The Power of Anonymity

The standing of contemporary art seems a curious one. It appears that decisive historical moments have rendered art more and more a subjective undertaking. More precisely, a greater onus has been placed on the human subject to portray art as an object which stands before them, external to their sphere. An important consequence of this conception is the imposition of this subject/object dichotomy onto the artist’s own involvement with their respective work. It is not uncommon to understand the artwork as a unitary container of symbols, as something always-already unified; the artist’s intentions are transmitted straightforwardly into this work that now stands on its own. But of course, the artist’s trace is forever present, over and above what now gives it a body.

But is this dichotomization self-evident or self-justified? Perhaps it is not only the “subjectivist” approach to art that can be reworked. Why is there a pressing need to explicate and preserve a mind behind each artistic expression? There is an elusive kind of potency underlying the notion of anonymous art, a vibrant possibility for transcending individuality. Engagement with a painting or novel is no longer a matter of scouring for correspondences. The incentive to dig for a rich complex of “meaning” produced by the artist or writer vanishes; it is now a matter of letting the work function autonomously. To embrace anonymity in art is to hold art up as a self-standing element within a greater, dynamic machine always in flux and giving its components their intelligibility. Traditional viewing and taking-in have us see with a stale vision that is tainted by pre-loaded cliches and expectations, particularly the anticipation of representation of an artist’s inner sphere. Mysterious anonymity gives us an unmediated sensation free of intellectual constraints.

Maybe this development and way-of-engagement are reflective of a certain capitalist ethic — the super-agent whose abilities verge on omnipotence and fit in snugly with a bourgeois individualism. Humans have a tendency to take the superabundance and complexity of life and reduce it to the grace of a select few names. It is likely that we would become even more familiar with the world if we got away from these names. It would be a step toward understanding how universality can work. The words can convince us to invest in their timeless truth, not just the producer. One of the most poignant historical examples is the Roman tragedy “Octavia,” a story depicting the divorce of the tyrant Nero and his first wife, Octavia. By amplifying Nero’s status as a vicious monster, the anonymous work reads as authentic sculpting of language, a political slogan that resonates across class and ideological interests. Octavia’s anonymity absorbs it into a nebulous cultural memory. It has the capacity to transform a work of art and fiction into something historical, albeit ominously.

Banksy serves as the preeminent contemporary example. Is his renegade, outlaw identity a moving entry of cultural critique? It seems one of Banksy’s preferred mediums — graffiti — strikes people immersed in their average everydayness with a confrontational spontaneity. Again, the element of mystery provides readers and viewers a certain challenge. They are forced to consider the myriad candidates for performing such an act, spawning reflection on the political intersections and entanglements which involve so many constituents. The voice carries across boundaries both physical and ideological, without anybody speaking it. Or, rather, we are each transposed as the speaker, a tailored role suiting our individual circumstance.

The discussed modes of engagement echo discernible historical developments. The ascendance of science and technology have strengthened a world-historical development wherein the human subject attempts to order and master the totality of what there is. Our quest to calculate and control “objective” reality errantly seeks to position us as the ground of everything. Considering the work of art as an autonomous, self-contained work illuminates the primordial plane of existence that subject/object dichotomies derive from and gain their intelligibility through. We must begin from the original conjunct of self and world- indeed, we must break away from the presuppositions that the author and artist’s voice have instilled in us.