The Ordinary
In the late 19th Century in Europe, there was a shift in the role of the artist from someone who had a prescribed role making images of monarchs and religious themes, to art becoming a more socially democratic thing. Worthiness, which was originally about position and hierarchy, became more flexible and people had the opportunity to capture the ordinary. And also to shif from literal depiction into more abstract expression.
This tied in with the rise of socialism; a perfect example of how art exists in context are of course hugely influenced by political, economic and cultural shifts. There was, in effect, a democratization of subject. However this is paradoxical because the art world has been, and still can be, very elitist.
The advent of photography was also a total revelation; it changed so much.
So why would artists choose to explore the ordinary in their work? There is a lot to be said for celebrating the ordinary for being ordinary; its relational and builds connection between us. But it's also interesting to elevate the ordinary to the extra ordinary.
For example, Andy Goldsworthy makes extraordinary ephemeral, temporary structures employing nature and spit.
'Andy Goldsworthy’s work receives accolades for its lack of manufacture. Each piece features nature unadulterated: branches, stones, leaves, and snow. It takes an effort to step back from Goldsworthy’s virtuoso performance and see beyond feats of technical skill, to realize that his art consists not in uncovering nature but in his ability to make artifice appear naturalized. While Goldsworthy is the first to clarify that he uses modern tools and machines, he as quickly emphasizes that when adhering chains of poppy petals or icicle spirals, he uses no glue: “spit” is his adhesive. And the backdrop for this work is nature—he situates his art on forest grounds or in trees or streams. Because of its association with nature or, in the case of the cairns, pre-modern culture, Goldsworthy’s work tends to be seen as a visionary transmission direct from nature itself. His ephemeral sculptures rely on an abstraction that has become so acclimated that it no longer requires any effort of vision, and the viewer does not notice it as art. Yet while nature is messy, sloppy, dirty, random, arbitrary, and overabundant, Goldsworthy creates order: meticulously selecting materials, sequence, and ultimate form. In Goldsworthy’s art nothing ever appears decrepit or gross.'
This topic brings up the question: 'What constitutes value or worthyness? What is worth recording?'
Wolfgang Tillamans looks at this in his photography.
I think that there is beauty to be found in almost everything. And there is value in honesty. Photography like this that serves as a kind of archiving of the everyday, that captures uncontrived ordinaryness, is really honest and beautiful for being so.
Nowadays we have the freedom to choose what we depict, what we focus, on as artists. And this is a privilege. It is a privilege that everyday stuff can be celebrated and explored. I am mindes that context can still be important, for example, art that focuses on the ordinary is immediately deemed extraordinary for finding itself displayed in a museum or gallery.
George Shaw
'George Shaw is a contemporary British artist known for his realistic depictions of banal spaces in the English suburbs. In the artist’s paintings, the presence of graffiti, litter, and architecture, creates an eerie sense of someone else being there. “For me, it was taking those clichés of epiphany and the sublime and putting them in a place where great thoughts aren’t rumored to happen,” Shaw explained. “It has been said my work is sentimental. I don’t know why sentimentality has to be a negative quality. What I look for in art are the qualities I admire or don’t admire in human beings.”'
