So the Format blog is here and it will be interesting to see how this takes off, especially as I was the one who decided that I probably wouldn't end up contributing. There are a couple of thoughts from the session from the other night that I wanted to raise.
The residue that I have been left with after a couple of days of digestion, is that of exile. Farshid's sense of deportment was something that I felt a certain resonance with. It seemed that irrespective of his sense of political and geographical exile, what he was describing was the universal, generalised artist's condition.
Dictionaries are very specific as the their explanation of exile, they talk of expulsion from a country or home. But 'home is a place to which one is attached by myriad habits of thought and behaviour - culturally acquired, of course, yet in time they become so intimately woven into everyday existence that they seem primordial and the essence of one's being' (Tuan, Escapism). I am not going to attempt to unravel the many complexitites of home, but if we consider home as a conscious and subconscious self-construction of habitual thoughts and actions, then surely it is the duty of any artist, of any nationality in any place, to subvert that edifice, firstly for him/her self and consequently for a viewer?
posted by Matt at
1:35 AM
1 Comments:
Matt,
Firstly thanks for setting this up and secondly re-editing the website. This all points towards another space for discussion of the group's events and ideas outside of the church etc. I encourage others members to chip in when they can and lets develop it.
Secondly your comments on Farshid's rather understated presentation were very perceptive and he will enjoy reading and considering them. The essence of his interests and discourse centre on the idea of exile and the artist's position as outsider, wherever that may be. This transcends the cultural, global or other concerns or readings of works of art and Farshid has spoken with me about his long standing appreciation of Samuel Beckett, amongst other existentialist thinkers. I find it life affirming in an absent way, vto meet with someone from such a diverse culture and background yet share a common disposition of life and the unmeaning of art (despite all the thoughtful begrudgers). Nihilists! Fuck me. Dude at least it's an ethos.
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