text_ Ripples._A_resume_of_personal_thoughts_about_art_and_changing_the

INGRIDMWANGIROBERTHUTTER

Ripples. A resume of personal thoughts about art and changing the world

The invitation to participate in Artists Summit Kyoto got me - IngridMwangiRobertHutter-

thinking, reading and researching months before the event. What could I say about

complex human problems and how to solve them?

The summit has been an inspiring opportunity for me to think about my role in the world, to

shed for a moment all skepticism, so-called ʻpractical-thinkingʼ and delve into unfettered

reﬂection. Trying to envision a better world, what arises in my mind? Open ideas, radical

impetuses, utopian visions, practical projects; stripping things down to the essential,

unmasking inadequacies, demystifying artistic practice, re-mystifying art, acknowledging

my path, all of the above.

To begin with, how can I deﬁne an artist?

Generalization about the characteristics of an artist is difficult. Some artists‘ work is political and deals with social issues, contesting the existing systems and/or concretely proposing other paths. Contrarily, there are artists who demonstrate multiple-views, presenting a diversity of ideas and life-styles, reﬂecting everything they see like a magical, transformative mirror, so that in the end you never know what their personal opinion is.

Some artists perceive themselves at catalysts; exposing, exhuming the dark sides of

human existence, while others deal with daily life. Yet others whoʼs point of

departure is form and then others who manifest ideas such as nothingness, impermanence,

inﬁnity, beauty, failure, the unknown... Artists make art to endure, to document, to share, to

express. The list of motivations, themes and artistic strategies can go on and on. Within

the big debates about what is art, my own conclusion is that it is ʻnothing in particularʼ. This

means to say art can be many things.

I ﬁnd this to be a powerful statement. Usually, we need to know what is ʻgoodʼ and what is ʻbadʼ. We yearn for concrete answers to concrete questions. But art places itself beyond reach of our usual ʻgoodʼ and ʻbadʼ. Actually, I myself have never seen the works of an artist that I would describe as bad in the sense of the word as I understand it, which is to say harmful. The nature of artistic work and practice does not cause wars or produce damaging objects like weapons. It has a much less manipulative effect on societies that the mass producing and distributing entertainment business does, or the brain-washing of the advertisment industry. I think on the contrary, art produces results on deeper levels of human consciousness that has intellectual, emotional, functional, philosophical and spiritual worth. Therefore, I ﬁnd overt criticism uncalled for and I regret the excess energy lost within the art world in discussing and trying to label ʻbad artʼ. Artists are individuals who turn to themselves to create something that can be considered an offer to society. This offer is magnanimous and constructive.

Many artists work (and play) with perception. Images evoke emotions and remind people

of things. Viewers seeing artworks might become aware of something they previously did not consider or realize. They might be confronted with aspects they cannot immediately recognize and have the opportunity to watch the mind being thrown into active grappling. I think all this is quite healthy exercise, which is why, apart from being an artist myself, I encourage people to look at art and participate as viewers.

Artistic methods and strategies seem to be more individually decided upon by the artists,

with their different experiences and inﬂuences, than in other ﬁelds that try to dictate standards

with proof and control conventions. Artists must take responsibility, often quite alone, for what they produce as art. For me, the message this communicates is that each person is the ﬁnal authority for his or her output and decisions. Usually, we give up this authority, to our parents, teachers, to the government, to God and so on. But this is active decision. In making the choice to turn to a certain authority for advice on how to live life, there lies the ﬁnal authority. Not acknowledging that this is so, we often feel confusingly powerless, as if others are deciding for us. In regard to changing things, it is often said, I canʼt change it, itʼs too complex or ʻtheyʼ are too powerful. But ʻchangeʼ canʼt mean being a superhuman who bends materiality and others according to one‘s will through fantastical and unrealtistic methods. Change starts with changing individual perception, becoming aware of the power to SEE the world. And producing artwork shows the capacity of imagination. It is the human potential to conceive of a vision and realize it. The practice of creativity reveals our ability to shape materiality out of an idea through mediating processes. I think that is what we are dreaming about - shaping the world to ﬁt our deepest desires for happiness and peaceful stability in which we, our children and childrens‘ children can survive and thrive.

Art practice

As an artist I consider that my work is about spending the greatest part of my time

observing, reﬂecting and trying to understand the world. How it functions, how things relate,

how do factors depend on other factors. I try out different modes that express being,

aiming at constantly expanding my awareness a little more and again some more. The

artworks are manifestations of those trials and investigations. But experience cannot be

related. It can only be turned into a new experience for the viewer. This is why, rather than

explain with words, it is necessary to use images, sounds, objects, materials and actions

to create what is a basis for the experience of the viewer. Ideally, the viewersʼ experience

and understanding could be similar or at least compatible to my own experience and

understanding. Therefore it is justiﬁed, for example, to speak about pain by causing some

kind of pain or disturbance within the mind of the viewer. But at the same time, I wish that

there be enough space within the viewerʼs perception to reﬂect on what he or she is

experiencing. If possible, the viewer should experience in a way that opens up the eyes

and reveals new aspects. Consequently, awareness grows, just as mine was enhanced

before. The door is opened for the audience to take this translated, condensed,

aestheticized form of realization (the artwork and its effects) and react to it, transforming

his and her own understanding, allowing change to seep into daily life. For this reason, I

am convinced that every society should recognize the need to make sure that its artists

can do this kind of work for the beneﬁt and growth of that society and itʼs members.

