"Meaningless Art"
Some artist make a name for themselves by producing creations of irrelevance, orchestrated disorder, and meaninglessness in hopes to make a connection to the belief that life itself is meaningless and has no purpose. In the documentary “Exit Through the Gift Shop Window,” the narrator and artist, Thierry Guetta, had a similar style in this regard, as he would make a copy of a copy of copy of a picture until“ it really became meaningless” as Banksy, a famous, identity-masked, English artist, had been quoted.
“Meaningless Art” is nothing but a reflection of what artists are trying to express as their understanding of existence. I once heard an architect who wanted to create a building for no reason. The building would have doors which would be unfitting for rooms, odd features, places with sizes unfitting for a normal sized adult - ultimately everything was created with a sense of invoking the question, “Why would anyone create this?” to the average person. The meaning behind this was to prove that there was “no meaning – life is meaningless.”
What’s most interesting to note about the building is that it needed to have a solid foundation in order to be constructed and remain intact without falling apart. The building wouldn’t have stayed held up without having been properly secured by the proper structuring of concrete to keep its base at level.
The base of the building had to follow and comply with the same set of rules that are the same with every building that is created. Gravity, proper weight distribution, measurements, and everything else necessary to keep a building from falling apart are necessary. What are the implications of this? Life has an order – and why would there be any need for any kind of order if everything were irrelevant and meaningless.
When you think about how intricately designed we are and how we function, it brings some questions to mind. Why, in an irrelevant and meaningless world, would there be any single aspect of order? We are surrounded by order and massively complex natural designs everyday – one of the most sophisticated of those being ourselves.
Additionally, why do we even have a conscience or feel guilt? There’s no reason for a moral conscious if we are simply here to survive. Animals certainly don’t carry a moral sense of right and wrong. There would have been no evolutionary reason for us to have happened to “develop” that at some point in our existence to help us survive. If anything, from a secular viewpoint, our conscious would work against our survival - a guilty conscious can lead to depression, anger, and antisocial tendencies.
God created us for a reason, and it honors Him to be able to create. Often times, many people want to convince themselves that God isn’t real or that He can’t exist because we just don’t want to give up a selfish lifestyle. A lyric I came across from Johnny Cash in a song called “The Wanderer” said, “They say they want the kingdom, but they don’t want God in it.” This statement rings true with all the extreme liberalism that is destroying the foundation of moral values. People want freedom, and they want to do whatever they want, and live in complete peace but they don’t want God to direct them or show them how to live.
The message of the Bible isn’t meant to just tell us what we shouldn’t do. It’s a way to live our lives properly. It’s not meant to kill our fun, but to help us live a more fulfilled life. It isn’t until you start living properly that you start to understand the meaning behind why the Bible advises against the things we want to do that aren’t beneficial. Live a meaningful life and the art you create will likewise produce will carry powerful implications.
