FEATURE | THREE THINGS
THINGS I'VE SEEN, LEARNT OR THOUGHT ABOUT THIS WEEK
So I'm back with some more redundant but hopefully at least mildly entertaining or informative or intriguing thoughts. Steering clear of the deep, the political or perhaps the sensible in favour of some things which are just.. nice to think about or engage with, and a little art or creativity related.
BONNARD
Coming in strong with the art related on this one, but Pierre Bonnard has been my Roman Empire of late, and I enjoyed finding out this week that Matisse and Picasso had wildly differing opinions on his work. He's not someone I came to all that long ago really. Bonnard, that is. I never learnt of him in the way I did of the expressionists, but over the last few years, many of my favourite working artists reference him, and I've seen more than a few shows curated around his influence. As always, once he's somewhere, he's everywhere. And I'm glad. I love it, it improves my life to know his work. So my personal opinions are no mystery, and as a forerunner of the post-impressionist movement, generally, history seems to be in favour too - along with said myriad artists and curators I admire.
So I found it somewhat fun to hear of Matisse and Picasso's divided opinions. I don't know who was on which side, and frankly, I don't much care - for the purposes of this, it's irrelevant, this not being about them.
At first (and probably most likely), I assumed this to be just an extension of their rivalry. A revolt on the part of the reactor to whoever first professed their admiration. (But mum, I don't like it, he likes it!) Because what self-respecting combatant could agree with their opponent? That would be conceding the win, no? But then I decided to look at it a little differently (you can do that, you know, decide to look again), maybe got down from my high perch and allowed for more fully formed humans in place of fragile ego'd male caricatures and rationalised that actually, isn't that part of what art is all about. Taste?
And that difference in opinion is what makes the creative world so beautiful, so kaleidoscopic, psychedelic, so incredibly continuously interesting. Maybe, just maybe, these two artists - arguably with at least some weight to their opinion in light of the objectively great work they made - actually did have a difference of opinion over an artist.
Perhaps one liked Bonnard's work, and the other really did not.
I like that. I think it is good to remember you won't like everything, you aren't meant to, and everyone won't like what you do. We all have different tastes and opinions and that's ok - there in beauty lies.
NÜSHU
Anyone who knows me wouldn't need the precursor, but otherwise, it would be pertinent to know going into this, that I have a deep-rooted love of the Chinese written language, Hànzì 汉字. One of the oldest written languages still in use, Hànzi is a living work of art, characters are logographs, which are graphemes that represent units of meaning; these compound and rearrange to form new characters and new meanings and are used to communicate the most widely spoken language in the world.
To further illustrate: I am a person who copied and copied the characters for love and peace into my Tigger notebook aged 11ish during the height of the '90s/'00s appropriation culture where they were readily found all over t-shirts, jewellery and stationery. I am the owner of the books "The Chinese Typewriter", "Chineasy" "China in 10 Words" and "Whatever-the-name-of-that-huge-instructive-learn-to-read-Chinese-tome-on-my-shelf-is-part-1" And I am someone who has had to have a veto put in place on having the characters for my favourite noodle dish tattooed onto me. It's 手拉麵 if you wondered.
So it's safe to say, that a lengthy obsession has occurred and my appreciation for the majesty of character written languages is high and wide (it does extend to hieroglyphics and the modern wonder that is Hangul!)
But my interest and love have once again been piqued this week upon learning of the existence of Nüshu. A written language created in rural Hunan, south-eastern China, by and for the sole purpose of illiterate, minority women communicating across villages, ethnic groups and cultural divides. Nüshu (meaning women's script) is written as a phonetic representation of the dialect of Jiangyong County, and while it could be mistaken for some ancient (Oracle Bone) script, it bears no real resemblance to Hànzi in style or operation.
It was created and used exclusively by women as far back as the Song Dynasty (960-1279) as a form of expression rarely afforded to uneducated communities. These women were magical, brilliant, and searching for connection. And it doesn't hurt that, along with the concept, the look, too, is beautiful. Sweeping, delicate, elegant and brief. It shares many attributes of Hanzi - the simplicity of the modern and the intricacy of the traditional.
No longer remembered fully or used widely, it was once an outlet for rural women to form friendships, a code of defiance utilised in creativity. It remains a thing of beauty, celebrated and honoured in its communities by the women who continue to teach it and keep the language and its sentiment alive.
SHALL I COMPARE THEE TO A FOOTBALL HOOLIGAN.. / OH CAPTAIN! MY CAPTAIN
This last one is brief. It's just something I heard about which seemed a bit left-field (you'll see), but a nice example of engaging otherwise uninterested people in the arts.
Poetry and football are not perhaps an obvious match (more puns intended?), but bringing these worlds together is what a new initiative is trying to do. In response to declining writing literacy levels and aiming to meet fans where they are by integrating an art form into the culture, five clubs will partner with local poets to create official poems for the clubs which reflect the culture of their communities.
See, it sounds a bit out there - trying to get "lads" writing poetry - but then you think about football chants. While some, sure, not wonders of modern language or particularly great examples of intelligence (see: club name repeated over and over till no one remains caring) but, others genuinely funny, and one of the sole examples of large group expression left in our modern world where everyone doesn't practice organised religion.
Ok, in all honesty, I tried to find a good example of a football chant.. one that you might even call "poetic". It didn't go well and I did get bored, but this from the England camp did make me laugh if not overwhelm me with pride:
Can't start a fire,
Can't start a fire without a spark,
Phil Foden's on fire,
he'll be playing the Germans off the park
Football is one of the few places groups of people communicate, express emotion, create, and engage in a kind of ritual. While there may be many ways in which football fandom is not ideal (I think we can go as far as problematic) but I think It provides a space for people to express emotion freely. In this way, football and poetry could be perfect partners. They share a "common use of language to express devotion", football connects people through shared language and experience, and poetry can do the same.
So why not? Bring together fans' creativity to engage in poetry whilst simultaneously rooting themselves in their clubs' community. I might hold off my judgment until I hear the results, but it's a nice idea and a positive vibe for football fandom.
So that's just three of the beautiful things slushing around my skull this week, helping me bring some positivity to these days. Seen or heard anything interesting?
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