Ashley G., Post 7

Ashley Green

“In the process, they [the participant’s in recent culture wars over art] have produced more heat than light.” (Steiner xi)

People often feel threatened by art. To some art that challenges our societal standards and norms is interpreted as a personal affront. For these people, according to Steiner, art is “no longer a realm of free play but a kind of rape.” (Steiner 3) The idea that art influences behavior is only accurate in the fact that art can influence emotion, but it does not however determine reason in an individual, nor does it dictate how a person should behave. The proponents of “censored” art believe that if an image depicts a certain lifestyle, behavior, or ideology, the viewer is then inclined to replicate the particular behavior. Steiner states that proponents for “free” art believe that representation and advocacy are two separate things and I am inclined to believe that is at least partially true. While individual’s can certainly create representation that to advocate something, the two terms are by no means interchangeable. The art of documenting is a valid medium in which people can mold an image to make a statement that neither advocates nor disputes a belief, but instead a representation of fact. That being said, I do not think art influences behavior of people. I think it can force thought and shed light on certain issues, and it can appeal to someone’s emotions, but does not dictate how people should behave. In the Robert Mapplethorpe exhibit The Perfect Moment, several photos highlight sadomasochistic behavior. One of the most striking photos in the collection, in my opinion, is a self-portrait of Mapplethorpe with a bull-whip inserted in his anus. Upon viewing the photo, I felt a mild sense of shock, but it in no way made me want to go out and purchase sadomasochist paraphernalia and recreate the scene.

As previously stated, one of the greatest arguments against Mapplethorpe’s work was that it promoted deviant behavior. According to politicians like Gordon Humphrey and Jesse Helms, the works were purely pornographic in nature, and if people were exposed to them, they might participate in deviant acts as well. Furthermore, the fact that some projects were funded by the NEA, a federal agency, meant to them that the government was supporting deviancy. More importantly, it was not a government as a whole that was promoting indecency- that would imply their involvement- but a corrupt agency, the NEA- that clearly had to be drastically altered or shut down because it was causing a detriment to society by funding deviant art and artists. (“Damned in the USA”) To the opponents of Mapplethorpe’s work, the fact that the NEA funded some of his work was almost the same, in their minds, as a government entity supporting homosexuality and AIDS, and considering the political and social climate of the time, it is worth wondering if conservative politician’ would have held the same belief about the NEA’s involvement with Mapplethorpe’s work at the time. Mapplethorpe himself embodied the worries many people had about the time, dealing with AIDS and homosexuality, so regardless of whether or not he was photographing florals or depicting sadomasochism, he still likely would have been a target. It is likely that the affront on art and the NEA would have happened sooner or later anyway because many in the art community seemed to accept what conservative politicians viewed as deviant and destructive behaviors. Artists like Robert Mapplethorpe and Andres Serrano only provided a target for politicians to finally take aim at.

I think that visual art and textual artistic expression function in similar ways, but visual art forces more of an immediate reaction that textual art. In order to react to textual art you must first read, synthesize, and interpret what you think is happening in the piece. It is the reading part that generally takes people the longest. On the other hand, with visual art, you have an immediate stimulus for reaction and conversely thought. For both though, you have to think and reflect on the work in order to develop a reasonable opinion of the piece