Former Director of the fine arts museum Aaros, Jens Erik Sørensen, has his own take on how good and bad art can be described. I really like it and therefore have worked with his excellent ‘house’ metaphor here:

Good art is like a large house built with turrets and spires, lots of floors, and balconies with beautiful views of the horizon

This house has many compartments and hidden rooms which are not easily found. It has small details like carved figurines, and masonry with patterns and ornamentation. The house is built with many unexpected layers of craftsmanship so that one’s experience of it is like fireworks or as a work of uncontrolled beauty.

Bad art is like a single level home with a predictable design plan. There are no upper floors, nor is there a cellar.

The garden is placed close to the house in an easily managed square with a tall hedge surrounding it. The house lacks fine details and everything has been produced by machines, completely draining it of subtleties, tradition and craft. The windows and doors are installed and aligned solely for function. The ceiling height is the same in all the rooms. The roof has a slight slope and accommodates only a small attic because of the low ceiling.

Two different artistic descriptions of a single narrative – in this case a house.

Art may also be a room or a house that does not yet have a definitive meaning. Therefore, it is often the case that art frames and promises something to the viewer who experiences it .

Like art, sustainability doesn’t have one set definition. There are many opinions about it and currently there are 17 Sustainable Development Goals

articulated by the United Nations – all of which are ambitious and point to a multitude of paths that could be included in the definition.

I believe that art is an important aspect of everything we surround ourselves with, and therefore Positive Change vows to frame particular art within the world of art.

The first two artists we have chosen this season speak for themselves. One is a man and the other a woman.

And of course remember: Here on the blog we borrow from historical periods and work with form and content that are often juxtaposed with one another.

We don’t want to be the final arbiters of taste on the blog, so please mail us your definition of what art is or isn’t: ml@energiakademiet.dk

Enjoy!- Malene