "cavemen" as art being used as a form of speech to express aspects of their lives for storytelling. I believe there are more animals than humans because animals were their main way of life. During this time period, it is unlikely for there to be a huge population of humans but animals however were both predator and prey to these group of people who made this art. The animals were their food or they were their threat of life. These caves tell me this was their way of survival. The caves were a safe place for the cave dwellers from the outside world with harsh weather, predators, and other dangers. These paintings can be interpreted as many ways. However, I think there are three possible functions for this painting. Firstly, it could be a way of passing time during nightfall when it was unsafe for the Paleolithic people. Secondly, it could be a way of storytelling. Often times in other tribes and cultures, art is used as a way of storytelling to future generations. Lastly, it could be a log of what creatures they see. This art could be simply a way of tracking which animals they see during the day and art was the best way to express what each animal is.
Commonalities in Function
The possible functions listed above can be seen today with modern forms of art. Art now has advanced way farther than painting in caves but rather through different forms of medias such as painting, online, and even films we watch in the theaters. For the first function of passing time, we see this with modern art such as social media apps like Tiktok and Instagram. While these social media platforms can be described as nit art, they take a creative approach and express thoughts and ideas to pass the time. Often with my generation, we will mindlessly scroll at night to pass the time while leaving creative comments and posts to express ourselves. In functionality, it is very similar to what cave dwellers were doing so many years ago. The second function listed above is storytelling. We see this in films, books, and even paintings in museums. Often when creators of different medias talk about their works, they often say, "I want to tell a story." We see this movies like Avatar, Fight Club, and Star Wars that tell fictional stories but want to convey messages. We see directors and writers take stories to different universes with things simply unimaginable just for the sake of storytelling. Lastly, the function of modern art is to keep a log of what is happening around us. Especially with the pandemic, we see a lot of artists using physical objects like masks to depict what was simply happening during the time of quarantine. There are so many more functions to art but based on the possible functions that cave dwellers used art for can be applied to modern art.
Introduce Us To Your Favorite Art
While I may be a film nerd, one of my favorite pieces of art is the piece below titled "I Can't Help Myself" by Sun Yuan and Peng Yu. The video below depicts how the piece works but in my personal interpretation of this piece, the artist depicts how it feels to feel like pain is never ending. The robot pushes the "blood" in an attempt to clean it up and to make whatever feeling stop but it never ends and continues no matter how hard you try. I feel like this piece is extremely beautiful and expressive. From the type of art form, I would argue that it is a sculpture that serves different functions. The function this piece is to express feeling and art into a physical form. Same with any other sculptures, it is art depicting life to express emotions or different events in life. Surrounding sculptures, I would argue there isn't a culture there. Sculptures is a way of depicting art from life and while culture may affect sculptures, sculptures itself doesn't affect culture such as fashion, behaviors and other aspects. I would argue that this form of art does benefit society. Sculptures may seem like still objects but they are clear signs of emotions that is felt by being alive; it depicts aspects of the human existence. I don't believe sculptures have any detrimental effects.
Section 1:
ReplyDeleteGiven the limited subject matter in the images, I suggest we can safely speculate as to information this culture was trying to communicate. The images are mostly of animals, animals they probably used as food. Yes, they were sharing aspects of their life, but more specifically, it was about aspects of the role hunting played in their lives.
"it is unlikely for there to be a huge population of humans but animals however were both predator and prey to these group of people who made this art."
Okay, but might it also not reflect the message in these paintings and suggest a level of importance to their culture? Humans weren't important to record. Animals were. Even when humans were depicted, they were mere stick figures. Animals are painted in detail and color. That implies importance.
I'm not sure if they actually lived in this part of the caves, which were very difficult to get to. They likely lived in the portion of the caves closer to the surface. But the article doesn't even discuss where they lived... it might have been in shelters outside of the caves. So what can we discern about their culture directly from these paintings? Seems like the information is solely upon hunting. Considering hunting is traditionally a male practice, with women doing the gathering, does this tell you anything about who was doing these paintings? Would the paintings have been different if women were doing the painting?
Good on the possible functions. I appreciate the first one in particular as this tells us alot about how they spent "free" time.
Section 2: Good discussion here, particularly the one. Art is a means of recording events and history. It can teach. It can introduce ideas and concepts in palatable ways. It can shock and inspire thought and discussion. All of these can be connected to possible functions of this early art.
Section 3: Good initial description here.
Missing a discussion of the "culture" of this art. If you aren't a creator of sculpture, just a person who enjoys it, you may not be privy to the internal structure of the culture of this art form, but there will be one. They will have their own vocabulary, their own behavioral practices, and their own social network. I appreciate how you value this art form. Dig a little deeper here.
"sculptures itself doesn't affect culture such as fashion, behaviors and other aspects"
Let's step back and consider what are considered "sculptures". Statues can be considered sculptures and are center pieces in our city centers and town squares. They can record history, events and important people (both good and bad). I suggest this means they can have a significant influence (positive and negative) on our culture.
Realizing I'm missing the section on the difficulties they experienced creating these paintings?
DeleteHello Kady, you did an absolutely great job when talking about the functions of early art. You spoke about the Lascaux cave about how it was discovered in 1940 but it was made around 19,000 years ago you mentioned the paintings of the animals and the other art you then spoke about how the animals were their food and their threat of life being a dual cause you then any day relatively nice way, by explaining the passing of time during night fall as it was unsafe, the Art of storytelling, and any other benefits, as it could’ve been done for future generations within their tribe.
ReplyDeleteWhen talking about the second required question you talked about the possible functions being listed above within today’s form of modern art. You talked about the things that we see on social media like TikTok and Instagram, as described as niche art, while taking a creative approach, expressing the thoughts of the processes of the ideas during the modern world. Towards the end, you mentioned the pandemic, we saw a lot of artists using physical objects like the mask to describe the happenings during their time.
Now you begin to speak about your favorite art. You talked about the favorite piece called I can’t help myself by sun yuan and peng yu. You spoke about the personal interpretation of the piece: the robot pushes the blood in an attempt to clean it and to make whatever feeling stop and then you spoke about the objects, clear signs of emotion, and the aspects that are depicted within human existence.
Summary
Is there a relatively good job you covered and pretty much everything that was requested from our teacher and overall it was a great and educational read. Good job.
Hi Kady, I enjoyed reading your post. I could agree with you on how this art was used as a way of passing time back then especially because there might have not been to much to do. I also enjoyed watching your video on your favorite art and how they use a machine to produce it. I found it very interesting.
ReplyDeleteHey Kady!
ReplyDeleteI think you did a great job in answering the questions and I loved reading what you had to say regarding the cave artists! One thing you said that really left an impact on me was when you mentioned that there wasn't a specific meaning they were trying to convey in their paintings. This is such a simple answer but SO TRUE! After reading that sentence I thought that they only painted these drawings for themselves really and for their own sake.
Hello Kady,
ReplyDeleteI agreed with many of your assessments and was interested throughout your work. I especially appreciated your references to films throughout. One thing that I'm not sure I agree with, however, is your point that statues do not have detrimental effects. I would argue that if a statue is glorifying something that we find wrong, that can cause harm as eventually with enough statues one could argue that it could cause a "culture shift" of sorts where the glorified action becomes more common/less wrong.