Art Is Life. Life Is Art.

Iranian-Dutch artist Sevdaliza on the ultimate power of art, even in fragile times.

sevdaliza
Publicist

Photography by Tré Koch/Early Morning Riot

sevdaliza

Back in Janaury, around the release of "Oh My God," we were planning an op-ed by Iranian-Dutch artist Sevdaliza on her indentity and multi-dimensionality: she is a refugee, international businesswoman, creative director, artist, freedom fighter, CEO. That idea evolved into this piece, which couldn't be more timely as artists around the world are experiencing new creative and financial challenges.

To all artists,

Art is life, no matter how fragile the times.

Art is a testimony of the human condition. It encompasses all of our hardships, emotions, questions, decisions, perceptions. Love, hatred, life, death. Essentially the way in which we perceive our world, every aspect of humanity can be expressed through art.

These times lay bare why art can’t be dictated nor contained by anything.
Creativity isn’t limited by its resources.
Creation is a primal source.
The authenticity in a painting or a piece of music is felt universally, because it resonates with the same essential being in the creator and the creation. The artist is often referred to as a magician, whereas her art only lays bare the heightened capacity to channel the universal truths.

The common story of life, love and death is what connects us humans. 
Art is important because it functions as a holistic portal to a deeper understanding of humans and the self.

sevdaliza

Traditions, beliefs, values and lifestyle all shine forth through what we produce as art, whether we know it or not.
Architecture, fashion, music, film, dance, paintings, prayers. 
They all essentially reveal the culture of people.

Art allows us to discover and preserves the delighted mind.
While creation lays bare our human fragility.
The distance between our most actualized self (creation) and it’s lesser materialization (art) is a vast universe between facts and metaphors.
Perhaps this is why we create and materialize art, despite the arising feeling that everything has already been said and done. 

We as a species, cannot simply conceive our lives out of art.
We struggle daily to close that gap, although we feel that it might be an impossible task. Art will always be metaphorical, but ultimately, it does not matter. And that exact fact for me, is beautiful, cruel and simple.

Art does not subdue to any kind of utility or desire.
Creation only aims at its own existence.

We are all artists some way, somehow.
We fight our battles, love and hate, ask our questions, and of course, read the universe in our own unique way. 
Art is not a wrong nor right, it is not a distraction, nor a privilege. 
It is life itself. 

I hope we understand why art is life and why life is art.
Why we should always strive to allow art, to stimulate art, to support art.
St(art) today.

Sevdaliza

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