Guest Post
By Meena Chopra
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| Meena Chopra at the Women Economic Forum Portugal 2019 |
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Marco Kusumawijaya, an architect and urbanist. A
foremost voice on sustainability
Artists are change agents and by nature have a sense of
sustainability as leaders. Art touches
the very core of humanity. Therefore, art as a path to global consciousness
could be a great unifying tool because of its collective nature. As an artist
and creative writer, I know that my world is in a constant change. It is always
facilitating and trying to be the catalyst of innovations, bringing awareness
to the issues that matter and hoping to bring about change and even just
raising awareness on many issues.
Alex Grey, American Artist says, “Art is an echo of the
creative force that gives birth to galaxies.
Creativity is the way with which the cosmos evolves and communicates
with itself. The great uplifting of humanity beyond its self destruction is the
redemptive mission of art” - The
artist channels the creative force into the artistic work and the work then
turns into a kind of charged battery, ready to zap the imagination of the
viewer into the new way of perceiving the world.
This is how global
consciousness becomes cosmic consciousness through human consciousness and becomes
a unifying factor to humanity. Therefore, throughout history, art has been a
major instrument in transforming human consciousness and revolutionizing
societies. It is in its nature political, because it represents a voice that
will not be compromised and faded easily.
If I speak of sustainability in Canada, concerns about
environment have been enormous in general with all creative people and artists
and more so amidst our 'first
nation artists' whose
heritage lies within the land. They are close to earth and to the nature. Urban
land has also been a concern of many artists.
Vancouver school of photoconceptualism deals with the subject of how it
is to be living in an urban environment. They are also dealing with the
subjects like racism, immigration, poverty, hunger, riots etc. Canada is also a
homogeneous and exceedingly diverse society in constant progress while meeting global
challenges.
Now, some artists want to explore the eternal question of
just ‘what is art’ while delving into the recesses of mind in search of that
unifying factor, while others want to
protest with the things that they disagree within the society like the over
consumption of the material goods and social inequalities. Many aboriginal artists
are using modern and traditional techniques to express their ideas and concerns
about sustainability.
Persistently fighting the stereotypes, trans-cultural,
transnational, not fitting into a box, multi-positional, shape-shifting reality
that many of us in Canada feel and face. There are series of negotiations that
are constantly happening in this multidimensional network that we have. With all this Art power is emerging as a
powerful global consciousness.
Art is giving the consciousness, the ability to understand
the global, international, and cross-cultural sources, interconnections,
institutions, events, and actions. Most important, it gives value and validity
to the diversity of every type while demonstrating open-mindedness and
acceptance, also effectively in settings and situations where language and
culture are diverse and native. All this comes naturally to the people who are
in creative fields. Artists as global citizens are generous.
Technology plays an immense role because it has made the
entire world a global village. This technology also plays an important part in
artists advancement of the work as global citizens. I perceive technology both
as an artistic medium and also as a powerful global communication tool as it
can be instrumental in giving art a global voice.
Meena Chopra' is a Toronto artist and poet. This is her address at the Women
Economic Forum – WEF Portugal 2019
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