Ilya Kabakov's Life Of Flies: The Value Of Art

Attention Getter: Art can be used to express our innermost feelings and to convey ideas about anything such as society, economics, education, religion, and politics.

Lord of the Flies has been considered a literary classic throughout many generations, in spite of it’s perplexing and depressing aspects. Written in 1954 with the timeframe of the next world war, a novel such as this is bound to have some out-dated concepts,language, and elements. The characters are a great example of this.

I believe that yes, art can make a difference. Artists create arts to bring people together, raise an awareness or t make a statement regarding an issue. For instance, people would create artistic posters and such to help raise awareness to issues like rape, or texting and driving. In the movie Waste Land, Muniz along with the workers of the garbage landfill used recycled materials from the garbage to create amazing portrait-like artwork that represents each of the main characters in the documentary.

Art in general is a form of expression. Individuals use art to express emotions, passion, or make a statement. Society can have an impact on how an artist chooses to express his or her sentiments. The beauty of it all is that interpretation is what makes art so unique. The same piece of art can mean so many different things due to who is looking at it. Just like everything else, art changes with time. There has been different eras in art that have impacted society as we know it.

Art can do a great amount to impact a political prospective. Another artist named Chim Pom built a tree house called the USA Visitors

     Art, in each and every form that it comes in, shows us who we are. Our

Conniff uses a very general idea to get his readers interested. The idea that flies are annoying is not a new one. Many people complain about the buzzing little animals and I don’t know one person who hasn’t swatted at one. Coniff mentions common places and problems with flies. He starts of the essay by saying how “A fly is standing on the rim of my beer glass as I write these words.” (Conniff, 2) I have had many a fly land of my drinks especially if sweet like lemonade or soda. It happens pretty often especially if I am outside. He also talks about how they fly on your dinner tables and picnics after coming from garbage (Conniff, 3). Flies are always hovering over the trash and then going to your food. This is why it grosses so many people out. If he would have started his article with just facts about how dirty a fly is and how much dirt they can spread he would have lost many readers who don’t want just a boring list of facts. By including things people can relate to he broadens his audience majorly. He has a

The style of art of Political Protest is often driven from anger, brutality, war, protest and feelings of government misrepresentation. The piece is designed to get these emotions across, to make people understand how the artist feels. Often colors and hidden images or phrases are embedded to create a more lasting effect.

When most people think about art, the first thing to come to mind would usually be paintings that are hung up in a museum. Unless you really understand the value of art you may not believe me when I say the value of art is essential to the well being of free individuals. This idea can be supported by Bell Hooks story named “ Art On My Mind”.

Art is a catalyst of change. It can confront both social and political issues as well as providing people with a creative outlet in which they can express their innermost thoughts and feelings - but what effect can art have on our society as a whole? Artists today have the unique ability to connect with people in a creative, innovative way that they can understand and interpret themselves. With this ability, artists are able to express their own views as well as influencing the views of others. Art is an immense part of our world – so much so that we barely even consider its impact upon us – but just how significant is the work of artists in our modern day society?

I plan to answer the following essential question: how can art be used to depict political views? I also hope to address these other questions that follow the essential one: Do “political art” and “propaganda art” mean the same thing? How can I make meaningful art from political perspectives that are not my own? Why do certain political symbols and images spread (the pink “pussy hats”,

“Any drawn line that speaks about identity, dignity, and unity is art,” (Chaz Bojorquey) is a statement that I agree with. Art is perceived differently from all people based on their culture, religion, personal taste, and many other factors. I believe that as long as what has been created is meaningful to either the creator or even to somebody that is viewing it, it should be considered art. Art in the public is a very controversial subject that brings up the important question of, “Should public art be considered as real art,” personally I think that it should be. I believe that the difference between art that is placed in a gallery and art that is visible by a community is the fact that what is acceptable in a gallery

Art is supposed for expressing feeling and the visualizing the feeling or thoughts of the artists. Censorship is the suppression of content, which is defined as harmful, politically incorrect or sensitive by the authority (cited in Merriam, n.d.). Art and censorship have been connected for a long period of time together. In the recent society, the censorship on artworks is one of the most severe issues when it comes to censorship and the problem happens internationally. Since every individual has the right to define what is acceptable for him/her or not, instead of the government or others, Art should not be censored. The censorship on Art may influence the freedom of Creativity‬ of the artist; the right of the general public to view different topics of artworks and censorship on political Art may affect the human rights and freedom of speech.

Figure 1 represents the answers of 97 people when they were asked whether art education was important in school from kindergarten through the twelfth grade. 100% of them answered that art education was important. This poll was conducted using people of various ages, demographics, and backgrounds (Saal).

For over two thousand years, various philosophers have questioned the influence of art in our society. They have used abstract reasoning, human emotions, and logic to go beyond this world in the search for answers about arts' existence. For philosophers, art was not viewed for its own beauty, but rather for the question of how art and artists can help make our society more stable for the next generation. Plato, a Greek philosopher who lived during 420-348 B.C. in Athens, and Aristotle, Plato’s student who argued against his beliefs, have no exceptions to the steps they had to take in order to understand the purpose of art and artists. Though these two philosophers made marvelous discoveries about the existence of art, artists, and