Friday, May 27, 2011

Gil Scott Heron, Chuck Norris and art

In case you didn't know Gil Scott Herron (musician, sometimes called the father of rap) died yesterday so there are lots of tribute type comments and sentiments out there in the land of the internet.

I saw a link to Gil Scott Herron, (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOBVa6Gg6PA&feature=share) and thought I'd remind myself about him. (I will add a disclaimer before you read further that I don't know that much about Gil Scott Heron, his life or his influence. However I still had some ideas I thought worth sharing...)

As i watched and listened I read the comment directly under the clip. It was:

"Chuck Norris saw Gil Scott Heron, bowed to Gil, shook his hand and said "Thanks for the wonderful music you have given us." After that he got Gil's autograph, got a high five and watched with tears in his eyes as Gil walked into the sunset."

I kind of sighed and rolled my eyes it is overly sentimental and it does that awful thing of building a myth out of a man. I hate that. He was a guy, a really great guy perhaps, maybe a unique, profoundly talented man, but he was human. I object to deifying and mystifying a human. It creates a divide between him and me and the rest of humanity and that does none of us justice. Especially him.

The author of the comment achieved this link to myth quite neatly by linking him to Chuck Norris. In popular culture Chuck Norris is a joke and a Myth. He is the ultimate all American, good guy, martial artist. You use him when you want to demonstrate just how bad ass something is.

some example Chuck Norris Jokes:

  • Chuck Norris died 20 years ago, Death just hasn't built up the courage to tell him yet.
  • There used to be a street names after Chuck Norris, but it was changed because nobody crosses Chuck Norris and lives.
  • Chuck Norris can cut through a hot knife with butter
  • Chuck Norris and Superman once fought each other on a bet. The looser had to start wearing his underwear on the outside of his pants.
  • Some magicians can walk on water, Chuck Norris can swim through land.

(For more fun Chuck Norris facts, jokes and merchandise check out: http://www.chucknorrisfacts.com/chuck-norris-top-50-facts)

So you can see that Chuck Norris is now a myth-man who is better than Superman, Jesus and even Death itself is afraid of him ('Death once had a near Chuck Norris experience'). He has become immortal end ever young, ever powerful and undefeatable. In other jokes god, nature and the laws of physics all bend for him.

I have to admit I really quite like a lot of the better Chuck Norris Jokes. Some of them predictably get quite foul, but as a whole it is a fun game of word play, machismo and ridiculousness.

Anyway, to have Chuck Norris pay respect to Gil Scott Heron is to say that he has earned and deserves the respect of even the baddest mother fuckers, and once you're mates with Chuck, no one will mess with you.

As I pondered the various elements at work within that comment I realised something about the value of art.

I was watching the tall man playing music and surrounded by other men playing music and in the macho context of the Chuck Norris comment it was really clear to me the value of the fact that these men had chosen to focus their lives on music, and art. They had not taken up arms and decided to hurt people. The idea that music as an outlet, art as an outlet... and how you could have every person on the planet making music or art and it would never be too much. You could not have every person on the planet do any other activity and it be ok.

And I guess, on a basic level I was responding the power of the Chuck Norris myth, I was absorbing the idea that it is ok to make art. Chuck Norris approves. Its allowed. I don't have to put on a cape and save the world, I don't have to mount podiums and start preaching and converting, I don't have to contribute anything more than my art. And at the end of my life I may have a) contributed something worthwhile and b) avoided spending my time creating harm (one would hope... a whole other discussion might be about how art can be hurtful and damaging - but lets not go there here and now). And they are both worthy things to have spent a life doing.

Yes, I was being influenced by a tongue in cheek, slightly facetious YouTube comment.

Don't get me wrong. Gil was not a passive, feel good guy with no issues. He was an activist, linked with militant black movements and his music was often angry or loaded with political import. He had drug problems and was in and out of jail.

I am not saying art is the answer to all of societies problems.

But I do need, as an artist myself, reminders about how powerful and positive dedicating your life to art can be. It is so important to be reminded that it is a powerful medium, especially as so much of your time and effort is spent in relatively solitary activity. (perhaps less so for musicians) You can influence people, you can say stuff to a wide audience, you can share a point of view that may not get heard in other arenas, you can inspire, give confidence, improve people's lives without even meeting them.

Some artists make things that just add to the noise in the world, some create peace, some educate, some provide a sense of community to isolated people. And yes, i do think that some do harm. However, it seemed clear to me in that moment, somewhere between Chuck Norris and Gil Scott Heron, that it is worthy. It is not a waste, I am not squandering my potential, i am not neglecting other duties I may have to society or my fellow humans. (You see the devils that can haunt an artist?!?! Self worth and the worth of your practice. What to spend a life doing...) So my pondering lead me to a sense that it is possible to be an artist in whatever form and you would not be selfish or self indulgent in pursuing your practice, you have no idea who you might touch and what benefit that might have.

Gil Scott Heron did all this in his creative life, he used words, poetry, lyrics, music to work against injustice. Whatever failings or struggles he may have had he at least did this, with intelligence, authenticity and poetry.

like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaD-FKIfYgk&feature=related

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

What's been going on?

It has been quite some time since I posted here. What. Has. Been. Happening?!?!?!

Well... I have been lost in a land of in-between-jobs-studying-homework-ness.

I have spent the last year reminding myself of all the things I've learnt before. But not for no reason. Its funny, I was reading back over my rant from June last year and I have done a lot of the stuff I said I hated doing. I've gone back to school, and not even fun school... really un-fun school. I have done a Cert IV in Training and Assessment. Here in Australia you need one to teach adults in TAFEs. It has swallowed about a year of my life, whole, no pausing for air. I am almost finished, just a few little loose homework ends and I will have a piece of paper that says I can teach. Woohoo, I think. Not sure I want to teach in TAFE now... I've started my own independent classes and you don't need bits of paper for that.

alliesartclasses.blogspot.com

I will admit that I was seriously considering deleting this blog, as I haven't added to it in such a long time. But I spent a little time looking back and I realised that I still like it. It helped me reconnect with a lot of the work and shows I have had in the past few years and which ultimately I have had mixed feelings about. I haven't painted, I will admit it, in about a year. And re-reading the blogs was a great way to reconnect with the work I was doing and now as I finally start to edge carefully back into that creative head-space it is a beautiful thing to come back to the old work and see it fresh.

As painful as the course I've been doing has been it has provided a time gap to help me see things fresh again. A good thing. And I have a new piece of paper.