Cousin Arietta is sitting on the couch,  reading what looks like a novel.  She sighs to no one in particular, and then lays her book down across her lap.  She looks up at you and studies your face.  Eventually, she speaks. 

 

“What if there is no such thing as art?  What if the word ART has become a red herring, a smokescreen? Don’t look so shocked! If you ask five different people to define art, don’t you think you’ll get five different answers? Maybe six.  No one knows what it is, and even if they do, they are bound to be contradicted by the next “Great Art” movement.  Artists get immense pleasure from destroying whatever definitions we come up with anyway.  Think about it. Does anything really connect all of these things we call art? What do an early 20th century ballet, a collage by Barbara Kruger, and an interactive piece of performance art have in common? …not materials, not intention, and certainly not aesthetics. Maybe we are just afraid to wonder what the world would be like if there was no such thing as art.  I think Art —I mean the kind with a capital A— has become so mythologized that the only ones who benefit from defining it are the institutions which exist to commodify it.  What if we just threw away the word, and had to describe creative work in other terms? 

 

"I think people are afraid of the word Art. Can you blame them?  The contemporary Art world is dominated by a small and exclusive group of the privileged.  The creative experience has become dehumanized.  Even artists who fight against art often end up in the institutions they are protesting! The world dances in hypocrisy, and we just sleep. Is it possible for each of us to be an artist?”

 

She glances down at her book, then returns her gaze to you and says,

 

“I don’t expect you to answer my questions, you know.  I think it’s actually more interesting to ask the questions than to answer them, don’t you?” 

 

You follow her eyes back to the page and read the erotics of definition making is a special human pleasure. Arietta’s attention is once more on her book, and she calmly ignores you.

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