Yesterday we offered a meditation on the work of Suzi Gablik who died last week with a special emphasis on her daring to critique the modernist art world from which she emerged.
She puts the issue of letting go directly to her profession, the art world itself. In doing so, she invites us to critique the worlds that we work in. She says: We live in a toxic culture, not just environmentally but spiritually as well. If one’s work is to succeed as part of a necessary process of cultural healing, there must be a willingness to abandon old programming—to let go of negative ideas and beliefs that are destructive to the planet and to life on earth.
Applying this critique to her own work world, she asks, “But what does this mean for art?” One of her answers is that we let go of the notion of “art for art’s sake.” This idea implies an “inherent purposelessness” and thus echoes the anthropocentric and negative cosmology of the Enlightenment and of Patriarchy. “Modernism was the art of the industrial age,” she points out, and among other things it served up a patriarchal idea of “value-free aesthetics.”
Gablik does not dwell on the destructive aspect of letting go. Rather, she challenges those who would make a religion of deconstruction alone. “Healing is the most powerful aspect of reconstructive postmodernism, whereas for the deconstructivist it would seem that art can only deconstruct. There is no future beyond deconstruction.”
The artist must choose whether to follow a path of demystifying alone or a path of being instead a “cultural healer.”
Jesus advised that “by their fruits you shall know them.” One’s work will be judged by what one gives birth to—“cultural healing,” in Gablik’s words–not only by what one lets go of.
Gablik calls for artists to become “participating co-creators” in an “active mode of reconstruction.” What is our common goal today? Transformation cannot come from ever more manic production and consumption in the marketplace; it is more likely to come from some new sense of service to the whole—from a new intensity in personal commitment….The great collective project has, in fact, presented itself. It is that of saving the earth.
Adapted from Matthew Fox, The Reinvention of Work, pp. 208f.
To read a transcript of Matthew Fox’s video teaching, click HERE.
Banner Image: Healing meditation by water. Photo by Darius Bashar on Unsplash.
Queries for Contemplation
Is it true that “we live in a toxic culture, not just environmentally but spiritually as well”? Can critiquing our work worlds contribute to detoxing our culture? Is Saving the earth the great collective project of our time as Gablik told us years ago?
Recommended Reading
The Reinvention of Work: A New Vision of Livelihood For Our Time
Thomas Aquinas said, “To live well is to work well,” and in this bold call for the revitalization of daily work, Fox shares his vision of a world where our personal and professional lives are celebrated in harmony–a world where the self is not sacrificed for a job but is sanctified by authentic “soul work.”
“Fox approaches the level of poetry in describing the reciprocity that must be present between one’s inner and outer work…[A]n important road map to social change.” ~~ National Catholic Reporter
6 thoughts on “Artist as Cultural Healer: More Wisdom from Suzi Gablik”
Matthew, You ask us today in our Queries for Contemplation: “Is it true that ‘we live in a toxic culture, not just environmentally but spiritually as well’?”
Gablik says, “We live in a toxic culture, not just environmentally but spiritually as well. If one’s work is to succeed as part of a necessary process of cultural healing, there must be a willingness to abandon old programming—to let go of negative ideas and beliefs that are destructive to the planet and to life on earth.
“Can critiquing our work worlds contribute to detoxing our culture?”
Applying this critique to her own work world, she asks that we let go of the notion of “art for art’s sake,” because it is “value-free aesthetics.”
“Is Saving the earth the great collective project of our time as Gablik told us years ago?”
Yes, and it will more likely come from a new sense of service to the whole—from a new personal commitment to saving the earth, our Mother and home…
Yes, indeed. “ A new sense of service to the whole …” I think this is the way forward. Thank you.
I do see, that we live in a toxic world. The toxicity that we see in the external world, is but a reflection, that mirrors the toxicity within the internal world of humanity. Can critiquing contribute to detoxing? Firstly, we must apply this critique to our own inner world… asking ourselves… through deep, reflective soul searching… what it is that we truly value… what is it that gives oneself, a sense of true meaning and purpose… and how and in what ways is oneself creating and giving birth to this, in one’s life.
Undoubtedly, when one enters into this “Reflective Chamber”, of one’s own heart, mind and soul… there will appear things that need to be deconstructed… and let go of. Through this healing and transformational process, negative beliefs based on destructive conditioning and programming… which have toxified one’s inner state of being… will be exposed. Yet, also within this deconstructing painful process… there is the potential antidote of insightful and intuitive revelation to be found amidst the rubble.
What arises out of the tensions of the winepress and the shattered shards of the broken vessel of self, is the new wineskin… a new sense of oneself, of one’s truer and deeper values… a clarification of one’s true meaning and purpose… which awakens within oneself the new wine… a new sense of service to the whole. A new intensity of knowing, claiming and co-creating, with that which one has discovered… that which one already carries within oneself, now becomes the blessed gift to be poured out, shared and given… committed to… in a much more personal, dynamic, organic, creative and artistic act… of giving birth… manifesting the fruits of this labor… as an offering, that carries within itself the potential of healing the collective toxicity within others… which then further pours itself out as an offering to the Earth and the all and the everything of creation.
“New wine cannot be poured into old, worn out wineskins. In the potters hands, we are reformed into new vessels.”
As the mystics, contemplatives, the Indigenous peoples, some artists (like Suzi Gablik), and even quantum physics have been experiencing, our inner world and our outer world are intimately related. Due to ignorant and toxic patriarchal values, our human history has mainly been limited to the present day to an imbalanced awareness/consciousness only of our outer world with disastrous and tragic effects on our souls/inner lives, our relations, our environment (Mother Earth and All Her creatures), and our relationship with our spiritual multidimensions and multiverse Cosmos. In order to heal our outer world with its’ many problems and suffering, we must give more value to our inner spiritual values and journeys, especially since the Source of our wisdom and compassionate actions come from the Divine Presence of God’s Living Loving Spirit within us, our relations, Mother Nature, the Cosmos and All of God’s ongoing co-Creation~Evolution with-in us…. The conscious evolution of our eternal souls is a big sacred co-responsibility in God’s Healing and eternal Creation~Evolutionary plans for our Mother Earth and our multidimensional and multiverse Living Cosmos with Her~His Divine Love~Wisdom~Creativity of Loving Diverse Oneness — Cosmic Christ Consciousness….
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Marvellously said. Thank you. THis made for inspired reading. 🙏✨
Suzi Gablik exposes the cool ironic detachment of the postmodern art world as a device that supports a narrow way of thinking. This article offers us an opening to discuss and the celebrate spiritual presence that is inherent in the creative process.
Thank you for bringing her to our attention,
Barbara