Art of Memes
Memes have become an essential part of the daily lives of a majority of Millenial and Gen Z keyboard warriors. When I state Gen Z, I am certainly not limiting the audience to them, but merely highlighting the primary source and sink-for memes that have become a part of everyone’s social media presence these days.
Memes are a unique democratizing medium of our collective social media presence. Why? Because there are no simpler means of entertainment that are so easy to create, spread, and enjoy. But are memes solely made to draw out that laughter we have been losing so much of recently? No, because they are also a very capable tool; able to hold out the “other side” for everyone to see. They are a true reflection of the audience’s and creator’s psyche. In a way, memes are exceedingly like another such means which has existed for centuries- art.
While art has historically existed in several forms including but not limited to literature, music, videography, sculptures, or even dance- one can perhaps admit that its greatest contributions have been made in its pictorial form. So much so that people easily and without a second thought think of paintings and sketches when they hear the word art despite being very aware of its other forms.
Art is usually defined as the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as paintings or sculptures, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power. This should not come as a major surprise. Human beings have a visually-backed memory system after all.
The Chinese Philosopher, Confucius once said:
Art that is tangible by more than two of our 5 senses has a greater impact on us. That is a role very few forms of art can fulfil. Fewer still are able to involve us.
In comes the modern sensation; a by-product of the heavy inflow of ordinary citizens into the increasingly interconnected world of the internet. And thus memes were born.
Drawing parallels between the past and the present one notices several similarities despite the glaring differences. Magical works like Van Gogh’s Starry Night were able to capture the public’s imagination. Viewers were teleported to a land far away from their real-world problems. The enigma surrounding the all-consuming shades of blues and yellows could not be denied. Works like those of Michelangelo, Renoir, Edvard Munch, Rene Marguitte, Gustav Klimt, and Picasso, among others, brought back humanity’s faith in themselves. It paved the way for the study of art against the backdrop of modern civilization.
Controversially, Nelson Shank’s 1990 artwork of Bill Clinton had references to the infamous Monica Lewinsky scandal. Fast forward a few decades and we have similar dreams and satires being conveyed by memes. There are no longer the complications associated with deciphering meanings from paintings nor the difficulty attached to visualizing written stories. That’s because memes are a summation of both. The best of the two worlds, that of art and humour, and much more. Every meme is a story in itself.
At first glance, they may not amount to much in an art critic’s eyes, but their cultural depth cannot be questioned. Unlike in old times the power now lies with the common man. Everyone gets to express themselves. In memes, they see their own stories written and painted in vivid colours. This sense of involvement is no longer constrained by class or education. It is out there for everyone to not only see but understand, create, and relate to.
“Memes are essentially 100 years of text art boiled down into your feed,” said Professor Darren Wershler, research chair at Concordia University, who argues that memes are a type of “everyday Conceptualism.”
Through an ironic and playful treatment of a fragmented subject, memes break down high and low culture, disrupting ideas of authenticity and originality. Wershler argues that memes should be understood as the digital descendants of artists such as Man Ray, Walker Evans, and Andy Warhol- all vanguards whose practices largely concerned informational and social disruptions with the use of artistic MOs.
Memes offer a highly accessible and interactive platform of production that is ripe for challenge and dissent, with disagreements and controversy only fuelling the fire of a successful meme truly going viral. Other memes crash and burn. So what? The ephemeral, low-stakes economy of memes re-brands the form as a type of performance rather than a purely visual object.
Marrying graphic design and memes with this performative mentality is at the heart of Action to Surface, a recent publication by The Rodina, an Amsterdam-based design collective. In it, the duo lays out the political urgency of surface-led visual culture, wherein, like performance art of the ’60s, memes resist today’s societal and cultural stigmas and orthodoxy. Tereza Ruller, The Rodina co-founder, described this concept as a “democratized surface,” in which design becomes an interactive, two-way mirror held up to society at large.
Through humour, memes incite a collective reaction to everyday life as well as revel in it. In a format no less playful than it is political, decoding the murky structural screw-ups, paradoxes, and hypocrisies of our current political climate.
What memes expose today matches the guerrilla-style insurrection of their delivery. From the surprise attack delivery of the iconic Rickroll a decade ago to curators tapping today’s online activists to put on the next ground-breaking exhibition, meme culture has its own (accelerated) history.
What memes owe to 20th-century art and its discontents can’t be overlooked. It isn’t so much about visuals but instead digs deep into the cultural architecture of memes and their political power as a networked critical resistance. Their abilities to incite and inspire, to problematize and be problematic in equal turn, offer a mirror image of our volatile present as much as their avant-garde heritage.
