Capturing Time - Modern Art and the Interconnectedness of Everything

To My Youngers,

Though I've lived here for almost five months, I had yet to make it to the Art Gallery before last week. Wandering around the Modern Art wing all of those old familiar feelings came rushing back- joy, excitement, glee, wonder, and -possibly most importantly- connectedness.

I know that a lot of  people don't like Modern Art, they don't feel like they 'get' it, or like its just a waste of time. They look for reasons, they look for facts, they look at how much money was spent, or how much it doesn't look like a photograph. They say to me (or to whomever will listen) "What the hell is it supposed to be!?!? I mean I could paint that!" not even aware that their difficulty with 'understanding' Modern Art is in the questions they are asking. It is not that what but the why that is important. Why did the artist choose to create what s/he did? Why did they choose to show it to us like this? Why does it matter to them (or to me)?

As we walked past painting after painting, sculpture after sculpture, I found myself telling stories about the artists, desperately trying to explain (expose? unearth? explore?) what they were trying to convey- not an absolute thing, but an idea, an intangible feeling or thought, difficult to picture in words or capture in traditional ways.

Further into the maze of rooms we happened upon a lonely Giacometti sculpture sitting amongst a slew of Impressionist paintings. Seemingly sad and morose, it stood out against the cheerful canvases, awash in glowing colours and lively brush strokes.

Giacometti is my absolute all-time favorite sculptor. His pieces make me feel like I'm seeing a part of the world that is usually invisible. Its what I'm trying to do when I draw things- anything- trying to capture a moment, trying to capture the invisibility of time, of existence. Not in a big metaphysical way, not like I'm trying to be groundbreaking or incredibly innovative- just for me. So that I have something to remember, some proof that there was something intangible, some way to hold on to the whistling.

 

Giacometti Sketchbook Cover Drawing -EJamieson2011

I once wrote an essay on Giacometti for a university Art History class. I don't really know how good the finished product was, but I do know that the writing of it was a life changing experience for me- Discovering that there were others who felt the same way as I did when they looked at Giacometti's work, people who felt like they were seeing into the ether, they were seeing the space, seeing it. One author, Peter Selz, put it so succinctly and beautifully that, for me, his words are now inseparable from the art. He described Giacometti's sculptures as "barely able to withstand the onslaught of the void," a tangible representation of how we live in the physical world. As if all the space had been squeezed out of us and all that was left was still holding together, beautiful, and magical and just a little bit sad.

I know that a lot of  people don't like Modern Art, they don't feel like they 'get' it, or like its just a waste of time. It used to make me sad. It used to make me angry. Now I just hope that there are other ways in which they see the things that can't be seen, and stay stuck together against the onslaught of the void.

-E