Why Art - Art of Self

This conditioned concept of a “self” is not what or who we are. 

So, it’s urgently important to separate this synthetic idea of identity from the piercing awareness that all of that is invented, governed and controlled by external sources.

All the great philosophers teach about liberation, no matter what religion or denomination. What liberation?

When we have established an image of self or a role or identity, although this may provide some temporal feeling of security, the very existence of this “self“ produces extraordinary insecurity. 

We are constantly ensuring ourselves that we are occupying “This Role.” We are constantly concerned about how powerful our role is perceived. We’re defending ourselves against the diminishment of power of this image or role, reifying it with our opinions, our judgments, our condemnations, our comparing, our competing. 

What is to be said of how our perception of the world and each other is governed by out identity  of the moment.

Like this it seems, we’re  living in fear and anxiety, reacting from our defined roles and rules.

All of this undermines and erodes the very substance of love, compassion and humanity. 

If there is a self, then there is “the other,” the enemy, the adversary… And t/here begins the possessiveness, the entitlement, the arrogance, the cruelty, the destructive competition, separation and violence, obsessive narcissism, and superiority. Is this the Self that I aspire to? 

And then there’s the domination, the power and control over someone or something else, as another expression of “self.”

The artist friend of mine, Joseph Beuys, famous for his proposal, “Everyone is an artist,” implied, I believe that ~ if “everyone is an artist,” it is that experience of liberation from a conditioned social and psychological self that enables the artist within us to be born with every breath. And if we aim to transform society as “social sculpture” or through cultural activism, the only chance for outer change is empowered by inner change. 

Once we internally unlock the binding concepts of self and other, of role-performance, control, possessiveness and domination, once we transform our relationships and behavior, within our own minds, relating to ourselves, and others, then change can have a chance outside us. 

So it’s the degree of inner flexibility and freedom that determines the outer ecology and environmental conditions. 

The persistent problem, as you can see, is still this obsession with “self,” rather than the emphasis on community. 

When will we shift our inner obsession toward outer creative cooperation, community, synergy, co-existence and teamwork with others? 

Worldly crises that impact everyone across the board, from different economic, religious, political, and financial positions, seems to evoke not only the potential, but the urgency for community and working together. 

It seems the unfortunate case and the nature of modern, conditioned humankind, that only at the point when our very existence is threatened, that we examine our overall systems of operating and living together. 

Is it possible to change this narrative?

Emily Harris and I, with Institute for Cultural Activism International regional activities in Delaware County, invite community to cultural events and contemplative programming that we believe address a basic, natural desire in society for dialogue and collaboration, for creative outcomes to gatherings focused on deconstructing problems that challenge all of us. As Albert Einstein said, “We cannot solve a problem with the same mind that created it.”

Perhaps by working together to untangle our conditioned mechanical social and psychological conditioning and patterns our outer problems, shared across silos, can be healed. Is it art? Does it matter?

Artists, Harris and Halpern are frequent contributors to The Mountain Eagle. Their Institute for Cultural Activism International hosts a biweekly radio program, THE TUNING FORK FM, on WIOX 91.3 FM radio program from 1-2pm, every other Thursday. Their next broadcast is Thursday, July 25th.