Lord Hasenpfeffer wrote:
>Hey Sol!
This is the one thing that has always bugged me about me.
The people who are most prone to appreciate my art detest my faith.
The people who are most prone to appreciate my faith detest my art.
So few people on either side of my fence are truly tolerant of me and/or
each other.<
Well, I don't think that faith is in conflict with art. What you may find is
that people whose thought processes are defined by the social groups they
belong to are often not open to other ideas because they feel it will put
them in a position of conflict within their group and they may lose the
society around them that they value so they choose to reject ideas from
outside their own circle.
Most belief system themselves are not narrow-minded in their thinking and
are open to new ideas. Individual interpretations of belief systems however,
often centred around a church, temple or other religious centre, are
normally not so open because there is also this issue of community and most
communities tend to form from groups of like-minded people. For example
Myke, your church is no doubt composed of fairly like-minded people in that
you all share the same interpretation of your belief system (which is
Christian if I remember rightly?). Now like any faith Christianity is
interpreted in a range of ways from the fundamental conservative to the
radical liberal. Myke if you find the people most prone to appreciate your
faith detest your art they are likely closer to a fundamental conservative
view of christianity. However there are also many christians who are more
open minded, here one often thinks of incredibly tolerant groups such as
quakers etc.
To be honest I wonder why you find that many people who share your faith
dislike your art. Maybe it's not an issue of faith. Remember a lot of people
dislike avant-garde work and then so many years later those same ideas
filter into the mainstream. I don't know, have people actually said that
they find your work difficult in the light of their beliefs?
This is an interesting issue. From what I have seen it would appear that
Buddhism has been the faith most compatible with avant-garde activity in the
last few decades.....one can think of several examples, notably Robert
Filliou and John Cage.
I personally think that most faiths are compatible with avant-garde art
activity. The only problem I can see are things such as performance where
nudity or profanity is involved which people from certain faiths may find
incompatible with their beliefs. Of course this will depend upon the
interpretation of that faith that they have chosen.
Anyway, I'd like to explore this issue, Myke, it's an interesting topic
you've raised.
cheers,
Sol.
