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1. Theory of Knowledge Essay
To what extent can something be
considerable as an art work?
Name: Taehun Lee
Date of submission: May 25th, 2012

2. Theory of Knowledge
Can anything be art? Are there limits to what is acceptable in art?
Who decides?
Taehun Lee, 11E
What art would be. Myriads of people define themselves about art. For instance,
there was an essay by Leo Tolstoy that argued about the definition of art. Tolstoy
mentioned via the essay that “art must create a specific emotional link between artist
and audience, one that “affects” the viewer.” According to the definition, we are able
to receive myriads types of art. The paintings and sculptures in museum or exhibition
create communication between the art works or artists and audience.
The art defined by myself is a form of language that is a way to convey a
message. Every art work contains a message of the artists. This could be led to an
knowledge issue that ‘If art does not convey a message anymore, is it still a art?’. I do
not think an art work without message is art. There must be a reason of creating an
art work and the reason must be projected into the art work. Without the message,
an art work is useless and does not have reason to be exhibited. For instance, a mere
piece of scribbling of a child that he or she does not actually try to convey a message
through the piece of doodling is not an art work. I used to scribble a lot without
meaning, just to spend boring time. I do not consider these as art works that I
created.
In real life, various activities are committed as art.
Among them, some give a feeling of abomination to the
audience. For example, a Chinese artist called Zhang
Huan based in Shanghai is a performance artist but also
makes photographs as well. He tries to convey messages
through performance arts. The issues that he wants to
address is; “The power of unified action to challenge
oppressive political regimes; the status and plight of the
expatriate in the new global culture; the persistence of Image 1. Zhang Huan,
Homeland. © Zhang Huan.
structures of faith in communities undermined by violent

3. conflict; and the place of censorship in contemporary democracy.” However, some of
his photographs do not convey the message easily and give a feeling of abomination
to the audiences. For instance, his photograph called “Homeland”(see Image 1.) is a
photo of himself with a huge cloth made by meats. How homeland and cloth made by
meats would be related. The message that he wants to convey is quite ambiguous. I
cannot see the connection between meat cloth and homeland. Furthermore, the cloth
made by meat easily gives a feeling of abomination to me. The message is unclear
and the photograph could be hateful. The critics say same that the photograph is just
made of wastes of meats and it is loathing. They say the message that Zhang Huan
might try to say is not conveyed in the photograph, thus it is not an art.
In spite of all these factors that critics blame of, is it still considerable as a art? I
believe as long as the artists tries to convey a message, it is art. Although the
message is ambiguos to understand, the art work is still valuable with the fact that it
conveys a message. The standard that people decide which is art or not would be
different. This is because they have grown in different environment and the sense
perception and emotion that they have are different. People probably have different
emotion on myriads of art works. Besides, they are aware of the art works through
their sense perception. They see art works with their eyes, they hear sound types of
art works, or they feel the art work with their hands. With all the different sense
perception, the art that people concern and receive could be different. Thus, the
subject who decides what art is would be each individual. Each person can decide
what art is and no one can deny it, because every person has grown with different
experiment and environment that can affect on making a decision.
To sum up, individuals deserve to decide which is art or not based on their
experience, environment that they have grown with, their sense perception and
emotion. In my opinion, art is a language that the audiences and artists can
communicate with, thus a mere piece of scribbling could be an art as long as it
conveys the message from a painter.