The term culture is derived from a latin word “colere”, which means care (Adorno 2009:145). Colere originally referred to the occupation of the peasant and their relationship to nature, specifically its tending. Generally one could say that culture describes “an area in which people confront nature”
(Adorno 2009:145). It refers to the domination of the external forces of nature which oppose the human being as well as the threat of internal forces, in other words “the control of civilization over human urges and the unconscious” (Adorno 2009:145). The area of culture is essentially the moulding of reality which refers to “the shaping of society as a whole, the reciprocal relationships of people, the taming of nature, and the control of its resources” such as through technology (Adorno 2009:145).
30 John de Gruchy defines culture as being the “artistic and intellectual” side of civilization and is the
“customs, achievements, products and outlooks of a group” as well as the “way of life” they adopt (de Gruchy 2001:191). He supports the notion that art and culture are connected, as art is created in a context and is “an expression of a culture, a means of its memory, representation, enrichment and hope” (de Gruchy 2001:191). This connection is important for the appreciation of the artist and their work and in understanding the artist’s role in shaping “corporate and personal identities” in the public arena (de Gruchy 2001:191). Culture refers to the ability of people to understand meaning in pictures, poems, melodies or drama and is “a product of a collective experience” (de Gruchy 2001:191). He describes the participation in the general system of symbolic forms as culture and the participation in the particular as art. The relationship between art and culture means that the way in which art functions in and serves society is specific to a historical and cultural location.
Theodor Adorno in his article “Kultur and Culture” warns against allowing culture to be limited to aesthetics as a sort of game and proposes that culture needs to be critical and evocative, allowing for a process of internalization and self reflection which assists in transformation (Adorno 2009:145). Jennifer Sandlin writes about a practice of cultural critique known as culture jamming which is an activity that counters the continuous barrage of the dominant consumerist capitalist ideology which perpetuates the values of “racism, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia, machismo, and violence” and opens up a transitional space to critique and query the dominant culture, thus bringing to consciousness the hidden and compelling messages it seeks to promote (Sandlin 2008:324).
These perspectives on the understanding of culture highlight the importance of critique within culture and raise a question as to the purpose of art. Should it communicate the oppressed reality of people allowing us to better understand and experience solidarity with others or is it something to entertain and adorn the homes of an elitist group of people adding to the extensive hegemony of consumerist culture? Townsend argues that “contemporary art largely exists, through its market value, as one of those exclusive niches for conspicuous consumption that guarantee status to the newly enriched” and demonstrates the fulfillment of the capitalist promise (Townsend 2007:8). In this way, art for the purpose of status loses its communicative and critical power and is limited to an aesthetic game. Townsend expresses concern that most art in the contemporary world does not achieve the task of “making a rent in the fabric of culture”
and that the forms of culture which allow this critique tend to be marginal and regarded as relics (Townsend 2007:9).
Imanol Aguirre argues that in a post modern context we need to view “art as a cultural system and an agent of aesthetic experience” (Aguirre 2004:257). When we conceive of art as an agent of experience we
31 are able to overcome the dichotomy between artistic processes and aesthetic processes where the former is understood as the action of producing a work of art and the latter as the action of contemplating it aesthetically. Aguirre identifies culture as a “field of conflicts” which sees the production of art as a social process where the purpose of art is to link the aesthetic experiences of others with our own through the amplification of the “spectre of us” making our solidarity with others effective (Aguirre 2004:264). To identify ourselves with another is to make them one of ourselves creating an open identity in order to accept the other person. It is “effective for social transformation and reconstruction because this type of identification with other leaves us predisposed to feel their humiliation as our own” (Aguirre 2004:264).
According to Aguirre, the post modern understanding of the purpose of art is to create an aesthetic experience which allows us to identify with others.
In Africa, culture has been used historically as a means of oppression for many and in particular black women. Mercy Oduyoye states that in African women’s language, ‘culture’ is a broad concept used to describe “what human beings have made from nature”, as “all that is not nature has been ‘cultivated’, devised, dreamed up, and given shape and meaning” by human minds and hands (Oduyoye 2001:13).
African women describe how culture has been used as a tool of domination perpetuated against them such as is seen in women’s roles being limited to domestic chores and the caring of the family. Despite this, they propose a hermeneutic of liberation to find the positive aspects of their culture to promote. The paradigm of liberation that these women support is one which readily critiques culture and seeks to identify and maintain aspects of it which support and sustain life. They do not believe in throwing away all of their cultural inheritance but rather those aspects which are oppressive to them. They see
“culturing” as “a continuous activity of the human community” which needs to be recognized as the
“locus of resistance” (Oduyoye 2001:13).
Culture is constantly changing and needs to be critiqued and challenged so as to ensure that what it promotes is life sustaining and positive for those who have experienced exclusion and marginalization from its powerful influences. From a post modern perspective, art is viewed as a cultural system and an agent of aesthetic experience where the experience of the other is facilitated through art allowing for solidarity with just causes. This engagement with the aesthetic creates a potential locus of social transformation as not all aspects of culture have been good for humanity such as has been experienced by women limited by culturally prescribed gender roles. Visual art is a field of the arts, which is an important tool in the expression of culture and the forging of its identity.
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