Art as a Culture

Art as a Culture

 

I was unable to get the cave’s text in English so I will do my best in translating what I thought the artist was trying to say. At first it gave me a bit of an eerie feeling. I had headphones on while the audio started into this creepy music. The cave was filled with pictures of animals and hand prints. I initially thought it was a scare tactic, to keep intruders away from their cave. Once my nerves settled in, I saw the art as a way of communicating with animals.

I think there were so many pictures of animals and not as many of people because they were in need of food and by drawing animals, they were calling to the animals. I think it was a form of meditation, something like the rain dance. When some tribes were in need of water they conducted a “rain dance”. They hoped the more they called on the animals, they would eventually come.

The paintings can tell us that they were very patience when they were hunting. I did not see any brutal painting in the cave so I believe they did not hunt for fun but for survival. This may just be my view but I saw a type of love towards the animals. They could have been grateful to the animals for keeping them alive, I’m not sure, that’s just what I got from it.

I assume the most difficult thing they had to deal with when drawing the paintings would be, making their hand prints on the rocks. It was very interesting how they did it. They breathe on their hands to make the prints. How much berating would it take to leave your hand print on a rock? Since I think they did this while they were hunting, they must have been hungry and tired, but so focused and determined.

My speculation to three possible functions would perhaps be to identify their kill. Maybe they kept track of all the animals they hunted and the drawings represented that. My second speculation would be, they used it as teaching tool for their younger family members. Perhaps they thought them how to meditate or how to hunt. Thirdly they could have used it to speak to us and tell us the story of their life. They could not write in words the story they wanted to tell, so they drew it instead. As they say “a picture is worth a thousand words.” The pictures were amazing to look at and it gives you a glimpse into their life.

Both the Lascaux Caves paintings and modern art function well in allowing them to express themselves. It allows them to pass on how they feel at a certain point in their lives. These drawing can portray what the surrounding and time frame are.  Art, usually have a significant meaning to the artist. Art allows them to tell us what is important to them. What I saw in the Lascaux cave painting that surprised me was the details in the drawing of the animals, and the ability to come up with ways to put hand prints on the wall If we did not have a written language, I wonder if we would have a better understanding of the drawings since the pictures were so clear and detailed.

 

When I was younger, I use to Hula dance. To me this is a form of art because that was the way we express our selves without words. We were able to express our happiness through our movements. Every hand motions we made told a story all the way to our fingers. Our facial expression had a lot to so with the point we wanted to get across. We couldn’t express love with a frown on our face. Our hips moved to the beat of the drum to express the upbeat song, even if someone was deaf, the can feel the beat.

Though I am from a different culture, I learned a lot form the Hawaiian community. The Hawaiian culture takes pride in hula dancing. It brought joy and beauty to life. They taught us the values of their ancestors and tradition they wanted to pass along. Before any performance we order material from Hawaii to make our grass skirts so that we can keep it as traditional as possible. Some items were hard to obtain so we replaced them with replicas.

This art form, benefit society by telling their stories and keeping their values alive.  It is able to be passed on from generation to generation. What can be detrimental would be sometimes the dance can get lost in translation. I noticed as the younger dancers in the United States were infusing other dances into the traditional dance that can take away from the original story.

 

Sayom M.