Week 3: The Interpretation and Manipulation of Art

Greetings travellers,

I find myself urging to write to you to keep you up to date with my travels and discoveries. I am constantly being blown away on a daily basis by the rich and deep histories of the Silk Road, and the role of art in history's preservation. I have always been an avid art lover and so recovering ancient pieces have truly astounded me. In my previous blog entry I touched on questions regarding the Power of History, and whether it can truly be accounted as "fact" simply because it is what we have always believed. Art, in my mind follows a similar pattern, as the way in which it is interpreted can, for obvious reasons, differ. So, the question arises again, whether art, like history can be looked to as a means of understanding our historical roots, and more importantly, why that matters to us.

The Kushan sculptures tell us stories: stories of the past, stories of trade, stories of life. Historians look to pieces of art  such as these sculptures on a regular basis in an attempt to try and understand a way of life that is alien to us. Art was idolized back then and was used not only to illustrate ways of life, but also in religious practice and rituals. When we go to a church, temples, or any place of worship now a days, we still see magnificent art pieces showcased and in most cases, they are the centre of our attention. Art grabs our attention because everyone can relate to it in some way since it is interpretive. The problem with this, I suppose, is that when we want to find an accurate history of a certain group of peoples or place, we don't want interpretations, we want fact. But... where do we find this thing we claim exists? Where do we find facts?

At the end of it all, I guess my question truly wonders why we try so hard to look at art in history and try with all our might to understand it. Maybe if we were truly happy with our world and the way in which it has grown, we wouldn't be so focussed on figuring out its roots.
Maybe.

Tune in next week as I continue my adventure along the Silk Road.

Yours truly,
~ A.V

Week 2: The Power of History

Greetings travelers,

What an exciting few weeks it has been! I have been hard at work discovering ancient mummy burials, and visiting famous monuments and museums. However,  along my journey I have been confronted on more than one occasion with stories or myths as a means of explaining the history of civilizations and of geographical locations. It puzzled me the power these myths have, and how they are being taken for fact, and taught as such. So the question of how and why these stories are so powerful arose in my mind. Can a myth be responsible for the reconstruction of history, and will it continue to bear such importance with the technological advances that continue to arise in our world? Was the reason Chinese historians were able to write their own history using myths due to the fact that story telling was the peoples’ only source of communication and sustainability?

The idea of a myth bearing such importance seems to trouble me. I believe such is the case because I find it silly that a “story” can be accounted and believed as fact. However, if history and its roots are traced back far enough, isn’t it all accounted by the human tongue, or written by the human hand? What sets a myth apart from any other historical “fact”, and why does the term myth carry such a negative connotation?

At the end of it all, the questions at stake seem to wonder how closely someone’s culture is tied with their history, and therefore, what are the various impacts that a history can produce within a culture? Whether it be a reliable history or an unreliable one, how does it influence such culture? 

Tune in next week as I continue my adventure along the Silk Road.

Yours truly,

~A.V