From Life Art to Hijab
Essay about the boundaries between life and art. Published with artwork in Stretcher: Visual Culture and Beyond.
Excerpt:
Excerpt:
You may find yourself living in a shotgun shack.
You may find yourself living in another part of the world.
You may ask yourself, well, how did I get here?
You may say to yourself, god, what have I done?
–The Talking Heads, Once in a Lifetime
You may find yourself living in another part of the world.
You may ask yourself, well, how did I get here?
You may say to yourself, god, what have I done?
–The Talking Heads, Once in a Lifetime
What happens if life=art? Artists active in the Life-Art movement of the early 1970s influence me. I’m interested in a handful of pioneering artists committed to eliminating the boundaries between art and life such as Alan Kaprow, who describes an artistic practice that blurs into everyday activity; Linda Montano, especially, is an artist who exemplifies that life can be art, and that art is about a state of focused intention and presence. She consistently explores performance as a spiritual endeavor. Her piece 7 Years of Living Art + Another 7 Years of Living Art = 14 Years of Living Art, lasted from 1984 to 1998. During this time she developed an elaborate, durational, concentrated piece based on the yogic chakra system. Her desire is to live more consciously and in a state of constant awareness. Inspired by these artists, my exploration of the boundaries between life, art, and spirituality, grew into an association, from 1992-2007, with a traditional Sufi-Islamic religious order from Istanbul, Turkey that has a branch in the Bay Area.
This religious order is characterized by a strict program of training and attaches a great importance to dreams, which are considered a form of guidance along the mystic path. For me, this spiritual path mirrored the focus of self-transformative art, and it supported conscious intentionality as a potentially beautifying and aesthetic project, or litergical ritual. I fell in love with the Sufi notion of adab, an Arabic word meaning something like a combination of chivalry, right action at the right time, manners, and sensitivity. I saw its manifestation everywhere.
© 2011 The Author, Janet Silk
This religious order is characterized by a strict program of training and attaches a great importance to dreams, which are considered a form of guidance along the mystic path. For me, this spiritual path mirrored the focus of self-transformative art, and it supported conscious intentionality as a potentially beautifying and aesthetic project, or litergical ritual. I fell in love with the Sufi notion of adab, an Arabic word meaning something like a combination of chivalry, right action at the right time, manners, and sensitivity. I saw its manifestation everywhere.
© 2011 The Author, Janet Silk
