SA artists will always enjoy freedom of expression

Creativity — be it writing, painting, film-making, acting, singing or dancing — is a frighteningly powerful tool. It is for this reason that artists are able to define and change reality.

There are a lot of people who witness and experience life but have no clue about the meaning or impact of that reality. Usually, when an artist or any other creative intellectual has done something … er, excellent, there will always be a few people who congratulate them for what they recognise to be their perceptive, insight into things.

They may tell the artist “that is a great piece of art or work. It showed a totally different angle to the matter”. And then there are always some who will be so pissed off that they walk out at the launch of a show, for instance, for whatever reason.

The role of a creative intellectual or artist is not to give people what they want to hear/see. Unlike politicians, artists are not accountable to the so-called “people”, including governments for that matter. They do not have to satisfy anybody’s expectations or please a particular audience or target group.

Telling the truth, as some self-appointed monitors know it to be, is precisely what creative intellectuals or artists do not do. They are special human beings who are obliged by intuition to express themselves. Freedom of expression belongs to them in its totality.

Their responsibility and role is to re-imagine and reinvent what everybody is exposed to in a memorable manner that perhaps makes it interesting and insightful.

It may be something that everybody is familiar with but the artist must take it to a higher level in terms of new, fresh and deep understanding and knowledge.

Whatever the issue, when the creative intellectual or artist has dealt with it, the viewer must have a different take of the reality, experience and world.

It is a very difficult thing to be an honest artist who brings perceptive insight to the world. And yet it is something that is not just compelling but intuitive.

There has been talk over the last few months that South African creative intellectuals and artists are afraid and freedom of expression is under threat. Some among the writing intellectual community and visual-arts sector claim that discourse in this beautiful land is about slavish mirroring of what the ruling party wants to hear/see.

This means that what artists and other creative intellectuals produce is targeted at the political gallery to reflect what the leaders want the people to hear.

But is it true that artists are not free in this country?

What I have witnessed and experienced is that the less an artist or intellectual reflects his own truth, the more they desire to be on the side of those in power to preserve their personal privileges.

When you do not follow the dictate of your conscience to do the right thing, it is a matter of personal choice. It can neither be suppressed nor imposed by outside circumstances, however dangerous they may be. I believe artists and other intellectuals in this country are free from all limitations. Whatever they choose to portray or not to portray is a direct consequence of their thoughts, ideas, attitude to power and the choices they are willing to live with.

Nobody else but artists and creative intellectuals themselves are responsible for what they do. And it is always out of choice!!! Most artists or creative intellectuals freely enter the world of ideas. They, without any coercion, choose the life of the mind that they know will put extra demands on how they will live their lives.

Even before they engage in this freest activity, they know that they must make a choice to be courageous and speak truth to power or seek to live a comfortable life.

And even though some artists may say they are repressed, if truth be told, nobody can take away your freedom unless you allow them to or give it up. Of course, there are many artists or creative intellectuals in this beautiful land who want to eat their cake and still have it. What this means is that you cannot hope to be a free artist or creative intellectual and yet remain friends with or be loyal to the very people whose behaviour and attitude you must interrogate.

If you choose to live a comfortable life with the right address, wearing designer labels, access a fat bank account and be ensconced in privilege, nobody expects you to be courageous and express truth to power. Life, at least for a true artist, is not like that. Although a courageous few do it, it is very difficult for an artist or creative intellectual to critique a society or people he has chosen to live the same life with and who create the problem that he wants to highlight or solve.

To be an artist or creative intellectual, you must choose not to be on the side of those who create and perpetuate the very problems that your conscience tells you to confront. In fact, you must do away with you culture of entitlement where you demand money from that you wish to oppose.

Nobody can oppress a true artist or creative intellectual.

Even when societies kill creative intellectuals or threaten to withdraw resources, they will continue to exist in the ideas they espoused and what their lives represented.

No true artist should be afraid because they will enjoy freedom of expression as enshrined in the Constitution.