why do we teach art

Why do we teach art?

During the last Kochi Biennale, during one of the meetings, while my colleague was introduced to Bose Krishnamachari in connection with my colleague’s proposed upcoming exhibition, instead of sitting idle during their conversation, I had a chance to go through the huge pile of paintings by kids that were collated as part of the Kids paintings regularly conducted at the venue. After going through that large collection, what amazed me was the complete dislocation of these kids from the venue in their imagination and their preference for cliché images.

Most of the drawings were on the theme of village and almost all of them were similar with images of two hills, sunrise, a river with a pyramid structure house with a lady and a child or fish in the water or birds among the clouds. Otherwise, there were Kathakali, pet animals and Family: father, mother and children. There was hardly any work responding to the venue or artworks spread across. For that matter, none of them was responding to the beautiful location of the venue or the contemporary situations in the world or Kerala life. These were the Kids if I am correct were in the age group of 3 to 15/13.

Considering most of these visitors are from semi-urban villages of Kerala where the kind of village image they depicted is of non-existence, it is quite appalling to witness, how clichés are formulating the aesthetics of a large section of children in this highly educated Indian state. It is also worrisome to realise, how the observational skill systematically have got eroded from our society and our education system.

There are few important points to be noted here

1. The examples show that Children are largely subscribed to pre-defined visuals than individual observational engagement to describe a context
2. Children do not interrogate the validity of a prescribed aesthetic notion for a qualitative inference or development of individual perspective or awareness
3. Children do not locate oneself to develop an observational understanding to situate oneself in life and its contexts
4. The ability to imagine and translate or transform an imagination is largely dictated by predefined texts and its linearity. This also limits one’s own ability to experiment and explore to understand multiplicity of an image
5. Overall, this leads to the development/emergence of a generation with Orthodox /skewed worldview dictated by conventional visual culture and it can be foreseen

This is a highly problematic situation that our children are lead into, where their worldview and its influence on cognitive capabilities that will limit them or will incapacitate them to engage with changing world order or technical imaginations and visual culture. One can see the signs already at the horizon with the rising schisms in Kerala society. (as a sample of state of educated population in Indian state). Growing influences of sectarian religious forces of orthodox conventions and problematic gender discriminations are a few among them.

Considering these factors, it becomes a matter of utmost importance to teach students art from very young age to think beyond conventions to build a progressive tolerant society who can imagine and comprehend the multiplicity of life beyond a conventional linearity. Let there be the fishes climb on tree, trees grow on sky, sky lives in sea and sea is full of mind. Let us teach art. Let us aks them to understand questions as seeing, exploring as observing, engaging and expanding of memory as the way of living. Finally deriving joy in short life as art