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Art of the Now – a video essay of ephemeral art

June 5, 2009 | Leave a Comment

[video essay, ephemeral art]

by Nancy S.M. Waldman

Ephemeral art is everywhere. Often it isn’t thought of as art with a capital “A.” By its nature, it can’t be bought, sold, collected, moved about easily, and it is impermanent. However, with photography and video we now can and do capture and make relatively permanent even the ephemeral. In many respects, this changes the artforms greatly.

Whether it is a lower or upper case “A,” art of the now is art that people easily identify with it. They marvel in it, touch it, wear it, feel it, play and interact with it, admire it, talk about it and love it. In North America we are familiar with sand and ice sculptures, graffiti, sidewalk art, rock cairns, body decorating, environmental installations and performance art. Nature-based art is a fairly new terms for art that is out in the world using natural materials. The gradual decomposition over time is part of the process of this art.

Art of the now has been part of human expression from the beginning. It is rooted in religion and spirituality. Often there is ritual involved, at times associated with life’s passages. Part of the ritual may be the destruction of the art. The art is a part of human attempts to cope with the fact of death.

What a marvel that something so associated with death and other weighty subjects is often so playful.

Moreover, ephemeral art is full of metaphorical lessons for all of us. It reminds us to pay attention. To appreciate the moment. To be in the present. To let things go. To surrender to and honour the passage of time.

Here’s a small sampling of the art of the now along with some quotes on the immortality of art. Enjoy!

Everything we see falls apart, vanishes. Nature is always the same, but nothing in her that appears to us, lasts. Our art must render the thrill of her permanence along with her elements, the appearance of all her changes. It must give us the taste of her eternity.

(Paul Cezanne)

What I have done cannot be taken from me.

(Eugene Delacroix)

Our desire is to grow so quiet and to work so deeply that we participate fully in the mystery in which we’re embedded. When we manage to do that we feel as if we have merged with the universe; for the duration of that experience we feel immortal.

(Eric Maisel)

Those who look at art relay their visions to the following generations as those images remain into the collective psyche.

(Milos Vujasinovic)

The influence of each human being on others in this life is a kind of immortality.

(John Quincy Adams)

We aren’t worried about posterity – we want it to sound good right now.

(Duke Ellington)

Every artist wants his work to be permanent. But what is? The Aswan Dam covered some of the greatest art in the world. Venice is sinking. Great books and pictures were lost in the Florence floods. In the meantime we still enjoy butterflies.

(Romare Bearden)

Tags: Art, Creativity, ephemeral, fleeting, Guido Daniele, julian beever, livepaint, motionpaint, paint, rinpa, rinpaeshidan, Video & Film, 輪派, 輪派絵師団

also posted in: Art , Creations , Photo essays


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