Why It’s Art

Abstract

Acknowledged as a “great artist” [1, p. 83], a “pioneer” [2], and a third culture thinker [3], the speaker, through his over four decades portfolio of works, in this talk reflects on the question of “Why it’s Art?” Such questioning aligns with others who have asked, “What is Art?” [4] “Where is Art?” “Who makes Art?” [5] “What is Art for?” [6] and more. Ongoing discussions abound. However, if the art under scrutiny transcends genres, as in this case, the questioning of “Why it’s Art” art becomes multifold and more challenging for third-parties to expertly argue. Aligned to this is that because of its bespoke hybrid synthesized nature, - Performance Art as Human Performance as Performance Art -; the concept in question is posited as one that needs to be self-experienced in order to argue opposition. There are thus few experts with extended involvement given its contemporary and original nature. This keynote talk presents selections from the speaker’s works spanning decades either side the turn of the millennium that resulted in European and national awards (across genres). This brief text focuses on extracting from Tolstoy [4] in arguing the author’s contemporary position in light of historic argument. These works, awards and text support the positioning, which is further sustained by him achieving numerous national and international multimillion Euro funded projects with various collaborators from industry and public sectors where the work has been central. The work is ongoing.