For the Love of Art -Sapiens

“Apocalypse…” by Zabrocki credit from the Threadless article This Sci-Fi City Art Will Make You Want to Move to the Future

Regardless of whether art comes in the form of literature, dance, music, architecture, fashion design, or another medium, it provides alternative realities to both the artist, who creates it, and the witness, who experiences it. Our perceptions about ourselves and our world become unsettled by art and then freed by it because, somehow, art opens up a space within our hearts as well as our minds, bodies and spirits - this space permits us to be indulged by entertainment and healed by someone’s truth. Similar to the Down the Rabbit Hole blog (but different), follow me on a creative journey where we consider pieces of art that relate to the topics covered in the books we read for Book Interrupted. Point blank: For The Love Of Art is a random blog posted intermittently when the muse visits this Arts enthusiast :-)

In his book, "Sapiens," Yuval Noah Harari examines our species, Homo sapiens. It's a long read, but a well-written one as it covers a lot of territory while looking at our sociocultural-political-technological world. In trying to find a way to describe this book, I came across the company "Shortform," which shares book reviews aimed at making it easier to access the world's best ideas, and they provided a summary of this book similar to the following ... because if I explained the book in my own long-winded way without consulting some reviews, we’d be here all day:

“Sapiens” explores the history and future of human beings. Harari tells the story of us from a predominantly economical and biological perspective starting 2.5 million years ago and ending in the future with artificial superhumans. The author covers topics like the agricultural revolution, scientific revolution and industrial revolution, and he shows how these changed our species in impactful and lasting ways. The reader learns how our ability to imagine realities and then create them allowed our species to dominate over others. Harari's book invites its readers to reflect on who we were, consider who we are now, and imagine who we want to become. (https://www.shortform.com/summary/sapiens-a-brief-history-of-humankind-book-summary-yuval-noah-harari)

So, to say the least, the lengthy timeline covered in this book made selecting relatable art pieces challenging when one is knee-deep in art history ... that is, until I noticed a theme and a connection: #1 advancements in the human experience tended to occur when we worked together; and, #2 the reason our species survived is because we are able to imagine and create, and this is what artists do, they imagine and the they create. To the first point, I was instantly inspired by the notion of coming together to achieve greatness, which made me think of the value of community, ritual, rites of passage, ceremonies, think-tanks, masterminds, ensembles and teams. This inspiration lead to contemplating if, on a micro-level, artists try to come into reconciliation and harmony with all of their internal parts when they are in the engaged in the creative process. And to the second point, how incredibly exciting is it to honour the fact that being innovative, creative, imaginative, inventive, a dreamer and a builder is within our very DNA? My heart was happy and so inspired by the fact that these findings seemed to, in some ways, celebrate the Arts. Below are links to the forms of art that found their way into catching my attention as I read "Sapiens" and reflected upon how we can remember our history, learn from it and work together towards designing a healthy future for the planet and all of its living beings. Indeed, these links highlight togetherness as the creative bonding of various parts in new and exciting ways.

Links:

"Quest for Fire" (1980) witten by Gérard Brach and directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud

https://youtu.be/89GB7s163kY

"Oxygen" on World of Dance Season 4 (2020) performing to "Lovely" by Billie Eilish & Khalid, and "Toccata" by Johann Bach

https://youtu.be/C7uRWni9Gsc

"Threadless" blog (2016) written by Carlyn Hill featuring the paintings of Darek Zabrocki

https://blog.threadless.com/this-sci-fi-city-art-will-make-you-want-to-move-to-the-future/

"Deviant Art" (2021) painted by Darek Zabrocki

https://www.deviantart.com/darekzabrocki

"Old Stock" (2019) designed by Duran Lantink at the Centraal Museum fashion exhibit

https://www.centraalmuseum.nl/en/exhibitions/duran-lantink