Art: More Than Just Pretty Pictures

Art is the only thing remaining that hangs on the edge of the unthinkable, the unacceptable and the creative. Art is the only thing that remains unafraid to tell the truth in a society that often prefers to hide it when it's shocking, disgraceful or even beautiful.

For centuries, those in power and those who were too afraid have tried to suppress what is a liquid flow of sometimes sensational aestheticism and other times pacifying artistic expression.

But what is art really? Is it the finger painting you did in kindergarten, the ceiling of the Vatican or Playboy magazine?

Art is anything that brings aesthetic pleasure, reflective reverberations of thought or shocking and sensational feelings.

The British, for example, are infamous for their avant-garde nature. When I saw my first work by Damien Hirst and when I visited the Saatchi gallery, a contemporary art gallery in London whose owner rails against censorship, I realized that art could make a powerful statement without saying a word.

For those of you not familiar with Damien Hirst, he became famous for freezing dead animals in giant aquariums of formaldehyde. He invoked widespread controversy among animal activists, but at the same time, he glorifies both the life and death of animals in his own way.

So if we would walk into a museum and admire the beauty of an animal frozen in time, then could we also admire the beauty of that same animal alive in nature? Would that be art? Is wearing a fur coat art?

Is art wrong if it offends us?

Most would agree that the statue of David in Florence is art. Nudity has been a prevalent theme in art for centuries. Oftentimes we study these masterful portraits of human beauty in art history classes. We sometimes even relate this artistic nudity with religion.

So if nudity can be art, is Playboy magazine art? Is this display of nudity aesthetically pleasing? Will people four centuries from now put it on display in museums and admire its beauty? Or will they just label it trash? I'm not sure what Playboy should be considered, but I think it's an interesting, modern expression of something, possibly contemporary art.

Today, art to me is the Internet. We don't typically think of technology as a form of art, but it is. It can be both the form and the medium of art.

What seems to attract people to art is that it can encompass just about anything. There are virtually no walls and no limitations, except for those within the boundaries of law. Certainly we don't think of art as destruction, child pornography or genocide. So where is the boundary? Is art what a person considers it to be? I would like to think so.

Art could be the beauty of a butterfly or a room filled with our garbage, televisions and waste. Why shouldn't the garbage that lays to waste in landfills be admired? After all, our trash is a representation of the idolization of ourselves. For me, this is art, in its most shocking and sensational form.

People's reactions to art seem to vary with their nationality. For example, the British and the Americans had very different reactions to the 1999 young British artists' exhibit, "Sensation." Londoners were appalled by the portrait of child murderer Myra Hindley, while Americans were outraged by a dung-encrusted Madonna (the real Virgin, that is). It seems curious that those most strenuously horrified patrons of society did not even bother to view the exhibit before expressing their distaste. Regardless, art lovers and critics are once again looking forward to what controversy the 2000 exhibition will arouse.

The other day I decided to treat myself to art that was not shocking or sensational, just pleasant. No, I didn't have to fly away to some swanky modern art museum. I went to Ackland Art Museum and looked at the Andy Warhol exhibit on endangered animals. (I like the orangutan picture a lot.)

Art is often a part of life that we are not exposed to, and it's too bad for us. Art should be an instrumental part of life, and you can start by supporting your local artists, local art galleries and museums. Art isn't free, so always do the right thing and leave a little green to make sure that art museums won't end up like the dinosaurs - extinct.

Artists of all kinds must work tirelessly to provide the world with shock and sensation. They play a priceless role in society, because as we are busy with our little lives, they are watching, observing and taking in everything that society produces, both beautiful and ugly, both heartwarming and heartbreaking. Without them, we would have no balance for the check. After all, art only gives society what society gives it.

And if artists didn't shock us, if they didn't sensationalize perceptions of life, would we pay them any attention? And more importantly, would we get the point?

Anne Marie Teague is a senior business administration major from Lumberton who admires Damien Hirst and who loves

contemporary art. E-mail her at teague@email.unc.edu.