So I’ve been tossing around in my head for the last while the idea of the purpose of art. It was triggered by a great article written by Colin Harbinson. Check it out—here’s the link:
I think that, in my experience, the best art, or maybe the most powerful and influential art, is art that challenges people to seek and go deeper. It doesn’t dish out answers about whatever it may be addressing, but it inspires you to try to find some. It challenges you to ask questions. To find the deeper purpose, point, message, or meaning and decide for yourself how it applies to you and what you want to do with it.
This article got me thinking a lot about Jesus’ parables and how we can compare them to art. At surface level, the parables are interesting stories, and if you never go any deeper, it was a story that kept you occupied and entertained for whatever period of time. People do that with art and media. They take it in and choose not to think about it any deeper. It never goes beyond “that was a good movie” or “a pretty painting” or “cool” or “that was intense” type comments. Sometimes that may be all there is—but I would argue there is almost always more to be found, even in “art” created solely for profit and entertainment value. Jesus’ parables left work for his hearers to do in order to understand. His disciples never quite grasped that concept completely…they always seem to be wanting an instant application and explanation. Jesus usually appeases them. In that, too, I think there can be a relation. Some sort of explanation or remark about the artwork can greatly help the presentation and the audience’s connection to it. This is why programs are important in performance art.
As an artist or presenter or producer, what I want to continue to think about is how I can create, present, produce in such a way that gets people’s attention and entertains them while at the same time giving them something much much more that once they have left the art behind stays in their thoughts, urging them onward to new questions and discoveries. If someone completely forgot any and every detail about the choreography, costumes, lights, set etc of a dance performance they watched but remembered the feeling it left in their heart and/or a powerful concept or truth or question it helped them grasp in a new way, I would consider that dance performance to be immensely successful.
A movie that had tremendous impact on me was Freedom Writers. I have only seen it once. I couldn’t tell you a single line or explain the complete storyline to you very clearly anymore. But I do remember that after watching it, I spent a good hour journaling. I remember the emotion it put on my heart. I remember thinking that at its core I found a powerful message of hope, love, and perseverance. I remember that it made me want, even more desperately, to be a part of bringing art like that to the world. The movie made me think, it drove me to reflect, and it moved something in my heart that brought me forward into a deeper understanding and revelation of what I desire in my life. It may not have technically or artistically been anywhere close to the greats of films, but it succeeded in the art’s task of influence, at least for me.
In Christ, we have been given all authority. Wherever we walk the presence of the Holy Spirit leaves a footprint. We have been given power. We also have truth. And the ability to love by the author and definition of love. We have so much to give. We do not, however, have the ability to make people choose Christ, and we cannot control their hearts. People find God when they seek him with all their hearts. I want, through art, to get people to seek.
No comments:
Post a Comment