ART AND HISTORY
CAN WE SEPARATE ART AND HISTORY?
How is art indivisible from history?
When we talk about ART AND HISTORY, we see it is co-existent despite the dichotomy.
But why are they so intertwined?
Can they exist separately from each other?
However appealing a fruit may appear on the outside, if it’s rotten inside it is unlikely to be consumed, isn’t it?
That’s why being sound and fresh seems more important and that is how history shapes art offering its essence into Art while art showcases it with its illusory valour.
We could see how art is giving form to history and history giving the storyline for it, an art without history is unlikely.
The reason behind us living our lives the way we live right now has been shaped by art and history.
The architecture we see, the arrangements of spatial order, the ways of lifestyle, the diseases we accumulate, the sounds we hear, the emotions we feel, the air we breathe, everything in a way has been shaped by art and history.
One may ask how?!
We have been shaped by visuals we have seen all our lives. They can trigger various emotions in us, and sometimes we find ourselves even attached to the perception of the visual, eventually building a belief system based on that, we tend to inculcate that in us, and this impacts shaping society as a whole for what it is and what it is becoming.
AND THAT MAKES HISTORY.
That’s what art and history do to each other.
We see an intriguing cafe poster with interesting appetizing food visuals as a painting, let us say, that on the way back to work every day, the visual when given attention triggers something in us, we either have an affinity towards the place or aversion towards the place or in some cases neither this nor that, but in either case it is shaping the history of us in determining our likes and dislikes towards the cafe, in turn, us wanting to go there or not, in turn, us talking to our folks about the cafe or not, in turn shaping the market of the place and in turn the lifestyle of people, and in turn history and the cycle goes on.
We could see this more clearly in people who visit religious pilgrims like temples regularly and devotedly, they lose themselves to the sight of the altar, they assume the nature of gods and goddesses and start to feel it in them, subsequently showing traits of the gods or goddesses in their regular behaviour as well.
ART AND HISTORY jointly become love or devotion, as we call it, here.
Speaking of love, it brings us to limitlessness and infinite possibilities, the visuals we see are not limited to just our sight, it’s ability goes beyond it to make us experience it in all our senses.
We see a nice painting of a railway station with trains moving and people walking, naturally, we tend to remember from our memory and experience how it would sound in a railway station, how it smells, we would be able to experience and live the picture.
Art here again brings itself to history.
Art and history are like lovers in every context, they are reminded of each other.
Neurobiologically, doing an activity and thinking of doing an activity give the same experience to the brain, how lovely to add this to this context no?
Art and history make us mindful when consumed in the right ways, as in, we paint something, we concentrate, our thoughts slow down, and we become relaxed when we observe this, we could find random ideas and information flowing to us in the process that help us too, artists could relate to this, is it not?
The calmness these activities bring shapes society as a whole.
When we read histories of places, people and times, our imaginations and visuals are set ablaze and we try to experience as we read and sometimes even become the characters as we read inside our heads and pick up traits from the history.
Art in any form is a great way to document these experiences, we do not necessarily have to be professionals in art and history for it, we could simply do it for the joy of it, and it could end up helping ourselves and others around us, we will never know what impact it could create.
In the end, art and history lead us to find ourselves, pushing our boundaries, experiencing new things, making history and ultimately LOVE.
to read other articles – click here
