Comments on: Restraint as a form of Artistic Pain

By: Casey J S

Casey J S — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 06:57:17 +0000

Susan,
Thanks for the links to my site and Amanda’s.

Speaking as an artist that functions within the framework of contemporary visual art, I have a few things to say about this post.
Pain is one thing of thousands that can inspire the creation of art. Human experience is vast and so should be the art.
The real question is why Mormon artists feel the need to make a decision between being a Mormon or being an artist as if the two cannot coexist. There are plenty of ethnic Mormon artists out there who are incredibly talented and influential (LaMonte Young, Matthew Barney, Paul Thiebaud, Paul McCarthy, Lane Twitchell, and others). They left the church. There aren’t any successful mid-career artists that are still going to church in contemporary art. Jim Christensen and Brian Kershisnik are awesome guys and they make quality work, but their work does not function in a global contemporary art dialogue. Their importance is regional. There are plenty of young emerging artists that are on their way to a Whitney Biennial, but they seem to fall away as they gain more success. Why is this the case?
thanks,
Casey J S

By: aloysiusmiller

aloysiusmiller — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 01:47:03 +0000

35. I don’t think that it is usurping but I wonder if sometimes one fears it as such in an unconscious way.

By: tesseract

tesseract — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 23:30:50 +0000

WHAT? Bjork is married to an ethnic mormon? How did I not know this.

By: John C.

John C. — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 23:17:58 +0000

aloysiusmiller,
I agree that art can be a form of prophecy, but I doubt it is the kind that can usurp. A tendency to build fences around the role of the president of the church may be something that is preventing our spiritual development.

By: aloysiusmiller

aloysiusmiller — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 21:53:31 +0000

I believe that one reason we Mormons don’t create art is because an artist is a prophet (small p) and we tend to shy away from usurpation. We shouldn’t and finding a way to be a prophet without arrogating to ourselves the title Prophet (even by implication that is only perceived by one’s self) is a Mormon artist’s challenge.

By: tiffanyswedemomisraeltrip

tiffanyswedemomisraeltrip — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 21:43:34 +0000

I disagree that Mormons in general are too happy and do not feel or experience great pain. We as a culture, may be taught to repress that pain and proclaim our happiness. Or perhaps we restrain ourselves in expressing that pain. I remember a conversation I had once in college upon learning that my grandfather was dying from cancer. I felt terrible anquish. My friend couldn’t understand why I felt such sorrow when I knew and understand the plan of salvation. I was a little angry that she wouldn’t acknowledge that I had the right to grieve my grandfather’s suffering and his eventual death. I don’t think that kind of approach is right. Do we need to wallow in grief or pain? No. But to deny that we feel or experience our share of real anguish or pain is naive and fails to address the variety of human experience.

By: Kathryn Soper

Kathryn Soper — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 18:11:50 +0000

Ironically, therefore, I think one of the main things that causes the needed anguish for art in Mormonism (the lack of ability to be perfect) is also the same thing that keeps it from being expressed (the attempt to keep up the image of perfection).

Amen, brother.

By: patricia k.

patricia k. — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 15:31:58 +0000

Many people experience many of the commandments as constraints upon behavior.

I think you might have hit on something here. If, in the context of this discussion, “many people” means “many Mormon artists,” little surprise Mormon art is hung up.

I wonder what would happen to Mormon art if said artists experienced the commandments not as constraining, but as liberating.

That is to say, I see no more reason to perceive the effects of living the commandments to be constraining as I see reason for the effects to be liberating. Saying that “many people experience” them that way implies that some people do not. What prospects for Mormon art might arise in that alternate commandment universe, among artists who experience the effects of living the commandments as rising awareness and freedom of thought, deed, and “experience”?

However, in your post, there seems to be a difference between the effects exerted on art by living the commandments (submitting to God’s constraints, if that’s what they are) and the effects of living within a culture’s imposed expectations (which seems to be more what you’re posing, especially with your Iranian cinema example).

The dynamics of those two realms—the workings of the world of God’s commandments and the workings of the world of men’s imposed constraints upon other men—I think it could be said they often come into conflict.

By: John C.

John C. — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 14:04:58 +0000

Susan,
I think that the Cremaster series is what you get when a cult of personality overcomes art criticism. It is a bunch of self-indulgent tripe, in my opinion.

By: Susan

Susan — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 14:02:43 +0000

If you are lucky enough to find a painting of Christ by Bruce Hixon Smith, or to encounter Peter Myers Messiah Series, they may be the pinnacle of mormon religious paintings/prints. If you want this to be specifically about religious paintings.

Generally, I am not drawn to paintings of Christ while visiting art galleries, centers, and museums.