The Art of Rebellion
The Art of Rebellion.
All apologies for my last blog, to begin with. I am to blame for being obscure, insignificant, prejudiced and for stamping authoritative comments based on a single event. Very “politically incorrect”. Care shall be taken.
Surfing over the idiot box, I came across this programme on NatGeo about Body Art. Now, I’ve had a secret desire to get a tattoo since ages, so I was immediately hooked on. I picked it up when they were describing a full body tattoo technique used by the Japanese, used in ancient times by the Samurai, and a rage with the Yakuza in more recent times. The long and painful hours dedicated for the art were representative of the endurance of the Samurai, and the art was worn as a badge of courage. The Yakuza, hillariously, think of themselves as modern day Samurai, and opt to mimic the ways of the ancient, honourable sect.
The genesis of the modern day Japanese tattoo, however, is veiled in a more sinister motive. Criminals were commonly tattoed on their forehead and arms, making identification and ostracisation easy. Full body tattooing was revived by criminals so as to hide these tattoos with elaborate artistic designs. The artists were more than happy; after all, how many times does one get a real live canvas? With time, it grew into a way of displaying fierceness; akin to the red on the chameleon’s skin, a warning to stay away.
Curiously, what developed in the Orient as a method of preventing social isolation, grew and developed in the western world as a sub-culture of rebellion, a way of wearing the badge that says “misfit”, loud and proud. Tattoos have been around for ages, and because almost everyone has one these days, they do not seem to satisfy the continuous need to physically distinguish oneself from the others. The new rage is Body-Mod, which includes seemingly insane ways of changing one’s body, from under-skin horn implants, to 1000 degree celsius branding techniques to singe the flesh forever; some of which involve using electric sparks for burning, using the human as the ground, and virtually electrocuting the subject. And yes, people pay to get this done.
Which brings me to my musing. Why all this? Let us not even get into the whole “to look cool” scene, since it stinks, laughably, of intellectual bankruptcy. “As a mean of self-expression”, is the answer that comes to my mind immediately. But a rethought on a deeper level has left me wondering, without answers. Is this just an overstatement of the fact that one does not confirm to the ways of the world? That one does not believe in the creation of nature, and that one holds the power to change oneself as per his own free will? Is this not the same state of mind, at a much more acute stage, that makes one want to wear his hair long, or even makes one want to be a fashion trendsetter?
Rebellion seems to be the underlying reason. May it be against society, against nature, against stereotypes. The inherent and irrepresible urge of an individual to scream out that he is his own person. The urge that gets lost in so many of us, as we continue to remain caught up in our days and nights. But is ‘looking’ different from the rest of the world the only way of rebellion? Is thought not a much more potent and effective method of rebellion? In one’s efforts to look different, has one forgotten that to be different, one only has to think differently. It is only when one fails to realise this, does he look at macabre ways as above to confirm his non-confirmist nature.
And then there is the art point of view. Yes. This, to me, is art. The art of rebellion. More on the art of rebellion by means of the mind, coming soon…
All apologies for my last blog, to begin with. I am to blame for being obscure, insignificant, prejudiced and for stamping authoritative comments based on a single event. Very “politically incorrect”. Care shall be taken.
Surfing over the idiot box, I came across this programme on NatGeo about Body Art. Now, I’ve had a secret desire to get a tattoo since ages, so I was immediately hooked on. I picked it up when they were describing a full body tattoo technique used by the Japanese, used in ancient times by the Samurai, and a rage with the Yakuza in more recent times. The long and painful hours dedicated for the art were representative of the endurance of the Samurai, and the art was worn as a badge of courage. The Yakuza, hillariously, think of themselves as modern day Samurai, and opt to mimic the ways of the ancient, honourable sect.
The genesis of the modern day Japanese tattoo, however, is veiled in a more sinister motive. Criminals were commonly tattoed on their forehead and arms, making identification and ostracisation easy. Full body tattooing was revived by criminals so as to hide these tattoos with elaborate artistic designs. The artists were more than happy; after all, how many times does one get a real live canvas? With time, it grew into a way of displaying fierceness; akin to the red on the chameleon’s skin, a warning to stay away.
