(Newswire.net — November 9, 2016) — Kanye West has never been one to shy away from controversy. Now, the self-declared “rap god” is causing ripples on Instagram, after proclaiming his uploads to the photo-sharing platform are contemporary art. If this is true, then over 500 million instagrammers just unwittingly became artists.
West made the announcement on his already infamous Twitter profile in March. Having hinted at the opening of an official Instagram account, he went on to claim that his posts would be similar to his tweets – “a form of contemporary art only compromised by people trying to tell me what to tweet and not to tweet”.
An account was made, but so far a single image has been shared with West’s 1.7 million followers – a film still from the 1990 cult classic Total Recall. Art, according to Kanye.
It’s not the first time the “biggest rock star on the planet” has ventured into the realm of contemporary art. He recently unveiled an installation of twelve photorealistic sculptures of celebrities sharing an oversized bed—a recreation of his controversial Famous video. But can Kanye’s, or indeed any of our social media posts really be considered art, or is this just another way of satisfying his notoriously inflated ego?
Social media is a platform for self-expression
The topic of social media as an artform reopens the discussion on what defines art. Georgia O’Keeffe once described art as filling a space in beautiful way, Picasso likened it to a lie that makes us realise truth, and Paul Gauguin simply said art is either a plagiarist or a revolutionary. But art is subjective; what is art for one person, may not be art to others.
In its simplest form, art is self-expression. It’s the process of taking internal emotion and personal experience and presenting it in an external form. The idea of the artist being a storyteller is a core theme in the work of multimedia artist Owais Husain. He explores personal identity and iconography, illustrating these experiences through visually textured artworks.
In the same way, social media is primarily self-centric. Instagram, in comparison to other social platforms, is overwhelmingly visual and experiential. Whether it’s a snapshot of day-to-day life, a thought-provoking quote, or a light-hearted selfie with friends, each upload is a reflection of its creator and the curation of a personal story.
In this sense, it’s difficult to argue against Kanye West’s Instagram uploads being art. His first photographic oeuvre, albeit a reproduction of a movie scene, has been curated by Kanye himself, and is a product of his own self-expression. It’s meaning is open to interpretation but, however it may be construed, the image conveys a story.
Digital artists are the avant-garde of this generation
Kanye West aside, a growing number of creative luminaries are infiltrating the art market online. Instagrams ever increasing network of users includes critics, collectors and art enthusiasts who are searching for visual stimulation in a tide of otherwise monotonous and narcissistic posts. It makes economic sense too, many artists simply cannot afford the soaring cost of traditional studio space.
But digital art is not just about potential reach and financial gain. These artists recognise that digital is a context, rather than a medium, in which new social and emotional responses arise. Using technology as their muse, these artists are the most avant-garde of this generation.
In 2014, Amalia Ulman used Instagram to showcase Excellences and Perfections, one of the most original and captivating performances of the digital era. The Argentinian-born artist created the false persona of a fame-hungry Los Angeles woman, sharing photos of her desperate pursuit of perfection with almost 90,000 followers. Ulman documented plastic surgery, drug use, nervous breakdowns and rehab over the course of five months, before revealing to her growing legion of followers that every image was part of an elaborate staged performance.
Amalia Ulman’s performance was so well received that Tate Modern displayed her Instagram feed as part of its Performing for the Camera exhibition earlier this year. The inclusion of Instagram at the world’s most-visited modern and contemporary art museum suggests that social media can now be considered an artistic form of expression. The problem now, is distinguishing between the mundane, the narcissistic and the genius. Just like art itself, Kanye West has opened himself, and instagram users all over the world, up for interpretation.