Comment: Belief

Where have the important ideologies gone? The important isms of the 20th century, Marxism and feminism, have been either co-opted or discredited in the wake of consumerism. What should we believe in? Is there anything left to be passionate about? And here I have a problem; the word 'passion' is overused in these days: we live in a world where politicians can say they are 'passionate' about whatsoever in order to impress the public. What if we placed a moratorium on using the word 'passionate' and replaced it with the word 'bothered'? Try it; see if it works. Would the meaning be any different? The true meaning of passion is to be so consumed by something that you would be willing to die for it. Can passion like this really exist in this day and age? Only for fundamentalists. Artists do not belong to the fundamentalist credo and so produce work that is ironic, post-modernist and difficult to pin down. They produce work that is playful for people with low attention spans, for children. Art has a purpose. That purpose can be as wide as you like, but can also be limited to merely existing: art for art's sake. However, to be of any worth there must be a truth behind it, and in order to create truth one must have a belief. Belief and ideology should be the cornerstone of art. Artists need to believe that their art makes a difference. In the year of the 'Make Poverty History' campaign, the eyes of the western world are focused on Africa: a continent where many of the people live on less than a dollar a day. Where people are passionate about their beliefs, where they need to make a difference. This year many Black artists' work will be showcased around the country and we hope that these true believers can teach us something and not learn, from the West, lessons in how to fall from the faith.