Curiously, what developed in the Orient as a method of preventing social isolation, grew and developed in the western world as a sub-culture of rebellion, a way of wearing the badge that says “misfit”, loud and proud. Tattoos have been around for ages, and because almost everyone has one these days, they do not seem to satisfy the continuous need to physically distinguish oneself from the others. The new rage is Body-Mod, which includes seemingly insane ways of changing one’s body, from under-skin horn implants, to 1000 degree celsius branding techniques to singe the flesh forever; some of which involve using electric sparks for burning, using the human as the ground, and virtually electrocuting the subject. And yes, people pay to get this done.
Which brings me to my musing. Why all this? Let us not even get into the whole “to look cool” scene, since it stinks, laughably, of intellectual bankruptcy. “As a mean of self-expression”, is the answer that comes to my mind immediately. But a rethought on a deeper level has left me wondering, without answers. Is this just an overstatement of the fact that one does not confirm to the ways of the world? That one does not believe in the creation of nature, and that one holds the power to change oneself as per his own free will? Is this not the same state of mind, at a much more acute stage, that makes one want to wear his hair long, or even makes one want to be a fashion trendsetter?
Rebellion seems to be the underlying reason. May it be against society, against nature, against stereotypes. The inherent and irrepresible urge of an individual to scream out that he is his own person. The urge that gets lost in so many of us, as we continue to remain caught up in our days and nights. But is ‘looking’ different from the rest of the world the only way of rebellion? Is thought not a much more potent and effective method of rebellion? In one’s efforts to look different, has one forgotten that to be different, one only has to think differently. It is only when one fails to realise this, does he look at macabre ways as above to confirm his non-confirmist nature.
And then there is the art point of view. Yes. This, to me, is art. The art of rebellion. More on the art of rebellion by means of the mind, coming soon…
posted by Sopan at 10:36 AM
6 Comments:
Forgive my commenting on every post that you make, but take the fact that your posts, unlike so many others', are worth commenting upon as a compliment.
Extremely well written. There's one thing that ticked me off a little though - something that's been ticking me off for a while now -
To me, art represents a search for something higher, an elusive something, that lies within you; a search that you might conduct through 'the arts' (music...poetry...literature...theatre...living...).
Now rebellion is a possible (or probable or maybe even inevitable) byproduct of this search. A usually unavoidable side-effect. Maybe a search for yourself IS a rebellion from whatever is NOT yourself.
(I'm coming to the point..just flow with me).
'Thinking differently' is a means that MIGHT be inevitable while you go about this search.
BUT, 'rebellion' or 'thinking differently' are not, in themselves, 'art'.
I believe, like a lot of people *say* they do, that every human being is different. That's what makes us human. But for me to be unique, to stand out from society, i don't need to grow my hair or get a tattoo or rebel or think differently. I need to think like MYSElF, for which I need to discover what thinking like myself is in the first place, for which i need to SEARCH for my self, FOR WHICH I might need to rebel or think 'out of the box' i've let society put me in.
I think what really gets to me sometimes is the excessively liberal use of the word 'art'.
Request: Please dont let this discussion stop. This is vital stuff.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Whoops. Looks like I left the title open enough for misinterpretation. My mistake.
Thanks for the frank comments. Set the cogs in my brain in motion once again. And apologies for "ticking" you off. But I would definitely not trivialise "art" as you have interpreted it.
By "The Art of Rebellion", I strictly and only meant to refer to body-art, which is art according to me, since it finally is a mean of self-expression, an expression of the artist as well as an expression of the live canvas.
Art is, well, just art. Described as an activity, the only purpose of which is to please the senses by Wilde, and described as a search for the elusive "me" inside a person by you. It is too abstract a concept to be used "liberally", I am still to find a satisfactory explanation for its existence and its mysterious ways of working. I would not dream of reducing its importance.
Rebellion, though, has an uncanny resemblance to art. More on this in my next blog. Under construction...
Do the both of you realise that your comments are actually larger than the posts on this blog ?! And Srijan, post !!
The blog is merely a reagent. This where the actual discussions must take place. What's the point in one way traffic?
yo go to settings and switch on your word verification....
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