What is it that makes comedians funny? The fact that they are speaking the truth in a humorous light.
What is it that makes an artist’s works controversial? You guessed it, it’s the fact that they are exposing the truth in their own way.
There will never be one solid truth because people believe what they want to believe which in return creates controversy. An artist’s political stance through their artwork will either be loved or hated by people. When an artist chooses to exercise his role of a political voice in society it becomes a topic of controversy mostly because by using his “truth” he is influencing those who are uninformed. I placed truth in quotations here because his truth might not necessarily be another’s truth and vice versa. This in turn is what makes people angry because if what they agree with is different from the artist’s point of view, they think that the artist is feeding “lies” to the public.
One major controversy of this is whether an artist’s purpose is purely for entertainment or if it entails to something more than that. I believe that although most art is used for entertainment purposes, a lot of it is also used for political purposes. I see no harm in it being used for both. In fact I think it’s easier to get your political viewpoint across if it is also entertaining to the audience. Realistically no one wants to sit and look at something that’s going to have you yawning half of the time. If you capture my attention you will also capture my thoughts. =) For example Michael Moore’s documentary on 9/11 only captured my attention because of his sarcastic humor. Because of that I was able to pay closer attention to all the facts he was presenting and form my own opinions on them.
In other words, although it becomes a very controversial topic, I believe that art can and is able to freely display an artistic opinion of the world. Although art in forms of plays, movies, performances and etc. are used for entertainment purposes I think that they were originally meant for something else. An artist wouldn’t create his work without a purpose in mind. This is evident in works such as “How Can You Stay In The House All Day and Not Go Anywhere?” by Ralph lemon and “Do the Right Thing” by Spike Lee. Both artists had a specific viewpoint in mind that they wanted to express. I don’t know about Spike Lee but Ralph definitely did not do his work with entertaining the audience on his mind. This then creates controversy among people who believe that art should solely serve as entertainment, nothing more and nothing less. But who needs people like them?
I believe that to be a truly educated individual you need to be able to open your mind to both sides of a topic. Agree with one side but also try and understand or at least respect the other side. That’s the beauty of art. It’s there to free your mind and let you explore other ideas. It would be a pity to have this free form of expression serve solely as entertainment…
