By Abdulwarees Solanke
As a Painter’s son with a vast interest in the Arts, a colourful upbringing in education and thorough grooming in the media, I have come to understand and appreciate more deeply the dimensions of aesthetics not only in the Arts but in life generally.
A beautiful art piece or work goes beyond the beauty from the paint and brush, beyond mixing colours, beyond the ordinary written word, sometimes cold and lifeless, beyond the mere sound of music, the cacophony of drum beats, shekere and agogo or the fluidity of the body gyrating to the symphony of flutes, strings, cymbals, tones and tunes.
This is because Arts is not merely about beauty or revelry but should be spiritually elevating, invigorating, energizing, inspiring, fulfilling, healing and consoling in all circumstances of existence. When we consider the aesthetics of words and sounds, of pieces from the soul, we want to see colour and elegance; we want to see the order in their organisation and presentation.
We want to see the mood of the speaker or the writer. We want to see simplicity in flow and cadence, its content and context for its meaning to make an impact. And we want to see realism and surrealism; we want to gauge its reach, perspective and depth.
When we listen to music, we are not only interested in the sound of the beat or the arrangement of its composition; we want to feel its elevating strength, we want to see the mood of the composer and connect with his world and how he connects with ours.
The aesthetics of any art piece is in the personality or character of the producer. It comes from his soul, with his vision, his experiences, feelings and values. It comes with his spirituality. True and faithful artist makes meaning from madness of moment and tries to bring order into it with his talent.
He sees colours and beauty from the darkness of the world and with his creative fervour brings out hope. He also sees bullets, blood and tears from the carelessness and impunity around him and cautions about their danger.
When the artist, as man aesthetics, gets disoriented and loses vision, his work loses meaning and beauty. Today, I see no meaning and beauty in many artworks I come across whether as painting, music, sculpture, drama, film, poetry or essay. I read books now and I see the depravity of the writer’s mind.
I watch dramas, movies and films and see deviance in their producers. And I see paintings, sculptures and some graphics and observed disorder and madness in the brains behind them. I ask why? Has the modern artist lost human essence and so is now empty? Is the modern artist a lost soul? Does he no longer possess intellect, character and spirituality?
What is the motivation of the modern artist? In their themes, I find only intoxicating wine, lurid pictures, obscene flesh of women and profane obnoxious wealth. Modern artist is also known to celebrate conspicuous consumption, glorifying self-immolation and promoting human destruction. I see bestiality.
I see beauty now bloodied by the worms of the flesh, cancer of the brain, infections of the heart and afflictions of the soul. So, most of today’s artists need a messiah, in need of a redeemer because when you come across them through their works, you see them as sons and daughters of Shaytaan, chained by the shayaatins and the jinns.
So, they need ruqyah, to exorcise them of their afflictions that are also infecting our world with the noxious notions and value of human beauty. The true worth or beauty of a man, as an artwork of the al-Khaaliq or Potter, Allah lies in the purity of his soul. It also lies in the sagacity of his intellect and nobility of his character.
It is to be measured by the sincerity of his intention, the depth of his faith, the firmness of his conviction, the richness of his thoughts and the correctness of his choices, decisions and actions when producing or delivering content in his art forms. His motivation must not just be the bottom line.
No, his motivation must be far beyond what he grosses in sales, listenership or viewership. Its also beyond the number of hits or likes. He should be seriously concerned by the characters he moulded, the lives he changed and the changes he brought to the world through the content he provided and watched on the tube, screened in film houses or aired on the radio.
His motivation and production must be positively impactful. Now, most modern artists and their artworks in prints, canvas, clay, stones, wood, panels, picture and cardboard, oil on canvas, pencils, photography, LPs, CDs and celluloid films, are empty of noble themes, forms and aesthetics. They are living for fame yet dead in soul, brain and mind.
Everyman is an artwork of God, a manifestation of the Perfection of Allah, al-Khaaliq, in ordering creation. Everyman is an embodiment of beauty who should radiate love and affection, and everything that symbolizes excellence.
So, the pursuit of everyman as an artwork of the Creator must never deviate from what glorifies God, edifies humanity and imbues individuals with ennobling virtues. What this implies is that the representation of man by the artist never deviates from these virtues.
Unfortunately, the destruction of human essence that is prevalent in our world is traceable to what modern artists propagate. They do this through the themes that dominate the characters they portray in their films. Listen to music of modern artists and what most of them sing. And many innocent souls dance to is nothing but nonsense.
Pity most of today’s artists. Who saves them from the doom or perdition they are heading towards? Oh God, raise for us a messiah to redeem our artists who are on the path of destruction. Prevent artists who lead millions to Golgotha destruction.
Abdulwarees of Voice of Nigeria studied Mass Communication at the University of
Lagos and earned a Master of Public Policy at the Universiti Brunei Darussalam as a
Commonwealth Broadcasting Association scholar.
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