Shanice Aga is a Khoja-American designer, and visual artist.
A trained architect and material culturalist,
Synopsis
Insider, Outsider: Authenticity, Power, and Shifting Dynamics in Art/Culture, 2018
The Artist Outsider Creativity and the Boundaries of Culture, edited by Michael D. Hall and Eugene W. Metcalf, Jr., is a collection of essays exploring the topics of “the other” or “artist outsider” as it pertains to art, art theory, and more broadly how the idea of outsider, folk, or vernacular art shapes how we understand the world.1
In the essay “An Anti-Museum: The Collection De L'Art Brut in Lausanne,” Michel Thévoz explores Art Brut, a term coined, theorized, and collected by French artist Jean Dubuffet. Dubuffet envisioned an art form free from cultural influence and detached from the expectations, styles, and mediums of professional art and institutional galleries. However, Thévoz highlights a paradox: as a classically trained artist, Dubuffet could not himself create authentic Art Brut. Instead, he dedicated himself to discovering, collecting, and exhibiting it. Dubuffet predominantly found examples of Art Brut in the psychiatric hospitals of Switzerland. Thévoz further examines the complexities surrounding Art Brut, particularly the challenges of authenticity and works that defy strict categorization. To address this, Dubuffet introduced the term “Neuve Invention” or “fresh invention,” to describe art that, while not as radically detached from societal norms as Art Brut, still challenged the conventions of the fine-art system and cultural institutions.1
In "Rebels, Mystics, and Outcasts: The Romantic Artist Outsider," Joanne Cubbs traces the origins and evolution of the perception of artists as figures existing outside the mainstream, mundane, or everyday—a view shaped by their seemingly extraordinary creativity. She argues that this modern conception of the artist can be traced back to the 19th-century Romantic movement, which cast artists as “outcasts,” “rebels,” “misunderstood geniuses,” and “mystic seers” with “privileged insight.” Cubbs extends this analysis to modernism and postmodernism, examining how cultural fascination with genius, historic fame, and eccentricity has intensified. Over time, these exaggerated traits of the "artist outsider" have fueled an even more extreme search for “outsider art” and “uncorrupted sources of creativity.” Such art is often characterized as the work of the rural or urban poor, untrained individuals, folk artists, or others perceived as “on the margins of culture.”1
In "Folk Art and Outsider Art: A Folklorist's Perspective," Charles G. Zug III delves into the distinctions between folk art and outsider art. He argues that folk art should not be categorized alongside outsider art, as it is more accurately described as “insider art.” Folk art reflects the values and traditions of a community and is typically created by community members who pass down skills and techniques through generations. To illustrate this distinction, Zug examines two artists, one from each category. The life and work of folk artist Burlon Craig reveal that folk art is a repetitive, practiced endeavor grounded in “a guiding tradition.” Craig exemplifies how folk artists acquire “knowledge and skills through a long-standing, informally transmitted, regional tradition.” In contrast, Zug uses the work of outsider artist Raymond Coins to highlight the “intensely personal” nature of outsider art, often emerging from a unique artistic impulse later in life, as in Coins’s case during retirement. Zug further contrasts the two by noting Craig’s sense of obligation to his community—creating pottery for use and sale and ensuring the tradition's continuity—which is absent in Coins’s work. Coins’s creations are singular, born of personal experiences, and inherently irreplicable by others.1
In "From Domination to Desire: Insiders and Outsider Art," Eugene W. Metcalf, Jr. examines the power dynamics inherent in the distinction and discovery of outsider art versus insider art. He explores how this binary reflects broader issues of tourism, temporality, and inferiority. Metcalf observes that “modern elites search the world for nonmodern people, places, experiences, and artifacts with which to have ‘natural’ and ‘authentic’ relationships that give substance and meaning to their lives.” Paradoxically, he argues, these elites “symbolically celebrate the very people they have, by implication, socially disempowered by defining them as deviant.”1
In Destination Culture, Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett (BKG) examines the 1990 Los Angeles Festival, a world’s fair that sought to “undo the ethnographic” and challenge the ever-shifting values of fads, fashions, and tastes that determine what is considered good or bad. BKG emphasizes the significance of the fair’s historical context, aligning its goals with the avant-garde sensibilities of the time. She acknowledges the organizers’ intent to counter mainstream representations of various cultures’ art and lifestyles, which were often framed as entertainment or deemed inferior to European traditions. However, BKG also critiques the festival’s execution, noting that despite its good intentions, the organizers ultimately served as mediators of their own viewpoints. By presenting the performers as art and using them as tools for anti-establishment messaging, the organizers inadvertently repeated some of the very institutional practices they sought to challenge.2
