Foreword by Lisa Inger No one could have predicted the shift we have witnessed in humanity and global culture during 2020 and 2021. Art, as a reflection of culture, has highlighted the connectivity between individual and community. Through vast networks of communication and navigating commonalities, the world is experiencing and translating similar knowledge through diverse experiences in ways that are both familiar and entirely new. Art has changed, as it always does. As humans everywhere are left reeling from the effects of a global pandemic, the identity of being human has been pushed to the forefront of art, as we seek to know what it means to exist. People questioned their own morals as well as their futures. They sought out more information, more answers and more challenges while being limited, having to comply with rules that were a matter of life or death. During a global lockdown the world created more than ever. Thrust into solo projects, isolation elevated what one can create on one’s own. The use of technological art, without the weight of physicality, boomed as limitations dictated artistic exploration, ensuring connectivity and culture kept existing. Preservation of nature’s longevity saw inventive development of materiality in art as we reduced waste and treasured nature as being paramount to our survival of these catastrophic events. We would be remiss in using static analysis to preserve this art as a movement. In the same vein, discussing historical art has shifted; the lens, the privilege, the structures and the ethics of institutions are no longer aspects of art that are simply just accepted. The marrying together of these disputed systems alongside broader notions of humanity, has allowed for an evolution of compassion and anger to simultaneously disrupt and connect the world. A global culture has evolved, not through physical travel between countries, not through crowds and events, but through vulnerability, support and empathy. As arts students we are entirely subject to this shift, building the foundation of where we go from here. To us, this fluctuation is our jumping off point. These radical adjustments have set us on new paths or made our resolve in our chosen futures stronger. For the world looking in, the arts as it is made, managed and cared for, might appear to scramble in order to keep up. But for us, in the middle of the storm we persevere; art is necessary and it is important. Art lives and breathes outside of us, it reflects, inspects and digs between. It maintains its importance by adjusting and moving around barriers. It can break ill-suited structures; it can rebuild and it can time travel, with new lenses, to rethink old ideas. Art is not a function with an on/off switch, it cannot do and then undo. It does not care if you are ready or comfortable, it does not go away when things get hard. No amount of pressure can bend what cannot break, limitations only strengthen art and weaknesses work to reinforce it. Art remains, because humanity does. Lisa Inger, Bachelor of Arts (majoring in Art History) 2021
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