Had a rather fruitful discussion today, one that went from Han Sai Por's works to complaining about the education system. Long story, I know, but it went something like this:
While discussing her opinions on art, the class commented that she was contradicting herself; I know it sounds cynical but it seemed like she was "giving the politically correct answer" (something along those lines). How she was saying at first that she does not impose her ideas on the materials and environments she uses and the target audience she tries to reach out to (which is usually the public); in fact she says she creates sculptures that "the public wants"; yet she also mentioned something about "staying true to" herself. And then, speaking of "politically correct" answers, we started talking about graded assignments, some of which required our "opinions" but then "told us which opinions were right, or as they put it - to get a safer grade". (like the Integrated Humanities Reflection we did on our project work last year which required 6 pages of reflections from us then gave us a whole list of guidelines telling us what to write. They wanted an 'academic essay' on our experiences, not a personal narrative - I only made it to 4 pages. On the topic of 私函 or functional letter writing in Chinese - a constant exercise we've been doing for Higher Chinese, involving a rigid structure and format not just in writing recipients' and senders' addresses but also in the content of the letter - someone even commented that we sure as heck don't need no dang format to write to our friends!) And we all started joking about the irony.
Perhaps as artists we prefer free expression, but then again, the education system in its current state doesn't allow for that. Looking at Sticker Lady and our art museums, maybe the country in its current state was not meant for artistic expression.
No comments:
Post a Comment