Can fine art be functional?

-       Is function too down-to-earth to support the lofty insights they expect from art?

-       Is function too matter-of-fact to permit poetry, nuance sentiment, sensuality, and emotional expression?

Much to my surprise, this question was recently raised by two established eco artists. They each admitted that, despite believing that innovation and change are inherent to art, they could not make pragmatism fit their cherished concepts of ‘art’.

Their confusion was startling since one artist’s practice consists of removing toxins from soil and the other creates sculptures that conserve grey water. Both admitted that their work is often challenged as being functional, and therefore not artistic. They admitted that they generally responded to such inquiries by squirming uncomfortably and quickly changing the subject.

I welcome art's marriage to function, pragmatism, and expediency. I am convinced they are essential components of contemporary art practice - the new norms not the new aberrations. I challenge the challenge of the doubters.

The crucial words in the explanation are "here" and "now". It is HERE and NOW that function and art are integral, compatible, mutual, and harmonious. 

Living artists are devoting their creativity and ingenuity to problem-solving because problem-solving is a key activity differentiating human behavior from preceeding periods in history. This is because today, humans are confronting jeopardies that are both Earth-wide and urgent. Today's environmental predicaments are nothing less than life-threatening for the entire planet. Problem-solving artists are demonstrating that humanity cannot afford the luxury of squandering its creativity - not even artistic creativity - when the future of life on Earth will be determined by our ability to solve the dangerous accumulation of humanity's short-sighted indiscretions.

At specific times in the past artists helped usher souls into the afterlife, or elevate the power of State, or promote the supremacy of the machine, or visualize the content of the subconscious, and so forth. These missions coincided with each era's most crucial issues. The current era has introduced another set of themes, motives, materials, and processes. They derive from the threat of environmental collapse.

Artists creating functional art are perpetuating the only tradition that seems to apply to art throughout the ages – it is in synch with a shifting cultural context with a specific time and place.

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