Evaluating Creativity

first published in 2012, updated in 2020.

this note is to help students to understand on how to write an essay review after attending an exhibition. 

ca·thar·sis   

1.the purging of the emotions or relieving of emotional tensions, especially through certain kinds of art, as tragedy or music.   

This is what you supposed to get when you experience, finished watching/viewing an awesome piece of creative work consists of painting,drawing,a film, a musical masterpiece and “something” that is relevant to creativity. 

After viewing it you learn something or make you go humble or worse, tears streaming down to your cheeks and ultimately kneeling down with respect and screaming “oh I am so not worth it…………..” I experienced this when I first saw Michelangelo’s Pieta in the art history book, watched Predator kicks Arnold in the big screen and listened to Wagner’s.  

Michaelangelo The Pieta, 1498–1499, St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican City.

 

   

Producing something creative is involves everybody’s senses. Elevating or stimulating our senses, sensation is not an easy process.

It involves our Aural, Visual and Smell.  

 Being an assessor, examiner or part of the jury is hard. Really hard. You need to evaluate the creative works. It’s not easy. First it’s judgmental in nature and worst is you need to decide. You need to be OBJECTIVE in evaluating something that is subjective. 

I need to remind to myself that I need to be HONEST.   The anatomy of an artwork ( or other creative work )  is simple, firstly of course you need to see or hear something...proceed to view visual images and understand the MESSAGE. 

You see a lot of students don’t understand the anatomy and the materials used to convey their messages. Canvas, sculptures and other related painting or illustrations are static (framed ) and require audiences to be contemplative and understand the images and it is associated with the message they want to convey. 

Short films or animated films in other hand are,although it's framed also but visuals moved coupled with sound to tell a story.   And most of the students are confused and they don't know the capacity of the medium they choose.   

I agree that most of the creative works produced by students can be personal. But they forgot when they display or screen the works in the gallery ( which is a public institution ) ; the works belongs to public. They unable to claim the works anymore.  The works now is at the mercy of the public.   

public art belongs to the public!

 

 So before going to the public, the works need to be assessed by examiners and the juries. So ideally or unfortunately they need to spend some time to see the works. Objectively. For me it’s simple,I take it like watching an advertisement, it need to be fast, the message need to be clear. 

For few, they got lost in the works and unable to come back to reality.   Once I brought my aunt to experience an installation in an Art Gallery.As usual on the way to the gallery I explained to her the 5W and 1H of installation means . 

Ok, here is the best part, when we enter …..we see a group of people goes “oooh” “ahhhh”…..”excellent”……to a beautifully arranged hanged FRYING PAN…displayed on the wall. FRYING PANS or also known to masses as KUALI.   while everyone goes ooh and ahhhhh….here I am with my auntie staring at the kuali and the kuali stared back to us. 

We are lost.   So my auntie said “………….what is this for? Are they selling the kuali?” I said “NOPE, it’s an artwork.” She looked back to me and I said “serious…….” She replied “guess if I arranged all my kitchen utensils, POTS and Pans this way, could I call myself an artist?” 

Her reply strikes me. I bet if my auntie approach the artist and said that, I would love to hear the reply from the artist.  On the way back, she said that she should buy the kuali since her kuali in her house is old and she need a new one to cook sambal and other stuffs. 

The Art Basel Banana, 2019

 

I don’t know if the statement is filled with sarcasm or a subtle joke, but it does strike me.     a cathartic experience   That experience taught me a lesson, an IMPORTANT LESSON, any artwork should be simple enough for the laymen to understand, that is what ART all about.

To enrich an individual in any form, to inspire them, make them learn or anything in the capacity to learn something new, to be appreciative. No wonder the Greeks filled the theaters just like how we glued on the TV watching WWE weekly. Its entertainment. Simple, entertaining and to be frank educating.I consider WWE as an art form. 

We imitate each of the wrestler's move like how we utter the lines from any Star Wars movie.We know the bad guys and the good guys. We get the message and the best part is, we know that it is a lie..something that we go to escape from reality........the best is they are not pretentious and its wonderful that they trying not to be serious, intellectual or take themselves seriously and being an elitist.  

 I just can’t accept denial or any pretentiousness in an art form. 

When it fails, it fails.

High Fashion Nonsense

 

The amount of writing to glorify can never help it. You see, all of us now live in the age of the Internet, we become angry like the Hulk when the Internet fails on us. We are getting impatient. So tell me, how many minutes we spend in the gallery. 

30 minutes? 

Walk......stop.....oh that looks funny...stare....walk.....and walk away..... Do we take our time to view and contemplate on each stationary art work? We face traffic jam for hours, find 40 minutes to find parking spots and have FRYING PANS stared back to us.

No thanks. 

I better go online and face ridiculous stuffs rather than facing a pretentious installation.   So students, just do us a favor, spend a lot of time question yourself and your works and be self critical. You are the one that producing it and for GOD's sake make it friendlier to audiences. 

A Place Called Home, curated by Anderson Ee, Balai Seni Negara, 2018

 

Don’t ask comments from your parents or best friends as their comments are accommodating and NICEEEEEEEEEE.   They will give comments that will kill you instead of helping you.

Make sure your work is friendly just like FaceBook old layout, we spend only few minutes to understand how the new button works and how it works. Gee...everyone loves it when they get the what you are trying to say.

Make sure your artwork doesn’t look like the new FB timeline. Same thing like producing and directing a short film or animation. What is the story and just get into the point. Stop being defensive. We don’t need to hear what your problem is and other complaints…….if your work fails, it fails.

Don’t expect us to understand. Don’t expect any pity or a “forced” praise when your message is lost.You see again the remarks given by Paula Abdul, Randy and Simon.   You be the judge and listen, whose remarks carry the most weight? 

Simon is cool as he is plain honest, Paula is being the good one and worse is Randy, as his comments is well is just a comment.So all the bad guys is the worst. So I’m sorry guys, I know that I can be MEAN, but seriously I don’t want you guys to be delusional. 

The world is already filled with disillusioned people, I just don’t want you guys to add to be like them.   So you want the red pill or the blue pill. Stay or find out how deep the rabbit hole is.

lets figure out which needs you have and need to fulfill by referring to Maslow Hierarchy of Needs