Trust your own reactions, don’t seek enlightenment: “We all have a part of ourselves that cries out for certainty and meaning. If we encounter a contemporary artwork one of the first things we ask is: “What does it mean?” We can be uncomfortable with not knowing, not being sure, not having the safe ground of the authorised, correct interpretation. When encountering an artwork we seek the explanatory panel.” — Grayson Perry (Times of London)
But this is not just about why we feel the need to ‘explain’ art:
“An article in The Guardian by Madeleine Bunting touched on a trait I’ve been noticing in myself and others. Her piece was about how in talk about the global war on terror the European Enlightenment is often wheeled out as an opposing force to fanatical religious fundamentalism. She questioned the way it was used to validate arguments against religion. She was surprised by the vehemence with which contributors to her blog discussion defended what they believed was a correct history of the Enlightenment.”
As Perry concludes, “I wonder if a similar dialogue went on in someone’s head that started: “I fancy invading Iraq in the name of enlightened democracy.””
