I am giving a talk at New Era College next week on the subject of ‘Fear and Art’ – something I know well and have thought alot about. The talk is for students only, but I’ll blog the hand-drawn slides and a summary later. Follow me on Tumblr to see things in progress.
What does fear have to do with art? I started asking this question after coming face-to-face with my fear of drawing. For many years, I believed I was bad at it. It was a source of fear and shame, a closed door.
Soon afterwards, I did a project where I worked with non-artists. I realized I was not alone, that most people shared my fear – they had convinced themselves that they couldn’t sing/write/draw/create.
In this talk, I’ll explore this fear, how it got there, and what it means for artists, non-artists and society. I’ll touch on how fear is another way of understanding the function of art, one that that goes beyond the ‘seni untuk rakyat’ vs ‘seni untuk seni’ debate that has dominated Malaysian art for decades.
And I’ll show you my drawings too! Yes, I did open that door.