Coming closer to the deeper meaning of IngridMwangiRobertHutter‘s mutation process,

I refer to myself in ﬁrst person singular. The “I” that I mention encompasses two bodies,

two minds, two histories and creative trajectories. I perceive of my different parts as being

interconnected, in constant exchange and dialog. Every person experiences the self as

having several parts that are in communication: an emotional side that interacts with the

intellectual side, the mind that tries to lead your body, while the body sets limits to the

workings of your mind, consciousness versus impulsive nature (often portrayed in cartoons

as a miniature devil and angel hovering over the head of the character, trying to inﬂuence

the person by discussing the advantages of one course of action over another), etc.

It suggests itself to realize a similar unification of one masculine and one feminine corporeality

with two consciousnesses inﬂuenced by different experiences. Making this complex personality

visible is what IngridMwangiRobertHutter is about. It is an artistic concept as well a life

concept, an experiment to realize the self of shared vision.

How to help the world?

My work departs from myself: my personal histories, experiences, thoughts, my bodies

and the virtual reﬂection of these in video and digital photography. In on-going

experimentation I put myself in relation to society and environment as an example. In

some work I extend this strategy to other people, and have involved family members,

friends or strangers to appear in video and digital photo imagery. Working in this way with

new media, my main focus is to develop a body of artwork that revolves around conditions

of human existence and the difficult questions of how to deal with the violence, injustice

and suffering in our world. My work does not directly inﬂuence peoples lives, help their

economic situation or give them speciﬁc skills with which to improve their lives. Still, I feel

that I am contributing to the development of society in the area of awareness.

When you think abut helping the world, there are many ways to do this, some are more

obvious and others less so. The main proposition that I think my work offers, the one thing

of importance that I deeply hope viewers are able to glimpse in one work or the other, is

the belief that ultimately the solution to all human-made problems, the avoidable causes of

sufferings such as war, destitution, certain diseases arising from poverty, exploitation of

the environment... lies in the development of the individual. By development I mean:

gaining heightened awareness of the problems in the world, a deep acceptance of the fact of

interdependency, allowing one to see oneʼs part in it, the arising of feelings of

responsibility and the urgent wish to contribute to the making of better societies. When

individuals become aware, actions follow that deﬁnitely lead to the shaping of a better

future for all. And everyone must become aware. Not the ideas of a single person will ʻsave

the worldʼ, but every person has a role to play. Or put differently, we are in such a

dangerous situation now, that even a small group of misguided people can wreak havoc

on the world, even if everyone else were trying their best. This shows us that we have now

reached an age in which no one can be excluded.

We must know the potential of each human being and treat each one as far as possible with this due respect, including oneself. Sometimes we feel powerless as a single person against the huge challenges that face us. But by allowing ourselves to fall into hopelessness, we ignore the fact that our actions and lives add, in whatever measure, to all that happens in the world.

If we were visibly connected with all people in the world, we could easily notice the effects of our actions. Unfortunately, the results of what we do and what we omit doing are for the most part not visible in the complexity of the world.

People who have near-death experiences often report that they saw their whole life again.

Some say that they observed the results of each and every of their actions and the effects; their impact on people, the following impact on other people, the impact on the surroundings and on the environment. Imagine each detail of the effects of each of your actions and non-actions

was revealed in ﬂash of illuminated clarity to you! Many of these people are reported to

have changed their lives after this, becoming more responsible and caring.

Within a family you can observe more clearly your inﬂuence. How you treat your family

members reﬂects back in the way they treat you. I think that is why most people try harder

to be responsible, tolerating and caring to their families more so than to strangers. More

and more, we need to treat the whole of humanity as our family, and the world as our

house!

I think that when I perform, when I turn the camera on my bodies in many visual

experiments, I am exposing myself in my attempts to overcome my own human barriers.

Having recognized my collective being, IngridMwangiRobertHutter, as something of an

ideal, I am projecting further that two people have succeeded in overcoming the distinct

barriers of different genders and different cultures and have now merged into one identity.

This is the premise by which I propose change: I change myself in order to change the

world. Of course itʼs art - the manifestation of ideas in an artistic concept and in a

multitude of singular art works. My impression is simply that it is better not to lose energy in countless debates about what should be done (by politicians, organizations and so on), or let skepticism take over, trying to ﬁnd reasons why humans are not capable of this or that. It is more constructive to turn full attention to the potential and power of our own actions. In this way, we can increasingly redeﬁne our world in a way that we truly think is a better alternative.

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