The Opposite Is True

“The Oppo­site Is True” prompts artists to chal­lenge the estab­lished norms of their craft by con­sid­er­ing the oppo­site of what they believe to be true about their art. It argues for a cre­ative explo­ration beyond the con­ven­tion­al bound­aries, sug­gest­ing that what is viewed as a rule might indeed have an oppo­site approach that is equal­ly, if not more, valid and inno­v­a­tive. For sculp­tors, the chap­ter uses the exam­ple of ques­tion­ing the neces­si­ty for a sculp­ture to be a tan­gi­ble object. It encour­ages con­sid­er­ing dig­i­tal or con­cep­tu­al works that lack a phys­i­cal form as a means to explore new cre­ative ter­ri­to­ry.

This explo­ration is likened to under­stand­ing the dynam­ic rela­tion­ship between oppos­ing forces, such as dark­ness and light, which are mean­ing­ful only in their con­trast to each oth­er. By exam­in­ing their method­olo­gies from this per­spec­tive, artists are urged to seek bal­ance and explore the polar­i­ties with­in their work. This can be an enlight­en­ing process, help­ing them under­stand where they cur­rent­ly stand in their cre­ative jour­ney and how they might move beyond that point.

The chap­ter also pro­pos­es that artists could ben­e­fit from inten­si­fy­ing the aspects they are already work­ing with, thus push­ing the bound­aries of their cur­rent cre­ative expres­sions to extreme lev­els. This approach, too, serves as a method of explo­ration and self-dis­cov­ery, guid­ing artists to a deep­er under­stand­ing of their posi­tion on the cre­ative ‘see­saw’ and how they might adjust to achieve bal­ance or ven­ture into new, pre­vi­ous­ly uncon­sid­ered realms of their art.

By advo­cat­ing for the con­sid­er­a­tion of oppo­sites and the inten­tion­al search for bal­ance through con­trast, the chap­ter encour­ages artists to break free from self-imposed lim­i­ta­tions. It under­scores the impor­tance of curios­i­ty and the will­ing­ness to exper­i­ment with new ideas in the pur­suit of artis­tic growth and inno­va­tion.