So-called spirituality, so-called art
Modern art, modern spirituality…
In the past few decades I have witnessed the field of spirituality move quite rapidly, from the extreme razor sharp edges of society to the comfortable shallow lap of the mainstream.
Much of that which was regarded as mysterious and transformative, profoundly wise and full of wonder and magic, as well as wired, esoteric, eccentric and alternative, has been warmly accepted into the conventional. Sadly, even more so, it has become an empty and meaningless cliché.
Nowadays spirituality has been somehow mixed and associated with some general welln
ess and cool lifestyles, just as much as sexy and open-minded skinny girls doing the splits in the air. We find it popularly used in all sects of marketing and promotion, pretty much in every possible way; from life insurance to soft drinks. Traveling all the way from the depth of real longing and the caves of profound meaning, spirituality has ended up being embraced by the masses as a mixture of shallow, optimistic and catchy slogans.
Ungrounded spirituality
Unfortunately, most of those that would actually want to find in spirituality more than just hollow words may discover only repetitive, dull and overused concepts, devoid of clarity or any real understanding. They most likely will reach the conclusion that spirituality is nothing more than a bunch of psychological ideas mixed with positive thinking, therapy, personal improvement methods, a collection of energy-body work and some vague broad sweet aroma of optimistic attitude.
The contemporarily known field of spirituality is so messy, so diluted and shallow. It is so ungrounded and so undefined that pretty much anyone and everything can be linked to it and even be declared as “spiritual”.
Normal Empty Art
Art too ha
s made its way from the extreme corners of rebellion into the comfortable center of normality. From the wild expressions and unbounded passion, from leading a revolution to being numbed by bourgeoisie. The sincere and devoted inner creative search, the authentic hunger to unite with the muse, has been tamed and compromised, emptied of meaning or depth, thinned by the pedestrian, lost in the fast and fake commercial world with no quest to find itself.
Anyone with a computer and a few music or visual editing software programs can declare themselves an artist. And while this technological elevation cannot be stopped, art has become mediocre and banal.
Longing for more then the mundane
Resolving to conservative paying jobs, giving into mass production and supplying mere entertainment, the artist sold his soul and deserted his heart. Art abandoned its connection to the living essence and stopped feeding the burning fire of its creative source. Letting the spring of inspiration dry, it drifted away from its primal foundation, becoming more and more synthetic, more and more conceptual, and less and less real and alive.
From the introduction to the new book: “Contemporary Spirituality, Contemporary Art”.
Images are of contemporary artwork from around the world
