So, now twice it has been brought to my attention that I “have issues with my attitude to art.” More specifically, my opinion that art is useless makes people wonder why I am pursuing art.

My knee-jerk response is “because I like useless things.” Actually, I revere them, and while I don’t think I’ll ever shake my blue-collar sentiment that in any real sense art is useful to the degree that it can be used in self defense or as kindling, I do value art over most practically useful things in the world.

I remember reading in a National Geographic that the Egyptians built those monstrous pyramids because they believed that stuff had “power and utility in the after life in direct proportion to its uselessness in the real world.” (Roberts, 1995)

Perhaps it is that notion of uselessness as a purity unsullied by the everyday grime of efficiency and purpose that I find so attractive in art. Plato’s forms are perfect archetypes, yet only their imperfect derivatives have any real use here on earth. Without the pure, the tangible don’t function. Yet without the tangible, we have no experience of the pure.

On an experiential level, I cherish the innane as ungraspable yet tangible. Now, I have come to accept that the nonsensical is not neccesarily the divine, and I hope that my love of art stems from more than a love of the innane, of the (god forbid) wacky.

So, why do I love art?

Because it:

• is often daring (and yes I appreciate most things that are daring)

• often makes me think (yes I appreciate most things that make me think)
• is often surprising (i love surprises too)
• can ask questions in ways science or stories don’t often do
• can make me feel very peaceful
• can make me laugh

So, there are a collection of attributes that art can sometimes achieve, and it is this set of attributes that define why I love art. Other things with these attributes also garner my love.

But this doesn’t explain why I feel art is useless, or why I do not feel comfortable using an Art Object as an instrument of serious inquiry action. I think we have it there. I see the art object as a useful tool for inquiry, as well as a wonderfully useless and indefinable entity, but I do not see it as a tool for action. We can address serious issues with art objects, but we can’t hope to do anything about them.

Hence, jackhammering 70% of a gallery to represent Nauru’s destruction is beautiful and evocative and destructive and fun and ridiculous, but it still leaves Nauru soil-less. And while raising awareness is a vital goal for any action, I guess I see it as a desired side-effect rather than a project in and of itself. Whenever I had to chalk a project’s results up to “awareness raising,” I felt I was euphamising failure.

Which brings me to the crux of my insecurities about art and my current non-solution. I love the inane and ephemeral, but respect and need the tangible. I appease my blue-collar art sensibilities by creating art objects that are functional but useless. In this way, they are pure useless forms while still proving my worth through evidence of craft and skill. Hence, the useless hand-cranked wooden electron microscope, the useless cybernetic plant, the failed inventions of misunderstanding.

So, I have answered the question “why am I pursuing art when I believe the art object to be fundamentally useless” by saying “because I see uselessness as purity, and am too insecure about the value of the intagible to abandon the art object.” Is this just protective self-effacement: I cannot fail because I have aimed to achieve nothing? Can I make an Art Object that is an action, or does purpose make it not-art?

In response, I have to say “I will make an Art Object as Action. I will destroy 70% of things I love.” And quickly I counter, “Well, I won’t destroy 70% of my guitar because it was Alyssa’s, and I won’t destroy 70% of my computer because I need it, and I won’t destroy 70% of my woodworking because I love them too much, but I will destroy 70% of a gallery and 70% of a cereal box” and it will be graphic and obvious and impersonal and empty.

And there is the real answer, I guess. The Art Object is not necessarily useless as an action. I am just too scared to really commit to creating a useful one.

Well, that was a useful little conversation with myself. Now, back to purposefully useless busy-work…