What Is Art??

What is art? It's such a simple question but its one that no one can quite answer. If you polled 5 random people on the street they would all have different responses. Now that I am slowly becoming entrenched into the world of entertainment  I have been asking myself the same question. Are studio productions any more or less artful than their independent counterparts? Should something that has garnered mainstream attention be held in the same regard as something no one has ever seen? Must we be forced to pay for art or should it be handed to the masses? Are we art? Is life art? Okay fine, I'll stop the rhetorical questions before it gets a bit too existential but my point stands. These questions are quite common despite their inherent complexity. Never have I pondered this conundrum more than when I took an impromptu visit to LACMA to "witness" the art of Kanye West.

For my dear friends in Georgia, LACMA stands for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Many of you have probably noticed the famous "Urban Lights" pictured above.  The lines between "fine art", music, and film are blurred to the point of becoming indistinguishable. Me being in film and a huge fan of all things music,  I jumped at the opportunity to see a Kanye West short film being exhibited at the museum. To make things crazier, the film was directed by none other than Steve McQueen (12 Years A Slave). This union between these two masters of their crafts filled me a mixture of great anticipation and hesitancy; both in equal measure. Regardless of this, myself and a caravan of my fellow bulldogs headed to the museum for the event.

Without ruining the experience for everyone, I truly do think everyone should see this for themselves, I'll attempt to give you a little context into what I saw. First, it's important to note that the film center's around two songs from Kanye's upcoming album. For this reason it feels much more like a music video than a conventional film. Another interesting thing to point out is that the entire 9min "event" is shot in one take. There is a "chase" like aesthetic to the entire thing with many comparing it to a matador and his bull. I don't know if I completely agree with that but there is definitely some subverted text present. One on hand you can view it as Kanye running from the "gaze" of our world or you can watch it as Kanye just being Kanye; rife with pretension and all. My interpretation? That is a little more complicated.

Through a film perspective, I would be lying if I said this wasn't expertly shot. Any filmmaker's blood pressure would raise to unsafe levels if they knew they had to shoot something in one take for over 9 minutes using only natural lighting. From a musical standpoint I think most people will have to get over two major hurdles. First, you either like Kanye's music or you don't. Secondly, and more importantly, the booming base present was so overpowering that it was difficult to hear the other elements of the song during the viewing. I do not however know if the blame should be placed on the audio mix or the venue. The booming presence may have also been purposeful which is something to consider. After three viewings, I really could not decide if I liked what I saw or not. I could not shake the feeling that if this exact project was made by someone with less acclaim no one would ever see it or even give it much thought. What I can say confidently though is that when I left LACMA that day I left with more questions than answers; the most prominent of those being,what the hell is art anyway?