Art and Religion - a short essay
Oct. 16th, 2008 01:11 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
karadin.livejournal.com posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
gackt_armyArt exists as a reflection of nature, but it also reflects human culture. Religion has been a part of human culture since its inception.
For an artist to create work with a religious theme, be it 'Jesus Christ Superstar' or 'The Satanic Verses' is to take certain concepts and put them in a modern context. The purpose of these works are to explore the metaphors and symbols that permeate culture, such as Redemption, Forgiveness and Enlightenment, not to mock them.
To say an artist 'blasphemes' by including a religious figure or a symbol in their work is not only doing disservice to the artist, but the notion of freedom of expression.
It also is a disservice to deny oneself the opportunity, sight unseen or unheard, to find a new concept to agree with, or, to miss a chance to discuss a different point of view in a considerate, thoughtful way.
Every work of art should stand on its own merit, and succeed or fail as it deserves.
But, every musician, painter, composer, writer, and Gackt, is also a person who has the right to explore these themes, in fact, an artist should be lauded for tackling weighty metaphors and challenging their audience.
For an artist to create work with a religious theme, be it 'Jesus Christ Superstar' or 'The Satanic Verses' is to take certain concepts and put them in a modern context. The purpose of these works are to explore the metaphors and symbols that permeate culture, such as Redemption, Forgiveness and Enlightenment, not to mock them.
To say an artist 'blasphemes' by including a religious figure or a symbol in their work is not only doing disservice to the artist, but the notion of freedom of expression.
It also is a disservice to deny oneself the opportunity, sight unseen or unheard, to find a new concept to agree with, or, to miss a chance to discuss a different point of view in a considerate, thoughtful way.
Every work of art should stand on its own merit, and succeed or fail as it deserves.
But, every musician, painter, composer, writer, and Gackt, is also a person who has the right to explore these themes, in fact, an artist should be lauded for tackling weighty metaphors and challenging their audience.
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Date: 2008-10-16 06:35 pm (UTC)That's a very good essay, general karadin -in fact it's so good that I can add nothing to it!^^
As I already said at the dears-community, in japanese pop-culture symbols like crosses, swastikas and uniforms are mainly used to transport certain feelings or values, like in a lot of manga or anime for example -it might just be a figurative thing to express a certain message and we should find out on our own, what the artist wants to tell us.