"A nation's culture resides in the hearts and in the souls of its people." – Mahatma Gandhi
The late Kuo Pao Kun, the doyen of Singapore Theatre, has always shared that the ultimate purpose of art is life. Whether one distills from life to create art or one is inspired and/or healed by an art work or an artistic process, art for life is what makes Art and the People a provocative, apt and timely focus for the M1 Singapore Fringe Festival 2014.
Numerous art works have been the outcome of broken communities finding some form of healing or empowerment against oppressive
forces. Augusto Boal’s Forum Theatre, which has helped many communities worldwide comes to mind. Another notable form is Playback Theatre, where, through artistic and creative re-enactment, players and story-tellers affect each other and connect to learn more about themselves and life, demonstrating the common ground we share.
"The strange power of art is sometimes it can show that what people have in common is more urgent than what differentiates them." – John Berger
These dynamic exchanges between Art and the People make us reflect on how Community Arts has been looked down upon or seen as the poorer cousin in art circles all around the globe. Should not art be art, and that art for the people be regarded/respected as having its own aesthetic standards and bar of excellence to attain as well? The disdain shown towards Community Arts by some artists exposes a glaring hypocrisy, for isn’t art supposed to nurture an environment that is inclusive, where differences can co-exist?
"My audience comprises everybody, not just the bourgeois. But there are people who don't take me seriously and that annoys me." – Tracey Emin
The most powerful art pieces are undeniably those that are directly connected to the people, inspired by human frailties, strength, desires and hopes. In times of turbulence and despair, art has always been regarded as a means towards healing, reconciliation and catharsis, as evidenced by the many thought-provoking, heart-wrenching and uplifting works arising from disasters, political upheaval
and societal strife. Art can indeed help us examine the obstacles that impede cohesion.
"It never ceases to amaze me when ordinary people get into the spirit of what I'm doing. It’s pivotal to my art." – Spencer Tunick
Yet, community remains a problematic concept because diversity arises with democracy, and with that comes fragmentation and fracture. Marginalised communities have relied on art to assert their identities, to overcome oppressive forces. Art is then employed to uphold differences; giving voice or visibility to the oppressed community. Interestingly, art then celebrates instead of melds these differences. Art is a paradox that can do both.
"There is no surer way of evading the world than by Art; and no surer way of uniting with it than by Art." – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Art also challenges the people and ruptures established perceptions about life, enabling us to critique what has been normalised. Often artists create out of a disturbance. For some transformative art or socially engaged works, some artists opt for aesthetic strategies that
encapsulate these disturbances that provoke, challenge and affect the audience, in order to motivate them towards a re-visioning of certain aspects of life, to hope, and indeed, to create a future from dreams.
"The artist... tells his audience, at the risk of their displeasure, the secrets of their own hearts." – R. G. Collingwood
Today, in our socially mediated world, art can be a call to arms, where crowd-sourced contributions by the general public becomes
the final product, where the processes of collaborating, editing, curating, mediating and critiquing are themselves the artwork. By re-examining the relationship between Art and the People, we open ourselves to new possibilities of the definition of art and creative processes. We embrace the unique voices expressing diversity, that - in coming together - form a new aggregate, a perspective that does not propel any single dominant ideology, but rather, accepts differences and sees them as integral components of an all-encompassing, fluid, and truly democratic whole. Through Art and the People, we seek to celebrate one another, to appreciate irregularity and asymmetry amongst our communities, and to meditate on how our individualities are but extraordinary expressions of ordinary beauty through multiplicity.
(Source: The Necessary Stage Programme)