RE: Art is a Threat

Indeed. The biggest threat to governments is the arts - you know I will include literature and poetry in this. The more governments are threatened, the more they seek to remove people's ability to express themselves. It's a feature of a totalatarian state. Remove language, remove criticism, remove thought, remove dissent. They say arts students are the biggest threat - they're the ones that have the most language to express themselves.

Social media has made things worse - it amplifies the voices that criticise challenging art, demeaning it and attempting to remove it's power. How very DARE anyone make me feel squirmy uncomfortable, challenge my beliefs.

We don't like it when, historically, Islamists have done it with cartoons mocking the prophet, yet we get utterly outranged when Leunig challenges the establishment. Neither are toilets, but they are modern cartoons that have challenged and outraged.

As you know, we need to be challenged.

I do love an art scuplture walk though. Our favourite pasttime is to walk past the non art installation and critique it. For example, the post box.

Here stands a monolith to permanence, patience, and paper. Clean and visually commanding, it quietly provocates the age of digital ephemera. It is solid, utilatarian and austre, but also one could imagine a curious anthropomorphisim - it's gaping maw is ready to recieve all manners of detritus of society, from used coffee cups to divorce papers. The slot-mouth recieves, a portal, and then transformation occurs - the reciever is caught in time, not quite accepting the letters yet knowing they are coming. The bright red is child like, as if painted with crayons, belying it's important communicative function. Ironically, without the post box the nation comes to a standstill, yet it stands, still and immovable, on the corner - stubborn public infracture.