Through the looking glass

What is the purpose of art? Human beings stand out as the only animals that have produced a range of artistic outputs and artifacts in a short period of their evolutionary history on earth. Among the many qualities that set the human animal apart from other species is the ability to manipulate materials and mediums to generate a broad plethora of art works: painting, literature, poetry, sculpture, music, dance, movies, etc. Human evolution is not only characterized by our prolific tendency to create works of art but also by our innate ability to create complex tools and technologies.

Thinking about these vast and open-ended questions about the purpose of art, one can begin to appreciate why our mind (and senses) resonate with various forms of art. As individuals, we almost map our art preferences onto our self-identity. Some folks enjoy music, while others enjoy literature and language more. Some define their identity through their affinity for hip hop, while others do so by claiming 60s-70s era rock and roll. There are those who like jazz and/or surreal paintings, while others who are drawn to classical music and the works of Micheal Angelo.

Our preferential attraction to types and genres of art and the specific signature of ‘tastes’ that characterize our personality point towards a fascinating dimension of our collective psyche. One of the key intentions behind creating MonadArts is to explore this dimension by networking with an audience that finds our art resonant with their own tastes and artistic proclivities.

If, as Marshall McLuhan said, the ‘medium is the message’, is true, then through Monad, we are creating a medium that definitely has an encoded message for you (our audience) to decipher. We hope that you find this prospect as exciting as we do.

We are grateful to everyone so far who have made our art a part of their world. We consider this as the beginning of a relationship and imagine that with our pictures evoke a sense of personal communication between us. As these pictures rest in your here and now, we believe that you will begin to unfold a very personal context — kind of like Alice’s experience of peeking through the looking glass. What stories will you discover?