In “Wandering the Old, Weird America,” Erika Doss explores the unique sculptural sites and “art environments” scattered throughout the Midwest, created by untrained folk artists using found materials like rocks and cement. These sites have become popular “pilgrimage” destinations for American weekend tourists. Doss highlights several specific examples, examining the personal histories, intentions, and obsessions their creators infused into the works. She describes the enduring cultural impacts of sites such as Rodia’s Watts Towers in Los Angeles, designed to disrupt the mundane, and Dr. Charles Smith’s African American Heritage Museum & Black Veterans Archive in Illinois, constructed to “visualize African-American history” free from external interpretation or control. Despite their diverse intentions and deeply personal nature, Doss argues that these environments share a connection to American identity and widely held values, which makes them especially captivating. She notes, “This sense of making and remaking, of building up and spreading out, is entirely consistent within a larger national imaginary that is also similarly searching and constantly changing, trying something different in a shared impulse toward transformation.” Furthermore, Doss explains how these environments reflect a national “social paradox,” balancing a liberating drive toward individualism with a strong undercurrent of consensus and a commitment to moral, social, and political order.3
A clear connection to the works discussed is Randyland, a vernacular environment I visited in Pittsburgh a few years ago. Similar to the Watts Towers and other projects mentioned in “Old, Weird America,” Randyland was created by an individual working on the home in his spare time, driven by an obsessive vision of the world and a desire to express it through his chosen medium. Today, Randyland is a major tourist attraction and one of the most photographed locations on Instagram and other social media platforms. The property, purchased in 1995 on a credit card for $10,000, was transformed by Randy Gilson using materials sourced through dumpster diving and upcycling. The site is filled with colorful oddities, such as pink flamingos, mannequins, and plastic dinosaurs, and its houses and fences feature murals of dancing, smiling neighbors.
Randy identifies as an outsider artist, a claim that aligns with Zug’s definition. He began creating later in life, having faced poverty and homelessness, working full-time as a waiter, then engaging in activism and farm work before acquiring the property. His work is the product of a singular, deeply personal impulse, with each piece being invented spontaneously over time, as he creates.4
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Graf?: Graffiti occupies a unique position within the realm of outsider art, embodying a duality between commercialization and authenticity. "Commercialized" graffiti aligns more with insider art, while "authentic" graffiti, often created anonymously, is associated with outsider art. Anonymity plays a significant role in this dynamic, allowing for the stereotyping of the "other" and the construction of an imagined outsider figure, when in reality, anyone could be behind the work. This anonymity adds to the perception of authenticity, as it frees graffiti from individual identity and opens it to interpretation.
Graffiti could also be considered a "folk" art form in some contexts. While it lacks the extensive historical tradition associated with folk art, graffiti is often learned and passed down informally, developing conventions and regional styles akin to folk traditions. However, the cultural valuation of graffiti varies widely. Some graffiti is celebrated as art, displayed in museums, or sold for millions. Other graffiti is dismissed as vandalism, painted over, and its creators prosecuted. This discrepancy highlights the influence of insiders in defining what qualifies as art, where more eccentric and outsider-like graffiti is often celebrated when "discovered" and legitimized by the mainstream.
Shifting Boundaries: When outsider art becomes widely seen, accepted, or promoted by mainstream culture, does it lose its outsider status? This question recalls parallels in music, where counter-culture or underground genres like trap or punk have become mainstream over time. The boundaries between insider and outsider art can blur and even reverse, as cultural tastes evolve.
For instance, contemporary audiences may seek out classically informed music for its rarity, while once-mundane or commonplace genres now exist outside mainstream culture. Similarly, art forms or styles previously considered outsider might integrate into the mainstream, while what was once mainstream might become niche or counter-cultural. This cyclical process demonstrates how cultural frameworks constantly shift, redefining what is considered insider or outsider based on context, societal values, and evolving perceptions.
2 Destination Culture, Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett
3 “Wandering the Old, Weird America,” Erika Doss
4 Randyland: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randyland