The Gift

"Where Did You Go?" by Jazmine Sullivan


...where did you go? / must be far away / everyday I come through / just to see your face...

I read an article about an artist who I feel that I think similarly to. His name is Lewis Hyde and he is an author of two highly acclaimed books by the name of The Gift and Trickster Makes This World, both of which I need to read. The New York Times describes his writings as complicated, non-sequential, difficult to summarize, and definitive of what art is.

The Gift is a book that works on "establishing an analogy between the making of art and how objects accrue value in traditional “gift economies,”". People make art, out any material they choose, sometimes worthless, rudimentary, or trash even and sometimes out of expensive material. Whatever the value of the components, the art is a product of a human engineer and by virtue of being art, is invalubale, immeasurable in value, priceless, etc., except in a free market economy like ours.

In a free market economy like our own, "objects accrue value" via a plethora of standards. Media, celebrity, drama, politics, economy, and other elements of culture contribute to the value of an item. Famous artist = famous piece = $$$$$$.

But it's art. I am unsure how to define art for this humble blog,
but we can agree art is amazing. Art is the true universal language. Every civilization that ever existed made art [paintings, sculptures, music]. We all speak art. Art is amazing, connects us, is bigger than us, is important in the discussion of a people, of our world. How then, does such an emornmous, important thing accrue monetary value?

But really, I have no qualms with art being sold or costing money. I think that it is an amazing feat that art can make a person wealthy. It is such a private, ethereal moment, art is. People understanding that private moment and willing to pay money to keep the product of that moment in their possession is beautiful.

The problem erupts in sharing that moment. Some universities own the sole rights to literature by authors long dead who wrote out of art and not empty commodification. But these institutions sometimes refuse those who want to put the literature in other collections to share with others, even if they pay. Why? How are the words, the art to get out to the world? Influence other artists? Validate other artists? Cure people? Help people? Resonate with people? Change people? Sophisticate people? Because art does all that and more.


I must read that Hyde book soon. If you'd like to read the article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/16/magazine/16hyde-t.html