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As our internal conflicts are escalating at home, with the left and the right bending their own twigs on endless frictions, and pushing their ideologies as if to see how far they can go before the twig breaks and or bends and springs back, whipping their own faces, wars and violence continue to intensify abroad.
Freedom of expression has never flourished under any authoritarian regime, for censorship is the most effective tool to keep any dictator in power.
As I think of the successes and failures of artists’ legacies, I’ve learned different stories tell different life’s circumstances, depending on luck and persistent efforts on the behalf of those who are dedicating their lives to perpetually keeping the artists’ works alive and contextually relevant in the former, while in the latter what requires of the artists’ caretakers, be it members of their families, friends or colleagues there my lack of clarity of intentions or self-motivations.
Though the advent of social media has created a brilliant democratic openness, those same social media also carry a lot of destructive tendencies. Many of us remember that we once received thoughtful letters from people who agreed or disagreed with what we may have voiced in an essay, an exhibition, or a lecture; and we knew that those complimentary or dissenting responses each required a certain amount of time to compose.
What a year 2022 has been, and what have we learned? Should we ask again how fragile the nature of being human is?