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Art as Freedom

“Art is Freedom,” declared an impassioned Bob and Roberta Smith at the opening ceremony of this year’s Koestler Trust exhibition, on London’s South Bank last week. “Art is the human voice.”
Art is by its nature escapist, whether pursued by creator or viewer. Art can be trangressive – crossing borders. Art – especially art by non-professionals – brings freedom of expression through a blend of other freedoms including: freedom from the limitations of verbal communication; freedom from the everyday binary world of good//bad or wrong//right; freedom from physical/cultural/political constraints or barriers;
freedom from objectivity and (when we let it) freedom from the straits of convention.
Creativity in itself can be understood as form of liberation – most of us will be familiar with the experience of “losing” oneself in the creative “zone”, and of experiencing that temporary loss of connection to time and one’s immediate surroundings when creating or viewing an artwork.

CatchingDreams

The notion of art as freedom is especially powerful when viewing the works on display at the Catching Dreams exhibition. The show is produced by The Koestler Trust, a charity that facilitates and celebrates creativity in prisons and other secure institutions. (The Trust was founded in the 1950s by writer and thinker Arthur Koestler, who experienced at first-hand the alienating and stultifying effects of incarceration.) This year’s exhibition is co-curated by a group of eight ex-offenders who have been supported through Trust’s artist-led mentoring scheme; some of them have had their own work exhibited in previous years’ exhibitions and are well aware of the positive impact of their work connecting with an audience.
The works on display are in varying degrees raw, impressive, touching, witty, unsettling. All are incisive and expressive of a unique voice; collectively they represent freedom from what Arthur Koestler termed ‘closed systems of thought’. The imagination, resourcefulness and tenacity of the artists shines through and is an inspiration to all – here, a bed-sheet has been used as a canvass; a moveable scale-model of a tank has been made from matchsticks. The work titles are often the most surprising element of all – and captions are unexpectedly immersive, lingering in the thoughts long after the exhibition hall has been left behind.
Earlier this year, I was fortunate enough to see the full range of artworks submitted for the 2014 Koestler exhibition – thousands of pieces crammed overwhelmingly into at the organisation’s headquarters (a four-storey ex-prison-warden’s house at Wormwood Scrubs). Of over 8,700 artworks submitted, only somewhere in the region of 250 could be chosen for the exhibition. Astoundingly – every entrant – whether their work is exhibited or not – will receive a piece of written feedback from staff or volunteers at the Trust. For those whose work did make it to the show, feedback is also invited from the public via a comment-card box, for onward transmission to the artists. The feedback becomes a line of communication from “the outside”, reflecting the impact of an artwork, transmitting a reaction to it and providing its creator with a rare (even unprecedented) sense of achievement, worth and motivation.
I hope that students at OCA will all be familiar with the feeling of incentive and impetus that comes from receiving feedback on their own work. Whether positive or critical, formal (via assessment) or informal (via peer exchange), feedback demonstrates to an artist that their free expression has the potential to be heard. Response is the sounding board for the creative voice and proof that it has the capacity to speak to others – and it offers the artist new space for reflection and growth. There are few situations in life where we receive regular direct response to our expressive output – so, students, make the most of it while you can! For many, feedback serves as grist to the creative mill, feeding drive and aspiration (which also takes confidence, practice and discipline to develop and maintain). Art is “freedom”, to an extent – for sure – but that freedom is hugely expanded and enriched when its expression finds reaction, in any form.
The Koestler Trust  Exhibition of Art by Offenders, Secure Patients & Detainees 2014: Catching Dreams

Until 30th November 2014.
Spirit Level at Royal Festival Hall, South Bank, London. Daily 10am-11pm. Free.
 
Image Credit: ‘My Dream, HMP Shotts, acrylic on canvas, Frederick Davies Highly Commended Award for Painting


Posted by author: Jayne Taylor

4 thoughts on “Art as Freedom

  • Thanks for sharing this – good to read about this and also the expansion of defining what creativity might mean….

  • Learning self expression is sometimes the first positive thing that has happened in the lives of some of those who exhibit at Koestler. I witnessed this first hand over many years and its impact is huge. Long may it continue.

  • Thank you, Doris. Incidentally, I hadn’t read your post ‘A Demonstration of Creativity’ at the time of writing, so am very pleased that the posts have managed to complement each other! I especially like the point you make there about how – paradoxically – restricted access to resources can fuel creativity (and therefore freedom of expression) through the necessity for resourcefulness and inventiveness.

  • Absolutely, Irene (and for plenty of others too!) – and for anyone to find a talent/aptitude (or simply pure pleasure) in the arts at any point in life is so invigorating. Thank you for pointing out the impact of this kind of opportunity – it raises interesting questions as to the value of art not in terms of market-value but, far more importantly, in terms of the value to society. I’d be interested to hear what people think.

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