Outsider

It is a term I've been waltzing with, in a lifelong dance. Perhaps it's constitutional... Born in Africa–but not African. Indian–but not... a coconut– white inside, brown outside... and even if I was, it turns out that Indians are not Indians–South Asian? who decided that, huh? Yadda yadda, on and on, not this and not that. - I've tried to make like a Canadian, but I'm a poseur - I can't properly finish my sentences with 'eh?'

Always the outsider. It's a loaded term that serves to validate the vanishing point of the inner sanctum, all that othering works to stabilize an endlessly regressive insider track, and yet – all there ever really is, is only the outsider. It is outsiders all the way down – like the bedouin saying alludes to, it's "me against my brother, me and my brother against our cousins, me my brother and my cousins against our neighbours... all of us against the foreigner"

Outsider Art

While exploring a writer's request for illustrations... I fell into a rabbit hole that led me into a deeper exploration of 'Outsider Art'. I've long been a fan of the creative act that is not part of the Art World – my outsiderness again – and there is more of it than we will ever know, still 'undiscovered' – such colonial terms are so deeply embedded in the art world's language.

There are more gracious terms for 'Outsider Art' – art made by untrained artists, or works done by people uncontaminated by artistic culture – Art Brut was first coined by Jean Dubuffet, an insider artist who had a keen interest in outsider art.

Terminology aside, it is Art that is the result of the quintessentially innate, creative act, something unrelenting and driven from the inside like a true calling –  'Insider Art' might be a more correct term. Carl Jung's Red Book opens a related rabbit hole in this world of "Insider Art" and the subterranean creative act – his “confrontation with the unconscious.”

The Museum of Everything

I thought I'd share something from this magical kingdom. Something I encountered in my travels through the interwebs of outsider art... it is an eye-opening, curious world.

The Museum of Everything rejects the terminology of otherness, most notably that of "outsider art." – MoE site

The project is the brainchild of James Brett, a non-curator who imagined an itinerant platform to stage major installations of art made by private, self-taught and non-academic art-makers – "untrained, unintentional, undiscovered and unclassifiable." Clearly he caught someone's ear. He speaks eloquently about his thought process and engagement for this multi-year, multi-venue project and the underlying history and influences of the art world:

Ironically, The Museum of Everything, was eventually invited to participate in the Venice Biennale, influencing the tenor of the curatorial theme for the year.

So, here's the gateway to The Museum of Everything – yep, I do love the drawings, and there are loads and loads of them! – it's an old site, with no security certificate, but it seems safe, and there's some link rot, but wow what a warren!

As always, thanks for reading and indulging!
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