I work with the notion that art is a language. The thesis goes that art predates language; art is the prerequisite for language and hence logic.
I will claim, without hesitation, that art’s origin can be traced to the origin of the human language. It seems evident that the origin of the human language may be traced to animalistic sounds and gestures we witness among various species we can observe in our world. This might lead us to deduct that language is in its foundation some sort of a communication tool. A scream of warning, affection sounds, sounds of aggression, mating sounds etc., all seem logically to be the origin of vocal communication and hence human language. Indeed, vocal communication is often assumed to be the foundation of human language.
However humble in its origins, something happened to the human species that started an evolution of a sophisticated language. And it has been stated: A language is not a mere communicational tool. In fact, it is a rather sophisticated system of thought processes. Thought processes are based on grammar and logic; and hence a system of understanding, memorizing and thinking – something that our cousins, the great apes did not evolve.
Perhaps it was art?
I want to put forward a notion that visual communication, like hand gestures, facial expression and even images, might also have played a role in language evolution from the start; in fact I regard visual communication as primal to vocal communication. Therefore, I deduct that visual “language” is prior to vocal language. Almost all animals use sounds as some form of communication – but not all. Most animals also have some sort of visual communication system. Animals like fish, who can not use vocal cords to produce sounds, use visual communication like flapping of fins and swimming in circles. It is therefore not unlikely that visual communication came about at least around the same time as vocal communication – in fact it is not unlikely that visual communication came before vocal communication.
In my art I use all kinds of mediums to tell a story – a narrative – that has not so much to do with logic, but rather intuition and expression of feelings. This has let me construct a system I call SNART – Self Narrative Art.
SNART dictates that all art is a Self Narration (Self Portrait) of the artist. I work with visual art to tell stories that can not be converted into words without loss, hence the visual language of art is deeper, clearer and more honest. Words are more deceiving than images.